31st July 2025


Pray (ACts) 
Read (Hebrews 10v5-10) 
Message (Scott Woodburn) 
One of the many blessings of Hebrews is how we see the Old and New Testament speaking together to underline the consistency of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. In today's passage the Apostle takes the words of Psalm 40 and places them in the mouth of Christ. This is another Messianic Psalm which pointed forward to the arrival of the Messiah. 
What does Jesus say in Psalm 40? “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” These sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings are offered according to the law (v8) but Jesus didn't come to take His place as just another temple priest. 
Instead Jesus came to do the will of God the Father (v9a). Paul states that Christ does away with the first in order to establish the second (v9b). In this instance "the first" references the sacrificial system of the old covenant and "the second" points to Christ the obedient suffering servant. The first is gone, the second is established. 
As Scripture speaks to Scripture the picture is clear. The sacrificial system was fleeting and temporary and Christ's arrival made it obsolete. We've spoken before about the Covenant of Redemption and once again we see little glimpses of it in this passage. What is the Covenant of Redemption? It is a covenant made in eternity past between the three persons of the Godhead. The Father chose a people for salvation, the Son promised to come and die for those people and the Spirit would be the one who would turn sinners to Christ. 
Christ fulfils Psalm 40 and promises not to continue the sacrificial system but instead to do the will of the Father. What is the will of the Father? Jesus said "This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6v39-40) 
Christ's sacrifice was once and for all and by this sacrifice we have been sanctified (v10). Here is our Gospel hope. We are not required to offer repeated sacrifices which cannot save. The old has gone and the new has come. Christ the obedient suffering servant came to do the will of His Father and it was the will of His Father to crush Him for our sake (Isaiah 53v10). Thanks be to God for the Gospel for by Christ's stripes we have been healed! 
Pray (acTS)
Sing
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Q35. What is sanctification?
A. Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
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30th July 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Philippians 3:12-16 focus v14)


Message (Alan Burke)


As a dad there are things that I didn’t quite appreciate when I was a wain. One of those things is the school sports day. You know the one with the three legged race, the sack race, egg and spoon race although the last sports day I was at it was a potato and spoon race. There are always the wains that are miles out in front of the others and there are those who seem to be miles behind. What though is great is that most of the parents there are cheering the wains on, wanting them just to do their best, if they come first, great, if they come last well as long as they made and effort. I heard no one at the school sports day booing, shouting ‘you suck’ or anything of the type, instead people clapping and cheering even for the wains that were miles behind. In the life of the believer we are to strain on towards the goal to whin the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus, but it’s not like a race where there is 1st, 2nd and third place and the rest do not count, no we receive the prise, eternal life with Christ Jesus. 


Think of an athlete, there are may be a few reading this that could describe as athletic, but for most of us we’d have some work to do if we wanted that title. For an athlete in everything they are doing they have an undivided goal, a goal that is ever before them, they eat, sleep, train, all with the prize that is set before them as their goal, to run the race, to cross the line before them. That is what they are zealously pursuing, earnestly striving towards, pursuing with their being, they eat, sleep, train, everything they do is with that goal, the prize set before them, they want it, they desire it. Brothers and sisters for us, for those of us who are in Christ, our entire being, our life and everything in it, should be lived zealously pursuing, earnestly striving towards, pursuing with our being, the goal, the prize, the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ. 


Do we get this? How we are to press on to the prize in Christ? How we are to stop looking back to what came before, stop looking back to the failures on the way. You know something else we’re not striving to get ahead of those around us, or our pursuing with our whole being is so that we are able to get to the finish line and take pride that we finished first, rather it’s more like the schools sports day, when even those who are last are cheered, those who fall along the way are picked up and helped. We as brothers and sisters in the Lord have a duty to encourage one another, to build one another up along the way (1 Thes 5:11), yes we are to run the race but we have many who are running with us, cheering us on, supporting us along the way. 


Paul here wanted the church in Philippi to strive zealously pursuing, earnestly striving towards, pursuing with their being Christ. Not getting distracted, not being filled with past guilt and shame, he wanted them to go forward and not stop along the way. And for us, let us leave the past in the past, keep our eyes fixed upon the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2), let us run the race before us, with Christ before us. Yes we know that He who has began a good work in us will bring it to completion as Paul had already told the Church in Philippi (1:6), but the ultimate victory still lay in the future.


