6th February 2025
Pray (ACts) Read (Leviticus 16v15-19) Message (Scott Woodburn) There is word that appears in the Scriptures that we struggle to pronounce and understand. What is it? Propitiation. I may be wrong but I pronounce the word as pro-pish-e-ation. What does it mean? It is a sacrifice that turns away the wrath of God. God’s wrath describes His righteous, holy anger towards sin and we can be assured that the Lord will pour out His judgement upon all manner of wickedness. Even Christians? No, because Christ is our propitiation. In Leviticus 16 there were two little goats who were brought to Aaron. The first goat was killed and it’s blood was used to atone for the sins of God’s people. The blood was sprinkled throughout the tabernacle and atonement was made. The goat’s blood wasn’t magic nor was it perfect. Indeed, the Apostle would later say “But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Hebrews 10v3-4) So what was going on? Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness (Hebrews 9v22) and as the goat’s blood was sprinkled it was a clear reminder to the people of their sin and a need for a Saviour who would atone for their transgressions once and for all. Christ was the true sacrifice who has turned God’s wrath away from us. He is our propitiation. Paul would say “ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Romans 3v23-25) The blood of goats cannot save but the blood of Christ is precious and powerful in it’s work. It is in Christ’s sacrifice and His passive obedience that we see His great love for us. John said “God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4v8-10) We may struggle to say propitiation but we really should seek to understand it. Because of Christ’s finished work, the wrath of God no longer abides upon men and women of faith. Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness - thank God for the cleansing blood of the Lamb. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q107 What doth the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer teach us? The conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, which is, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen,” teacheth us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to him; and in testimony of our desire and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.
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5th February 2025
Pray (ACts) Read (Ezekiel 20:45-21:32 focus v1-7) Message (Alan Burke) While some may dream of their knight in shining armour I doubt many of us would want to have a sword drawn against us. While we would be more familiar today with imagery of a gun being drawn we know enough to have a fair idea what the imagery here is about. Ezekiel is to turn his face against Jerusalem, they might have mocked the message and the messenger but the Lord’s judgement was coming and it was in the sword of Judgment that would cut off Jerusalem from the righteous and the wicked. It is important that we know who are the righteous and who are the wicked, the reason why is that not many of us would say that we are wicked, maybe that fella down the road, aye Jimmy who beat the wife with a frying pan he’s wicked, or wee Vera who looks like butter would melt in her mouth but she has a wicked tongue and is toxic, please note before the rumour mill starts I’m not talking about specific examples incase you didn’t get that. Well the righteous are those who have right standing before the Lord. Yet we have all sinned (Rom 3:23), every inclination of our hearts is only evil all the time (Gen 6:5), that’s a brief synopsis of the scriptures teaching not just my opinion. We are not righteous, we do not have right standing before the Lord by our nature we are his enemies. BUT those who are righteous for they have faith in the Lord God (Hab 2:4, Rom 1:17). They had faith in the promised one who would come, Hebrews 11 makes it clear that it was the Christ that they looked to, the one who has come, Jesus Christ the one who came to save his people from their sins (Heb 11:26, Matt 1:21). The wicked are those who do not live by faith, who have not repented of their sins, they are those who reject God’s call on their life, live in opposition to his laws and righteousness, the wicked are those who remain in their sin, will be judged in their sin. Here though the Lord was making it clear that the righteous and they iced would be cut off. They are treated no differently here, the sword would befall on them both. The difference is for the righteous that even in the midst of life and death they can have hope and will have eternal life, whereas the wicked would face judgment here and the second death. For the righteous the Lord does not promise that in this life everything will smell of roses, that if we have faith that all our problems will be fixed but that we have eternal life where there will be no more sin or the consequences of that sin. You might need to hear that, I’ve come across many people who think that because they are a believer they should somehow be spared from the rubbish in this life, the Lord never promises that, in fact Jesus tells us that the world will hate us (Jn 15:18-25). The Babylonians would come like a forrest