Day 237

Day 237

Pray (ACts)

Read - 1 John 2:22-23

Message - Alan Burke

Have you ever been branded a liar? On the school playground faced the taunt “liar, liar, pants on fire” or said it to someone else? Have you been told “take what that person says with a pinch of salt”, “don’t believe a word they tell you”? The fact of the matter is that none of us can say we have never told a lie and that there are times that we have even purposely deceived others, of course we may not think about it that way but we do it all the time, although I am thankful for the riches I received from the tooth fairy. But as John asks the question “who is the liar?” He’s not taking aim at you or I, rather he is taking aim at those who deny that Jesus is the Christ!

Who is the liar, those who deny that Jesus is the Christ. They are those who do not believe the truth, they are heretics, those who are at odds with what the bible teaches. Those who do not believe in the reality of the incarnation, those who deny the Son of God as truly God, those who deny that He was truly man, those who view that the heavily Christ did not suffer and die, those who believe that He has not shed His blood to be our Saviour.  

Notice though what John’s focus is on, he doesn’t focus on what they are doing right, the things that they taught positively, they may even have been making a massive difference in their community, rather the focus is on what they deny. And what is more those who deny that Jesus is the Christ, well as John makes clear, ‘Such a man is the antichrist, he denies the Father and the Son’. It sounds a wee bit extreme doesn’t it, after all many of us have friends who we know we differ on a few things, you may think that church down the road does a good work, is this really that important? 

It is, because the truth of the gospel is so important, and to deny any of it, to deny that Jesus is the Christ, that He is the Messiah, the promised deliverer of God’s people is falsehood. When a person does this they are showing that they do not come from the truth, that they are an antichrist, that they are opposed to the truth. And those who deny the truth are opposed to the gospel and John won’t have it because the truth is so important. For as John says here “No one who denies the Son has the Father” (23a). 

But the flip side is this, “those who acknowledge the Son have the Father also” (23b). Do you acknowledge the Son this day? What it means by acknowledge is the idea of confessing something to be true, bearing witness to it, declare that you believe it, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved (Rom 10:9-10). You may have at one time been branded a liar, even faced the taunt “liar, liar, pants on fire” or purposely deceived someone for what ever reason, but if you acknowledge the Son you have the Father also, your salvation is secure through Jesus the Christ who being the eternal Son of God became man, and so was and continues to be, God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever (Rom. 9:5, Lk 1:35, Col. 2:9, Heb. 7:24–25).

Pray (acTS)

Sing

WSC
Q15 What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein thy were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit. (Gen. 3:6)
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