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Q34 What is adoption?
A. Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges, of the sons of God.
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29th July 2025


Pray (ACts) 
Read (Hebrews 10v1-4) 
Message (Scott Woodburn) 
I've heard more times than I care to recall that Old Testament believers were saved by their works. Apparently they received the law at Mount Sinai and therefore they were counted as righteous by their ongoing observance of the law. But this is simply not true and is at odds with Biblical testimony and the book of Hebrews.
In this chapter the Apostle is clear that the law was but a shadow of the good things to come (v1). Let's be clear that the law is not evil - perish the thought! The law is good, the law is from God and the law is of much use to the Christian. A Christian who says they have no love for the law is no Christian at all. The law shows us our sin and the holiness of God. The law shows us what pleases God and the law acts as a restraint for sin. We call this the threefold use of the law.
With that stated please notice that we do not believe that the law can save us or make us perfect (v1). The Old Covenant sacrifices were offered every single year and at no stage made perfect the individual who was drawing near to God. If these sacrifices were able to save and deal with sin then they would have been offered once and only once (v2).
Instead they were offered year on year on year and acted as a constant reminder of sin to the worshipper (v3). You see the blood of bulls and goats and the Old Testament sacrifices could not take away sin - that was simply impossible (v4).
So how then was a faithful worshipper during the days of the Old Testament actually saved? Their law observance would never be perfect enough and the blood of their sacrifices could not take away sin - so how was anyone made righteous in the sight of God?
The Old Testament believer was saved in exactly the same way as you and I - by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. In the time of the Old Covenant the sacrificial system was put in place as an act of grace. The discerning worshipper would offer sacrifices consistently in full understanding that they needed something greater than bull's blood. They needed a sacrifice that was final.
Just as you and I look back to Calvary, the faithful in the Old Testament looked forward. We have a much greater revelation than they did. We remind ourselves that our brothers and sisters before Christ could only see Him in the types and the shadows but God was still gracious and moved powerfully by the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit would take the law and break the hard hearts of sinners with their inability and sin. Then He would take them by the hand and lead them in repentance and faith to Christ Jesus.
They may not have known His name and in the years before Calvary they had little to no knowledge of our Lord's future humiliation but regardless, individuals during the Old Covenant era came under conviction of sin by Word & Spirit and they ran to God in repentance and faith. They were justified, sanctified and glorified. They were saved not by their own works but by the future works of Christ.
The Gospel isn't just for Gentiles born after the time of Jesus, instead it is the grand story of redemption from the days immediately after the fall. Paul would put it this way "For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility." (Ephesians 2v14-16)
In Christ, Jew and Gentile have been made one, they have been washed clean by the precious blood of Jesus. Regardless if you were born prior to Christ's coming or after Him, you must fall before Him. The blood of bulls and goats cannot save nor can our works - thanks be to God for Jesus.
Pray (acTS)
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Q33. What is justification?
A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.
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28th July 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Philippians 3:12-16 focus v12-13)


Message (Alan Burke) 


I’m not an athlete, far from it in fact but here Paul takes up imagery that we are all familiar with that seems more akin to someone putting on their track shoes and training for the race that lies ahead of them on the track or field and he uses it to speak of the Christian life. Now remember what he has been speaking about, context is always important and so often we take things out of context and then we can get things royally wrong. What has Paul been saying, well he had lost all things, he considered them rubbish that he may gain Christ (V8). Paul wasn’t looking back with rose tinted glasses to his life before Christ, nor was he looking back to his failings, his past sins, he’s not filled with regret because for him it is what lay ahead was of infinitely more worth to him than all this life had to offer. Paul had set Christ before him, he wasn’t looking back, it was Christ he looked to and the hope that he had in him.


But it’s not that he had already obtained the fullness of what he had in Christ, that he had been made before instead he was pressing on, he was straining forward to what lay ahead. Now these words might make you sweat just at the sound of them, ‘pressing on’, ‘straining forward’, seems like a lot of work already doesn’t it? Yet here is the thing, Paul was writing to the church, the LORD God was using him to help the church in Philippi and us to know that in the life of the believer it’s not that you get your ticket to heaven and you sit back with your feet up and indulge in all the sin your wicked heart desires. NO, instead when we come to saving faith we long to be like the Lord your God, we long to be perfect just as he is (Mt 5:48), we desire to sin no more because we know how heinous that sin is, it was our sin that was the reason why our Savour went to the cross and experienced every last dregs of the cup of the wrath of God. 