fire, consuming all in its way, from south to north, the judgement of God his wrath. This is a fearful thing the Lord was bringing his judgement, so that all flesh would know that he is the Lord. The word of the Lord the came through Ezekiel was declaring the judgment that would come upon all because of the wicked and it would surely take place (7). Ezekiel set his face against Jerusalem declaring the judgement that was coming. Jesus in Luke 9:51 set his face to Jerusalem, his face was turned to Jerusalem. The judgment that was coming was not upon Jerusalem but he would take himself the judgment for the righteous in Ezekiels day and who have believed in the coming Christ before and ever since. Jesus turned his face to Jerusalem to take upon himself the sins of all who would repent and believe to begin the new Exodus. Before that would here though the Lord was setting his face against not his son but his people, not because of their obedience like his son who died so that we might live, but because of the rebellion of the people and were receiving what they deserved. All of us will face judgment, what matters is whether Christ has taken the judgment that we deserve or not. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q106 What do we pray for in the sixth petition? A. In the sixth petition, which is, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” we pray, that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted. 4th February 2025
Pray (ACts) Read (Philippians 2v5-8) Message (Scott Woodburn) I am so thankful for the active obedience of Christ, it frees me from a life spent wondering “have I done enough?”. The truth is that even when I am at my best, I still fall far short of what God requires. Thankfully, by faith in Christ, His obedience is counted as my obedience. He has kept the law perfectly and His righteousness is credited to my account. Nevertheless, perhaps you and I know moments of great doubt. What if God has had enough of my repeated failures? What if I have run out of chances? What if grace is conditional upon my performance? To these questions I want to answer with Christ’s passive obedience. If Jesus actively obeyed God’s law then He also passively endured all the humiliations and sufferings poured out upon Him in this life. Paul would speak of Christ’s passive obedience in this way “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” In the face of death Jesus didn’t speak or shout or command the angels to destroy His enemies. Instead, He stood passively before Pilate and kept silent as many stood beneath His cross and mocked. So did Christ’s active obedience end and His passive obedience start? Not quite. Lorraine Boettner put it this way “Throughout all of His life He was perfectly obedient to the moral law in all that He thought and said and did. And in varying degrees every moment of His life on earth involved humiliation or suffering or both.” Christ’s passive obedience ran from the womb to the tomb. The author of all creation willingly lowered Himself to our level and passively endured the humiliations that met Him everyday. Do you know that Jesus was circumcised in obedience to the Law? Do you understand that Christ knew physical hunger? Do you grasp that sinful men beat and spat upon God? From his nine months in the womb to His three days in the tomb, Christ’s passive obedience shone out. You and I deserve the wrath of God in response to our wretched sinfulness but by faith in Christ we flee the wrath to come. Why? Because Christ was the perfect sacrifice. He endured all the humiliations and sufferings of this life so that you will not perish. Jesus was sinless and yet was treated as a law breaker for our sake. It was in our place that He hung upon the cross. We should respond to Christ’s obedience with gratitude and strive to walk rightly before Him all the days of our lives. But what about when we fail? Brothers and sisters, unprofitable servants fail every single day but our failures are met by the grace of God. Can we lose our salvation? No. Do we run out of chances? No. Will I be punished at the last day? No. Those who have trusted in Christ are saved to the uttermost. He is the perfectly obedient profitable servant whose active and passive obedience is enough. I am so thankful for the active and passive obedience of Christ, no hope without it. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q105 What do we pray for in the fifth petition? In the fifth petition, which is, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” we pray, that God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by his grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others. 3rd February 2025
