February 18th, 2025

18th February 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 20v1-21)


Message (Scott Woodburn)


I have done my best to outline the vast importance of Christ’s active and passive obedience. Why? Because the Christian should never believe that they are saved or stay in God’s good books by their works. We are called to follow the Lord and obey Him but we should never rest on the quality of our works. The child of God is justified by their faith in Christ and His obedience should be the pillar of our Christian walk.


Even so, we move from guilt to grace and then gratitude. As I often say, our daily cry should be Soli Leo Gloria, to God alone the glory. But what does the everyday Christian life look like? You’ll probably be sick of hearing me say that the Christian life for the average believer isn’t one that is filled with mission teams and victorious moments. The ordinary Christian will wake and be called to love their family and go to a job that perhaps they hate. The highlight of a Christian’s week might simply be a Friday doughnut and a nice lie in on Saturday.


Nevertheless, each Christian is called to follow the Lord in thankful gratitude which flows from the Gospel of grace and in this the moral law of God is of much use. Where do we find God’s moral law? It is outlined in the Ten Commandments. There isn’t a Christian who will keep the commandments perfectly and they are not a path to salvation. Instead the law shows us our sin and God’s holiness, it acts as a restraint to sin and it shows us what pleases the Lord.


Therefore, as we remain thankful for the obedience of Christ and as our guilt drives us to the grace of God from which flows our gratitude, we would do well to meditate upon God’s “ten words” with the first commandment declaring you shall have no other gods before the Lord God Almighty (v3).


We may never bow before a wooden statue and we have no intention of converting to a false religion but we are exceptionally good at flaunting other “gods” before the face of the Lord. Like what? As Christians we can often value our career more than the Lord, we declare that family comes first and sometimes we look in the mirror and see ourselves as the supreme being of the universe. None of this is good. There have been moments in my life where I have acted like an atheist in all but name. I praise God on Sunday morning but act like He doesn’t exist the rest of the week. I tell myself that I’m able to cope, I’m wiser than all and I am in complete control of my destiny. I am a practical atheist, I am a fool. God have mercy.


It is the Lord who has taken us from slavery and set us free (v2) and therefore we owe the Lord much more than an hour’s half hearted praise on a Sunday morning. Brothers and sisters, we are guilty of bringing other “gods” before the face of the Lord. May we turn to Him for grace and tear down the idols that crowd our hearts. In gratitude may we respond rightly to the Lord who declares “you shall have no other gods before me.”    


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q10 How did God create man? God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
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