5th February 2024
Pray (ACts) Read (1 John 4:7-12 focus 7-8) Message (Alan Burke) There is a word that sprang to mind this morning when I was thinking about this passage before me and that is anaemic. An adjective, a descriptive word looking up the thesaurus we get feeble, weak, insipid, pallid, pale, wishy-washy, vapid, bland, poor, puny, flat, inadequate; tame, uninspired, unimaginative, lacklustre, spiritless, half-hearted, vigourless, lifeless, powerless, impotent, ineffective, ineffectual, enervated, bloodless; pathetic; etiolated. I want to say that these in the main are good words and could easily be used in saying just how anaemic, feeble, weak, insipid, pallid, pale, wishy-washy, vapid, bland, poor, puny, flat, inadequate; tame, uninspired, unimaginative, lacklustre, spiritless, half-hearted, vigourless, lifeless, powerless, impotent, ineffective, ineffectual, enervated, bloodless; pathetic; etiolated our understanding of love is and it’s not just out there it is in the church too. The concept of love that the world has falls so so short of the love of God. Love is often deemed as feelings, attraction but our understanding of love is much more than those things, it is a love that comes from God a love that has been shown to us, exemplified to us, it is a costly love, a sacrificial love. What is love, how do we know what love is, well John has already told us and it is that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us (3:16). Once more John returns to the subject of love and is emphasising the necessity of love once more because of just how poorly we even in the church who have been shown the love of God in Christ Jesus. It is hard for us to love, it can be really hard for us to love because we are not to love as the world loves that is motivated by often selfish reasons, or show love conditionally because that is the kind of love that the world has. Instead we are to love with does not come naturally to fallen sinful people outside of Christ, we are to love as how God loves us. Maybe loving others comes really easily for all of us, except that is for me but I doubt it. If it was easy for us then John would have only needed mention that we are to love once and that would have been it but the fact of the matter is that he has to repeat it, emphasise the necessity of love to the church because of how difficult it is for us. For the believer we love because of the Spirits work within us, the love which the believer has only comes from a heart that has been given new life, a love which the Spirit has caused to well up in the believer. The reason why the believer can love in this way is that God is love. This is the very character, the nature of God and it is essential to him. If we are his children then we as we are reminded in 2 Peter partakers of his nature (2 Pet 1:4), what that means is that when we are God’s children in Christ Jesus then we have received the indwelling Spirit, what happens is that the Spirit inwardly transforms us to the likeness of Christ Jesus, to the image of God (Rom 8:29). Of course this doesn’t come all at one time, when the Spirit calls us to God that that is that we are transformed completely, no there is an ongoing process which we play our part in as we are enabled to love more and more. In the life of the believer we are to mimic, to mirror what we have seen in our elder brother the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to become more and more like him, confirmed more into his likeness. If you are a child of God and are finding it difficult to love, if you are not loving as we are commanded by God then you need to repent of that attitude. Pray to the Lord ask for his help with that failure to love as you have been loved, reflect more on what Christ has done for you as your Saviour. While we may not want to admit it, we all have work to do on this and for all of us we are to love as we have been loved knowing that the love that we have is not like how this world loves, rather we are to love as Christ showed his love towards us. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q 60 How is the Sabbath to be sanctified? The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, (Exod. 20:8,10, Exod. 16:25–28) even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; (Neh. 13:15–19) and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’ s worship, (Luke 4:16, Acts 20:7, Ps. 92, Isa. 66:23) except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy. (Matt. 12:1–31)
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6th February 2024
Pray (ACts) Read (Ecclesiastes 4v4) Message (Scott Woodburn) Envy isn’t a characteristic that we should seek to cultivate. What is envy? It rears it’s ugly head when we consider our neighbour and desire everything he has, it causes us to jealously seethe at the seemingly endless talents of another and envy shows it’s teeth when we are prepared to step over a rival so that by any means we can move ahead. Solomon believed that much of our frustration in work comes from envy of our neighbour (v4). I wasn’t a Civil Servant for very long but I can remember the summer that my office was sent into turmoil by a fresh round of promotions. One of my colleagues did not receive a good report from his line manager thus ending his hope for a promotion. Heated discussions took place only for the individual to point at a colleague at the other end of the room and shout “If he’s getting promoted then so am I!” There’s a wee bit of that attitude in us all. We like to believe we’re indispensable, our employer would surely suffer without us and our colleagues couldn’t cope without our presence in the office. All of this stems from an envious spirit. We judge ourselves against our neighbour and because we often come up short, envy finds fertile ground to grow in our hearts. I once