Pray (ACts) Read (Ezekiel 20:45-21:32 focus 20:45-49) Message (Alan Burke) As a world we have never been more connected as we are now, many of you are engaging with this devotion with a device that is normally never far from you and you feel uncomfortable with leaving the house without. It is through it that many of us see the world, we observe stories and images of what is going on that we would never otherwise see and have no significance for our lives, things that are at a distance from us. In the past couple of years we have seen the devastation from natural disasters to man made ones. Floods, fires, wars are but a few of the things we have witnessed. Well here as the word of the Lord comes Ezekiel it uses imagery of such a disaster, the coming of a fire they are events that have huge significance for the people of God, while they were at a distance they would through it know that the Lord is God. Remember where we are, the Lord had just given his people a summary of their past and their present now he was speaking of what would come in their future. Their history and present had been summed up in less than a chapter. Volumes have been written about individuals and nations but the Lord’s summary of an entire peoples history makes the point that before the Lord what matters is not all that we think we have achieved but do we know him. While he had given them hope for a future proclaiming to them of a coming New Exodus before the hope would be fulfilled that judgement was coming because rebellious ways. The judgement will be at the hands of the Babylonians and is introduced with another parable. Like before this parable conceals and reveals, Ezekiel is to set his face towards the south and preach against the south, prophesying against the forest of the southland. He is to tell them to hear, for this is what the Sovereign Lord says. It describes a forest fire. The Lord uses the image of a great forest fire, that burns every tree, whether green or dry, the green tree has life and not normally one that is suitable for burning and but the dry tree well it would be chopped down for the fire. It is not explained to us what these things mean but the fire will move from the north to the South. What they were being told was of the coming judgement at the hand of the Babylonian. The green trees and dry trees are used figuratively of the people, the righteous and the wicked. The Lord is making it clear that there would be no part of the land untouched by what is coming, every face from south to north will be scorched by it, judgement will be all encompassing. Judgement was coming, but to the words of Ezekiel there is mockery, ‘Isn’t he just telling parables?’ In effect they were saying he was just telling wee stories, that it was a nonsense, that he’s just a doom merchant. But the Ezekiel wasn’t telling wee stories, or full of nonsense, he was declaring the word of the Lord. You might think I’m a doom merchant but I don’t want to send anyone to hell happy, what I mean by that is I want no one to be in ignorance of what lies ahead. For there is a day of judgment coming, a day when God will judge the earth (Rev 17-18) in preparation for the rule of the Messiah, the true king of Israel over the true people of Israel (Rev 19-20). People may mock and others like me, they may mock the message but the Lord has promised it will come. If you know and love the Lord Jesus then you will know mercy on that day, give thanks to the Lord your God, respond to him with your entire lives. For those whom you know and love who do not know him, plead on their behalf like their lives depend on it for they do, intercede for them ask that the Lord would show his mercy to them through his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q104 What do we pray for in the fourth petition? A. In the fourth petition, which is, Give us this day our daily bread,” we pray, that of God’s free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his blessing with them. 1st February 2025
Pray (ACts) Read (Job 9v2-3) Message (Scott Woodburn) I wouldn’t say that I am a man who reads poetry every day but when a poem resonates with me it tends to stick. I know most of Yeats’ “Lake Isle of Innisfree” and I adore Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”. Poems hang around our minds and speak truth to our souls at various moments of life. Even so, there are times that poems lead us down a false path. What do I mean? Take the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley for example. Henley’s poem is well known and oft quoted but in several areas it teaches falsehood. In the first stanza, Henley gives thanks to “whatever gods may be” and speaks of his own “unconquerable soul”. Orthodox Christianity states that there is only one true God who is one yet three. Equally, although our souls are indeed immortal, it is the Lord who is sovereign over them. Human beings aren’t all conquering beings who tell God how it is going to be - quite the reverse in fact. However, Henley’s most famous line comes at the end of “Invictus” where we read “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”. What a statement! It sounds good and some have tattooed it on their body but it is entirely untrue. The sobering reality of being human is that even when we scale the highest of heights, we still fall short of the duties which God requires. Indeed, we cannot by our own efforts achieve forgiveness of sin nor can we march into Heaven because we are captains of our souls. Job once asked “how can a man be in the right before God?” (Job 9v2). If we decided to contend with God we couldn’t answer Him once in a thousand times. Consider your own life. You are a wonderful mother but don’t have a great relationship with your dad. You are hard worker but can’t be bothered with