For us our desire should be to press on, to forget what is behind, knowing that what lies ahead of us, that when we breathe our last when we cross the finish line we will be made before as he is. Now here’s the thing, often we can instead of straining towards the goal, the prise for which God has called us heavenward we are looking back, looking to a time BC, before Christ in our lives. Brothers and sisters if your looking back longingly, if you’re thoughts would make a drunken sailor blush, if you’re living a life where you know that there is sin that needs to be dealt with then repent, and when you have repented, forget it and strain towards what is ahead. 


Remember who Paul is as he writes these words to the church, he is an apostle of Christ Jesus, he was one who was sent by Christ personally, commissioned by Christ to take out the gospel. It would have been easy for some in the church in Philippi to hold Paul up, to think that he has made it, that he was some kind of super Christian, and yet Paul here does not hold himself up, instead he hold Christ up. For he knew himself that he was a sinner saved by Grace, just as all those who have faith are, and his pastoral heart is clear to be seen in this as he himself identifies as being one who still has to press on, he is still not perfect. For all of us our goal as believers should be the strain forward to what lies ahead, to grow in our knowledge and love of the Lord, to become like Christ. Paul had not obtained this as he wrote to the Church in Philippi, nor would he attain it in this life but he has now obtained because of Christ. When we look back, when we fall into sin, pick yourself up and look once more to Christ and the wonderful forgiveness that there is in him for he has paid it all. It is never an excuse to sin willingly, thinking sure he will forgive me, but we know that we are repentant we have been forgiven. 


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Q32 What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life?
A. They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption, sanctification, and the several benefits which, in this life, do either accompany or flow from them.

26th July 2025


Pray (ACts) 
Read (Hebrews 9v23-28) 
Message (Scott Woodburn) 
The earthly tabernacle was purified by blood but the heavenly place has Jesus and His better sacrifice (v23). The Christian doesn't need to go on a pilgrimage to a so called "holy place" instead we lift our eyes to glory where Jesus is. Christ has entered into the heavenly temple which was made without hands (v24). The earthly tabernacle was designed by God but made by man and gave a little glimpse of heavenly realities (v24b) but Jesus is in the real place where He appears day by day before God on our behalf (v24c). 
Consider that for a wee moment. As a child of God, by faith in Christ, we have a representative, an advocate and a friend who ever lives to intercede for us. This gives us a blessed assurance that we will not be lost and we will never be forgotten. A little girl at church the other week explained Christ's intercession by saying "Jesus cares for us" She was right, He does. 
But lets be clear about what Jesus isn't doing. He certainly isn't in heaven offering Himself repeatedly as a sacrifice (v25). The priests of the old covenant entered into the holy places with blood from animals repeatedly (v25b). If Christ had to offer sacrifice repeatedly then He would have been suffering since the foundation of the world (v26). No. This is not the case. Christ's humiliation and suffering has ended. His sacrifice of Himself was once and for all to put away the sin of His people (v26). 
Do you see the difference in the old sacrifices compared to Christ? How many times did the old covenant priests carry out their service? Hundreds and thousands of times I'm sure and yet not once did they manage to deal conclusively with the problem of sin. But by the shedding of His precious blood, Christ's sacrifice was once and enough. His cry was "It is finished" and He spoke truthfully. 
So Christ isn't suffering today. He will never again face a cross nor will He stand before another earthly court. Instead Christ has appeared once to put away sin and will appear again to save those who are waiting on Him (v28). The next time this world will see Jesus will be when Christ returns in judgement. It has been appointed for each one of us to die and then on the last day to face the judgement of Jesus (v27). 
The Christian should have no fear of the final day but nevertheless we still take it seriously and work towards it. These days are wicked and time is short, we should be busy in the work of the Lord longing for the last day when we will be vindicated in the eyes of everyone who has ever lived. On that day we will enter into the promised rest and be with Christ forever. 
The same cannot be said for the one who rejects Christ. The final day will only bring terror to the unrepentant sinner. On that day there will be no second chances, no opportunity to change Christ's mind and no possibility of a reduced sentence. The one who hates Christ will be lost to hell for eternity. Please understand this today. Once again, if you reject the free offer of the Gospel you will spend eternity in hell alongside the devil and his angels. It isn't a place of joy where you and Satan will party eternity away. It is a place of torment and anguish that will never ever end. 
Yet no one needs to be lost. The blood of goats and calves cannot save nor can even our very best works. Only the finished work of Christ is sufficient and the one who repents of their sin and puts their faith in Christ will certainly be saved. Christ's work is over and for Him there is no more suffering. Even now He dwells in heavenly glory and will surely answer the call of the one who seeks Him. 
Pray (acTS)
Sing
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Q9. What is the duty which God requireth of man? The duty which God requireth of man, is obedience to his revealed will.
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25th July 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Philippians 3:7-11 focus v10-11)