sang a very simple song in Sunday school about little rabbits. “Get them out! Get them gone! All the little rabbits in the fields of corn. Envy, jealousy, malice and pride. These must never in my heart abide.” It wasn’t a particularly good song but it did have lots of truth. Envy is a joy stealer, envy is a heart hardener, envy grows only bitterness and envy cannot be allowed to abide in the Christian’s heart. The Lord Jesus didn’t complain about His humiliation as He left the glory of heaven for the indignity of a cross. Paul would write “And being found in human form, Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2v8). Humility is the opponent of envy. Envy seeks to take everything our neighbour has whilst humility puts our neighbour first. Therefore brothers and sisters, the little rabbit of envy must be chased from our heart. We need the means of grace and the work of the Holy Spirit to cultivate humility in us rather than envy. In this manner we keep the moral law which commands us not to covet anything that belongs to our neighbour (Exodus 20v17). This is hard work but it is Gospel work. The words of the Apostle remain true “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2v3-4). May it be so as we respond to the humility and grace of Jesus. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q61 What is forbidden in the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment forbiddeth the omission, or careless performance, of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments or recreations. 3rd February 2024
Pray (ACts) Read (Ecclesiastes 4v1-3) Message (Scott Woodburn) A previous generation could not have imagined online banking and rarely seeing physical cash. During my time in ministry I’ve heard of an old farmer who used to bury his money somewhere on his land, a husband and wife with a wee tin box filled with cash and another wee woman who kept bundles of cash in the cupboard above her cooker. For such individuals it was important to have money on hand and they all shared a distrust of banks. Unfortunately I’ve heard other stories. The wee woman with the money in her cupboard was one day robbed of thousands of pounds and she suspected the thief was someone she knew and trusted. How could anyone do such a thing? Robbing a vulnerable elderly woman is a despicable act indeed. Sadly the world is full of such acts. Humanity is often marked by inhumanity. Solomon saw such acts in his day as he witnessed the oppression of many people. The oppressors held much power leaving the oppressed with their tears (v1). No one brought them any comfort. This state of affairs led Solomon to contemplate that the dead were in a better position than the living for no further wickedness could be inflicted upon them (v2). But Solomon went further still and stated that the unborn were in a better position compared to both the living and undead (v3). How so? The child in the womb does not yet have any idea about the wicked deeds done on this earth. The Preacher’s synopsis of the human life is bleak but entirely accurate. Lift any newspaper and you’ll be able to read about the latest oppression and injustice. As I write, the headlines speak of sex abuse, drug addiction, murder, war, sham courts, mental illness and much, much more. The world has always been marked by such “oppressions” and many evil deeds are done under the sun. All oppression finds its source in the fall of humanity and human sin. I know this sounds like a simplistic explanation but it is Biblical and true. If wickedness abounds and no one cares about the oppressed then sin is the cause. This world was once paradise but paradise has long been lost and today, despite the “progress” and apparent glory of this world, wickedness abounds. Nevertheless, I am confident of a better day and confident that there is someone who cares. Here is what we read about Jesus “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53v7) Christ became the oppressed for our sake and will one day destroy the oppressor. When that day comes those seeking comfort will find it and the Lord will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Come quickly Lord Jesus! Come quickly! Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q59 Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath? From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and the first day of the week, ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath. 2nd February 2024
Pray (ACts) Read - (1 John 4:1-6 focus v4) Message (Alan Burke) On Wednesday we thought albeit briefly about the antichrist. How before Christ’s second coming there will be a completely evil man who will arise, the antichrist. He will be Satan’s tool, equipped with Satan’s power, Paul uses the term ‘man of lawlessness’ and he will proclaim himself as God (2 Thess 2:3-4,9). This will be the Antichrist, the one who will gather together anti-christian forces in opposition to Christ and his Church, some argue whether it is an individual or an all pervading ideology but it still awaits the church in our future. There are also antichrists who are those who have the spirit of the antichrist is that they are those who deny Christ and as a result they are antichrists. Here as John continues he turns his attention to how even though there are antichrists we need not fear in what lies ahead for we are dear children, we are from God, we have overcome them speaking of the antichrists because the one who is in us is greater. There are other pastoral apostles where the writer is not seeking to encourage rather they are writing to to give the church a walk up call to the nonsense that they have bought into, whereas John writes to encourage them to keep going in the way that they have, for they have overcome them. The reason they have overcome is precisely the grounds for their