your children when you get home. You exercise four days a week but see an hour with God on Sunday as a waste of time. All of us are in the same boat - we are unprofitable servants who even when we are at our best still fall far, far short of what God requires. What is to be done? I remind you of Christ’s personal and perfect obedience. Christ is the profitable servant who never once fell short. How can a man be in the right before God? By trusting Christ and resting in His finished work. I am no poet and no one will tattoo my words on their arm, but let me take Henley’s poem and offer a few changes - “I commit my immortal soul to the one true God. I am not the master of my fate but I trust the Lord’s gracious providence. Even at my best I fall far short and so by faith I trust in the obedient Christ the true captain of my soul.” Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q103 What do we pray for in the third petition? In the third petition, which is, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,” we pray, that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to his will in all things, as the angels do in heaven. 31st January 2025
Pray (ACts) Read (Ezekiel 20:1-44 focus v27-44) Message (Alan Burke) We are at war. I can’t imagine Keir Starmer ever saying those words, if Churchill was Prime Minister today he would do something about what is going on in Ukraine but these days we’re too worried about the consequences and never mind what it would do to the economy. Yet we are at war, the believer is at war against the flesh and the Devil, it is a war against the former self (see Gal 5:17, Jam 4:1 & 1 Pet 2:11). For those whom the Lord through Ezekiel confronted they weren’t even trying, they were still sinning like their fathers. Instead of devoting themselves to the Lord they continued in their idolatry as v31 confronts them. This wasn’t a long forgotten history, one that they had repented off, lamented their sinfulness this was who they were, nothing had changed, idols, child sacrifices and idolatry continued, this is the people of God who were to be set apart, a holy people (Ex 19:1-6). They had rebelled against the Lord, they continued to rebel against the Lord and because of this who were they to inquire of him, why should the Lord reply, they wanted to be like the nations, like the people of the world, who serve wood and stone. The Lord our God wanted his people to put him in his rightful place but they had not, he had told them to have no other gods before him but they had went after the other gods and he hands them over to their desires. Time and time again the Lord had been gracious to his people but he had enough and they would face his judgement. Yet the Lord as continues to speak there is reason to hope in the midst of their faithlessness, in the midst of their sin, for he in his forbearance, because he is long suffering would bring about a new exodus for his names sake. He in the midst of this would gather a people to himself, where they would meet with them in the wilderness entering into judgement with his people (34). He would establish a new covenant with his people (35-37). The details are vague but its significance is clear, the Lord would do what he has done in the past, again electing a people, choosing not because they deserved it but because of his gracious choosing. The Lord through Ezekiel is not telling his people of a restored Israel, a nation but instead of what he would do in the future. For he has poured out his wrath but on his son, he judged him in the place of his people, he is bringing people into covenant relationship with him because of his gracious choosing, his election, a true Israel his people and they will be brought into relationship with him through what Jesus Christ has done, the new exodus has now come and we await the Lord leading us to the promised land. Until that day we should never forget that we are at war, against the flesh and the Devil, it is a war against the former self (see Gal 5:17, Jam 4:1 & 1 Pet 2:11), we should be those who live to serve the Lord our God, that we would love him, turning from the sin that his word confronts us with living for his glory above all because of what he has done for us. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q102. What do we pray for in the second petition? A. In the second petition, which is, Thy kingdom come,” we pray, that Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed; and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it; and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened. 30th January 2025