Message (Alan Burke)


Are you a table quizzer? There are some people who I’ve come across who are great at table quizzes, their brain is filled with so much random information that they have come to know over the years that has no useful purpose other than to show off at table quizzes. It’s one thing to have lots of knowledge the accumulation of facts and information, but it is an entirely different thing to know. What I mean by that is there are lots of people who have knowledge of Jesus Christ but they do not know him. Here as Paul expresses that he wants to know Christ and the power of his resurrection it is much more than a knowledge of Christ, it is to know him intimately. 


Paul had already prayed that the church would abound more and more in the knowledge and depth of insight of the Lord(1:9). The word that Paul used there when he prayed for the church and here that is used is used twenty times in the New Testament. Every time that the greek word is used, it refers to knowledge of the things of God, theological knowledge. Paul had prayed that they would abound that knowledge of the things of God, and his own desire was to know Christ, not just going through the motions, growing in his knowledge and love of the Lord and this is much more than to know about him it is to know him personally, because it is easy to know what Christ has done Paul’s desire was that there would be a progression in his walk with the Lord.


To know him and the reality of that what he has done means for us, to know the power of the resurrection. How Jesus was declared with power to be the Son of God as he was raised from the dead, he died but was raised for us, so that although we are spiritually bankrupt that we too could know the hope of the resurrection, as Paul would say in Hebrews 2; Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Heb 2:14-15). 


Paul wanted to know Christ and more of the wonder of the resurrection hope, he also wanted to know of the fellowship of sharing in his suffering. Now that might be something that we hear and we want to avoid at all costs but for those who are in Christ they will face suffering for his sake. He had already told the church that God had granted them not only belief but also suffering (1:29). The thing is often, we are surprised whenever we suffer for the sake of the gospel will we suffer in this life, but we shouldn't be surprised, for it proves we are in Christ if we are suffering for him as Paul was all to attain the resurrection from the dead. Paul’s hope was founded in Christ in spite of how he was spiritually bankrupt, he had attained a righteousness not of his own but that comes by faith and knew whether martyred or living to a ripe old age, whatever he faced, no matter what lay ahead that he would attain the resurrection from the dead. 


Our heads may be filled with knowledge but what matters most is if we know Christ. If we know Christ then we will know the power of the resurrection, we will have hope in death and attain the resurrection from the dead. Not through what we have done but through Christ in us. 


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Q30 How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A. The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.
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24th July 2025


Pray (ACts) 
Read (Hebrews 9v11-22) 
Message (Scott Woodburn) 
During the days of the old covenant the priests would offer sacrifice day after day and year after year. Priests would live and die and more priests would follow. In the wilderness and later in the temple this system continued but as we have already discovered, it could do nothing to help the conscience of the worshipper. 
The new covenant is the covenant of grace made new in Christ and everything that Christ has ushered in has brought substance to where there was once only shadow. He has entered the heavenly tent which wasn't made by human hands (v11) and He entered that place by His own blood and not that of goats and calves (v12). Christ has secured for us an eternal redemption by His finished work (v12b) which is far superior to the old covenant days. 
Back then the blood of goats and calves made the people ceremonially clean and they held back the wrath of God for a time. But they needed to be completed again and again, they were temporary and pointed forward to the sacrifice of Christ which would put an end to sin forever. In this we see God's patience and forbearance. Thanks be to God for His mercy and thanks be to God for Christ. 
His blood has done immeasurably more than the blood of animals could ever do. He has paid the price for our sin and He has purified our conscience from dead works (v14). We are no longer slaves to sin but instead we live to serve Almighty God. 
Christ is the mediator of the new covenant and this has been established by His death (v16-17). Just as your great-granda made a will that gave all his belongings to his wife after his death, so too has the death of Christ brought great change. The inheritance we have in Christ isn't silver or gold or a bungalow. By His death the old covenant has been put away once and for all and Christ's blood has paid the price for the faithful in every age (v15). 
When we sing about the power of Christ's blood we should really, really mean it. During the days of the old covenant Moses sprinkled blood on the book, the people, the tent and all the vessels used in worship (v19-21). This was necessary to inaugurate the old covenant and to purify the people as the came before the Lord. 
But the blood of Christ was shed as a ransom for many and without the shedding of His blood there can be no forgiveness for sin (v22). No wonder we say that Christ has ushered in a new and better covenant than the one made with Moses. No more priests ministering in weakness. No more repeated and repeated and repeated sacrifices that can't deal with sin or calm our conscience. Instead we have Jesus and His completed work. 
So as the old song goes..."would you be free from your burden of sin? There's power in the blood! Power in the blood!" Amen and amen. 
Pray (acTS)
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Q37 What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death? 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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23rd July 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Philippians 3:7-11 focus v9)