assurances that they are from God, again this is something that Jesus taught, John John 10, as Jesus talked about his sheep, he says, that they can never be snatched out of his hand, that …the Father who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” Jn 10:28–30. The church had overcome, they had not bought into the lies we call this perseverance of the saints. Often when we talk about perseverance today the focus in on what we as individuals have done, what they can do, like the marathon runner, needing just to keep going, do a little bit more, to finish the race, or like the student studying through the night, working on that essay to get it handed in on time, or recovering from an operation and listening to all the advice of the health professionals, it could be many a thing but perseverance is depending on us crossing the finish line, meeting the deadline, achieving our goals. If at first you don’t succeed try, try and try again. Perseverance so often in our own mind is dependant on us, but that is not what the teaching of scriptures is, rather the teaching of scripture is that it is God’s perseverance. A better way of putting it would be to be preservation, that we are preserved by God, that we are kept into the state of grace by God himself, not our actions, efforts or endeavours, because from start to finish the work of God. That he who has begun a good work in us as Paul says in Philippians 1, that he who has begun a good work will bring it to completion (Phil 1:6). What God has started in us he will finish, he will bring it to completion, those who are saved cannot loose their salvation. God had enabled the church to whom John wrote to, to persevere. All because he is greater than the one in this world, he is greater than the spirit of the antichrist, than the antichrists in this age, greater than the devil himself and he enables us to persevere as he gives us the indwelling holy Spirit which the church had and would bring them and us, all those whom have been given to Jesus to completion, it is because of his work we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, because of his work we are able to cry out Abba Father (Gal 4:6). We can take great comfort in this knowledge, how we are the children of God, the Spirit not only indwells in the believer but that indwelling is permanent, the Spirit will not depart from us. Our God is greater than the one who is in the world and who is in the world. Well John will deal with that clearly later in the letter but it’s important that we do not misunderstand, the one who is in the world is the evil one, Satan, the Devil. The World we live in is under control of the devil, this is a world that is ultimately hostile towards God and his people, that is opposed to the truth, for it is under the control of Satan, yet our God is greater, it is a truth that we must understand even when this world seems to be going from one thing to the next and we must know that Satan is a defeated foe. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q58 What is required in the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his Word; expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself. (Deut. 5:12–14) 1st February 2024
Pray (ACts) Read (Ecclesiastes 3v18-22) Message (Scott Woodburn) One day Solomon got to thinking and he wondered if the Lord was testing humanity to see if they would ever realise they were just like the animals (v18). This isn't to say that humanity and the animals are the same. The dolphins were not made in God's image, the lions do not possess an immortal soul and Jesus didn't die for the birds. The precious blood of the Lamb was shed for the children of man. Even so, humanity and the animals share in some common experiences. Just as humans die, animals die (v19). Just as humans are from the dust, so too are the animals and it is to the dust we all return (v20). But although both humans and animals walk inexorably towards death, that is where the similarity ends. Solomon continued to wonder and asked "Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?” (v21). Some have taken this to be a direct question with Solomon throwing his hands in the air and claiming ignorance of humanity’s condition after death. I think a better understanding is to see this verse as a statement of humanity’s apathy towards matters of life and death. In effect, the Preacher is stating that no one knows or no one thinks about the fate of the soul. This has been my common experience. I’ve met men and women who even on their death bed are not concerned about what comes next. The Gospel has been shared with them, prayers have been prayed but the individual has looked to death and said “who knows what comes next?” The Christian knows. The beast dies and is no more but the human has been given an immortal soul which cannot die. That soul either goes upward to heaven or down into hell. This is what we call “the intermediate state” and the soul of every person who has ever lived will spend the time until Christ’s return in one place or another. I fully understand that there are countless issues demanding our attention. The dinner needs to be made, bills need to be paid and Netflix shows need to be watched. Even so, let me ask you a few questions. Do you understand that there is something after death? Do you know that your soul is heaven bound by faith in Christ or hell bound by sin? Do you know these things? You do now. You are not a slightly cleverer animal, you are human and bear the image of your creator. Where will your soul wait for the return of Jesus? The one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q57 Which is the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment is, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it. |
Alan
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