Pray (ACts) Read (Genesis 2v15-17) Message (Scott Woodburn) Did you know that Adam had the ability to keep God’s commands? When the Lord commanded Adam that he wasn’t to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He wasn’t asking Adam to do an impossible task. In today’s passage we see the birth of something called the Covenant of Works. The Westminster Confession describes it in this way “The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works, wherein life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience.” Adam and those following him would enjoy everlasting life on the basis of Adam’s perfect and personal obedience. The first man was made with true holiness and the law of God written upon his heart. It was well within Adam’s ability to keep God’s law but instead our ancestor made the decision to walk his own path. What was the result of Adam’s fall? Paul would speak this way in Romans 5 “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men…many died through one man's trespass…judgment following one trespass brought condemnation…because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man…one trespass led to condemnation for all men…by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners” That’s desperately bleak reading isn't it? Sin, death, trespass, judgement, condemnation. Awful foreboding words that accurately describe the spiritual condition of the human race without Christ. What we need is another Adam. An Adam who obeys perfectly and personally. Interestingly, Paul described Adam as a type of the one to come (Romans 5v14). So who was the one to come? Jesus is His name. Christ’s obedience was perfect and complete. It was both active and passive. The Lord is the second Adam, the true man and the one who replaces the bleak words above with grace, mercy, forgiveness, life and salvation. Adam heard God’s voice and choose to disobey. Christ heard God’s voice and said “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” (John 6v38) I am so thankful for the perfect and personal obedience of Christ. No hope without it. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q101 What do we pray for in the first petition? In the first petition, which is, Hallowed be thy name,” we pray, that God would enable us, and others, to glorify him in all that whereby he maketh himself known, and that he would dispose all things to his own glory. 29th January 2025
Pray (ACts) Read (Ezekiel 20:1-44 focus v5-26) Message (Alan Burke) Back in the day things were better weren’t they? It’s a matter of opinion of course, I’ve been told recently how awful things are these days. The individual in question was thankful that they weren’t my age and having to do it all again. We can all be a bit like that, long for times past although I’d dispute that things were actually better back in the day, different yes, better hmmmm. Like after all I remember as a wain scraping the ice of the inside of the window in the bedroom, hearing the siren sound and the bombs going off, wondering was the family ok and watching news of the tit for tat murders although LW Atlantic 252 was still on the radio, a 5p mix had a right few sweets and I could eat Ricicles for breakfast without the government interfering because they had too much sugar like these days. The Lord here takes his people on an overview of their history, there might have been a perceived golden age, when things were better back in the day but in reality it was a nonsense the same issues were there. The story of their history is of continuing sin, their detestable practices, how throughout the generations they had rejected the Lord’s rule over them. Even though he had by his grace chosen the people elected them not because they deserve it but by his gracious choosing and they had rejected him. This was a path not only that their forefathers had chosen it was the path that they had chosen, that they had embraced. We are told of the Exodus Generation in v5-10, the Wilderness generation in v11-15 and then the children of the wilderness generation in v18-23. Each generation failed to obey the word of the Lord. Each time they rebelled, v8, v13, v21, each time the Lord warned them he would pour out his wrath on them but he relented. They though did face his judgment. Each time the people went not after the Lord but to sin and their detestable practices. So while the Lord had given them good decrees and laws to live by he handed the children of the wildness generation over to v25 we are told “to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by”. This was the Lord handing them over to their idolatry, idolatry that saw them become defiled, where they offer other first born sons to the fire of Molech, sacrificing their own children. The Lord had redeemed them so that they may serve and worship him but instead they did not serve and worship the Lord and the Lord handed them over to their sin and detestable practices. Things were not better, things might have been different but the Lord confronted the elders of Israel with were broad bush strokes their history, showing how he chose them, how they rebelled against them, how judgement came. We might look back and think things were better, I especially miss Kellogg's Start cereal, things might have been different but sin has been the constant feature of every generation and this generation and it is just manifested in different ways. When we repent and believe, when we are born again then because of the work of Jesus Christ within us we have been freed us from our slavery to sin. But our flesh is so corrupt, so sinful that even as we have been born again it is a loosing war until we are given a renewed will, for when we die we will be made perfect in holiness. Until then even thought we are justified, regenerate we are still sinners nonetheless, our problem is sin and we are prone to love our own sinful flesh more than we love our sinless saviour. It is a daily fight against sin, we must never think that we are on top of it, we must look to the Lord, praise him for his grace towards us. For here the Lord God had promised his wrath on his people, they deserved it and likewise we deserve his wrath, but we know his grace. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q100. What doth the preface of the Lord’s Prayer teach us? A. The preface of the Lord’s Prayer, which is, Our Father which art in heaven,” teacheth us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father, able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others. 28th January 2025