Message (Alan Burke)


From the time we are knee high to a grasshopper we are told to be good. And it’s been drilled into us by the fat man in the red suit that watches us when we are sleeping, he knows when we’re awake, he knows if we've been bad or good, and so we’re to be good for goodness sake. Ask most people and they will tell you that they are good and if you push them on it and tell them they are not they will become hostile because from an earthly perspective they are. Yet from a scriptural perspective before the Lord our God there is not one who is good. Even if we know what the Bible teaches we still find this difficult to accept but the reality is before God there is not one of us who by our nature are good, there is not one of us who are righteous.

Paul here as he wrote to the Philippians acknowledges that he himself who from a human perceptive had much to boast about acknowledges that before God he had no righteousness for the righteousness that he believed he once had from the law that had made him blameless, faultless v6, but any righteousness that comes from the law, even though it left Paul faultless, blameless, it was worthless. It was worthless because even if his obedience to the law was honourable it was the worst of sins because it meant that he was relying on himself rather than what God had done for him. 


Are you relying on your own goodness, your own righteousness before God? If so repent for it is a great sin. What is required of us in observing the law is a faultless perfection in every regard, Paul had once believed that he was faultless, blameless but now understood that it was worthless because all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. Relying on ourselves rather than Christ, no matter what it is, our heritage, our piety, observance of the law or today our good works morality, church attendance, whatever it may be do not give us right standing before the Lord, none of these things will give us righteousness because we are by our nature spiritually bankrupt we are under a curse. But Paul knew the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith, for the righteous live by faith. 


What is it to be righteous? 


To be righteous before the Lord is to have right standing with him. While we are all under the curse, while we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23) and are without excuse, those who are righteous, who have right standing before the Lord have faith (Hab 2:4, Rom 1:17). 


What Paul gained in faith was a righteousness before God that came not because of what he had done or could do but a righteousness that was imputed to him, given to him by God through faith. The only way that anyone has ever been righteous before God, throughout all of history is through faith in his Christ. In the Old Testament those who were righteous were looking forward in faith to the promised one who would come. 


This is key for us is to know that it is by grace we have been saved through faith… not by works so that no one can boast (Eph 2:8-9). No one is justified before God by the law. Yet there are many who are still think they are good because it has been drilled into us from we were knee high to a grasshopper, or we’ve be trying to rely on the law, on their deeds, but the law is not based on faith. Faith gives us life in the truest sense and for those who are relying on the law then they live by them, they find life by obeying them, by relying them, but it is not life in the true sense, it is life under a curse, because it is faith that is the means of life in God. Brothers and sisters, let us look to Christ and what he has done, knowing that through faith in him we are the righteous of God. 


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Q28 Wherein consisteth Christ’s exaltation?
A. Christ’s exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.
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22nd July 2025


Pray (ACts) 
Read (Hebrews 9v1-10) 
Message (Scott Woodburn)
During the days of the old covenant there were regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness called the tent of meeting or tabernacle (v1). The rules that Moses followed to establish the tabernacle are outlined fully in Exodus 25-26 and Leviticus 16 and although the Apostle doesn't speak about them in detail (v5) he gives us a brief reminder of old covenant worship.  
First things first, the tent was prepared with an outer courtyard called "the Holy Place" (v2). In this Holy Place there was the lamp stand, the table and the bread of the Presence. The lamp stand had seven branches altogether. One middle branch with three further branches on each side. It was made to look like a tree with branches, buds, blossoms and almonds. Here is a picture of the Lord - giving life and light to a dark world. 
The table had the bread of Presence set upon it. This wasn't an offering to God as if He was hungry, instead the bread was for the priests who served the Lord. Just as the lamp stand symbolised the Lord's holiness shining brightly in the darkness, so the table reminded His people that God alone provides. 
A curtain or veil separated the courtyard from "the Most Holy Place" (v3) where there was the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant. Incense was to be burnt on the golden altar every day and once a year the priest was to sprinkle blood on the altar's horns as he offered sacrifice for atonement. The ark of the covenant was like a large golden chest containing manna, Aaron's staff that budded and the tablets of stone on which the ten commandments were written (v4). The ark was covered by the mercy seat which had two golden cherubim, one at each side. 
The ark of the covenant was where God would "sit" and speak to His people. It was an earthly representation of His heavenly throne. The manna was a reminder of His provision and sustenance. Aaron's staff was a reminder to sinners that they needed a Saviour lest God's judgement fall upon them (Numbers 17v10). The commandments reminded the people of God's holiness and their need to walk before Him rightly. The mercy seat was where blood would be sprinkled as an offering for sin once per year (v7). 
To meditate upon these things is a feast indeed. In type and in shadow the tabernacle's structure and furniture conveyed deep truth about heavenly realities but at the same time sacrifices offered in those days couldn't do anything about the conscience of the worshipper. Indeed the Holy Spirit was indicating that the structure of the tabernacle was pointing to a greater day when the way into the holy places would be opened (v8). 
The Apostle speaks of reform being required (v10) and although when we speak of the reformation we usually think of Martin Luther, Paul is obviously pointing to Christ. Jesus is the true reformer who took the symbols of the old covenant and gave them substance in the new. He is the light of the world. He is the bread of life. He is the fulfiller of the law. He is the altar, the sacrifice, the high priest and the temple. We can rejoice for the shadows have been chased away by the light of Christ. He is all we have and He is all we need. 
Pray (acTS)
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Q5. What is sanctification? Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
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21st July 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Philippians 3:7-11 focus v7-8)


Message (Alan Burke) 


What do yo think of our politicians? Everyone has an option don’t they but in my mind our democracy should be based on our Presbyterian form of church governance and even the GAA in their governance structures see this. If you compare the Presbyterian (biblical) system of church governance with the GAA’s governance as local clubs like the local church send their reps to Divisional Boards like our Presbyteries, now they also have a few mores steps before you get to their Congress like our General Assembly but it’s the same system and compared to the many wet wipes we have would see an improvement. 


Anyway up to this point is just a wee bonus, something you probably didn’t know but what got me started on politics and thinking of the state of the country is the Chancellor Rachel Reeves and the rumour mill is that she is going to announce how savers should put their savings in stocks and shares sometime this week. That is if you have money lying about in savings because most of us don’t have a lot of it. You don’t need to be a stock broker to see that profit or gain is good and loss is bad. 


Paul now understood what he once was, was loss and what he once would have considered loss was gain. In effect since he came to saving faith his life had been transformed so that what he once considered as profit he now considered loss. So much so that he considered everything loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord. This is a man who once amongst his own people would have been seen as a man who in every way had something to boast about, his heritage and his piety, his devotion to his Lord but he considered these things as worthless. 


What is more he considered them rubbish. That is the PG version of what Paul was saying although today there is no such thing as rubbish probably a renewable resource but I digress. The Greek word that is used here Skybala, it can be used to describe various kinds of filth, rubbish yes, but it also is used to speak of dung, excrement and that’s me being polite. For Paul, he was able to say everything that he had compared to knowing Christ was rubbish, dung, excrement. 


For Paul he would have lost his family, he would have been shunned, disowned, disinherited, he would have lost all his friends, he would have have been unable to return to where he grew up. For Paul the cost of following Christ was great, for many today the cost of following Christ where they live in countries that they for following Christ can be beaten, tortured, raped, martyred for their faith and yet the cost for us is so small. And even though Paul had lost all things, he was not lamenting, he in fact considered all that he had lost as rubbish in order that he may gain Christ. 


We may think that what matters in this life is a good education as money in the bank account. Maybe we want for our children to be rich and famous to never have to deal with the things that we have to deal with the struggles that we've had to deal with, but in reality these things cannot save us. While they might give us temporal comfort they do nothing for us eternally. Often though we live like the things of this world are of more value to us that our eternal hope through Christ. Know that they are loss, that they are rubbish, dung, excrement in comparison to Christ for through him we have a righteousness that is not our own, we obtain a righteousness by faith alone that means we have an eternal home. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q26 How doth Christ execute the office of a king?
A. Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.
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