Pray (ACts) Read (Luke 17v7-10) Message (Scott Woodburn) By this stage of January the vast majority of us have fallen back into our same old routines. I’m not getting at you by the way, just highlighting the trouble we all have in keeping our promises. In light of your return to chocolate or your failure to go to the gym five times a week, allow me to assure you of your standing with Christ. Does your eternal salvation depend upon your earthly success? Thanks be to God that the answer is no. As Christians we are great at comparing ourselves to others and falling short. Your family isn’t as well organised as that famous Christian on Youtube. You climb out of bed at 8am while your Christian friend has been up from 5am to read and pray. You listen to the testimony of other Christians and feel rotten because your life isn’t as “victorious” as theirs. What is to be done? A Presbyterian of another age was called Gresham Machen and in his dying days he wrote to a friend saying “So thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.” Machen was right, but what do we mean by the active obedience of Christ? Christ’s obedience to God’s demands was perfect and complete. Whatever was required by the law of God, Christ fulfilled it. He was active in keeping God’s law and could rightly be described as a profitable servant. Not so for you and I. Even on our best days we are unprofitable servants who have only done our duty (v10). My prayer life is not what it should be, I frequently miss opportunities to share Christ and my “to do” list never seems to get shorter. Will I be lost? By no means! I stand righteous before God because He has declared me righteous by faith in Christ. Jesus is the perfectly obedient servant who has completely fulfilled the law’s demands. He stands at the right hand of the Father and all who have received Him by faith are counted as obedient and righteous and forgiven. I’m sure you’ve heard of imputation…it simply means that by faith, Christ’s righteousness is credited/imputed to our account. We might be unprofitable servants but we have trusted the actively obedient Christ. Are we free then to spend the rest of our days on the sofa? No. Brothers and sisters, if you are moved by the finished work of Christ, if you are humbled by His active obedience and if your Saviour’s love gives you great joy - then follow Him. You will never obey perfectly, you will often feel like a failure and even now you might be all too aware of your limitations but please remember that your standing with the Lord has never been dependent upon the quality of your obedience. What wisdom we received from Gresham Machen. He spoke truth that I hope we will remember this year - “So thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.” Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q99 What rule hath God given for our direction in prayer? The whole Word of God is of use to direct us in prayer, but the special rule of direction is that form of prayer which Christ taught his disciples, commonly called, The Lord’s Prayer. 27th January 2025
Pray (ACts) Read (Ezekiel 20:1-44 focus v1-4) Message (Alan Burke) I learnt when I was a wain that the easiest thing to do was just say sorry and get it over and done with even if I wasn’t. I might have told you that before. The reason why it comes to mind is I’m sure that you’ve been in a situation that someone has come to you and you know fine well they are not sorry, they might nod and smile but they are there because they want something from you. Here as we come to Ezekiel 20 remember the people had just been told by the Lord to lament. What were they to lament? It was their sin. Now a group of elders come to Ezekiel and they come to inquire of the Lord, while in chapter 9 it had been the civil leadership, here it is the religious leadership, these are the the spiritual leadership of God’s people in Exile. If we only read v1 we might think, good they have finally got the message but in how the Lord responds to them it makes it clear that they hadn’t. They were not looking to the Lord in repentance, lamenting their sin instead they are coming to the Lord thinking that things are on the up, that the Lord would do the needful for them because they were a special people, a chosen people and they believed everything was starting to fall together, they were going to be released from their captivity and back at home soon enough. You might say sure there is nothing said of their inquiry of the Lord, the text is silent on what they asked for but the response from the Lord makes it clear that they hadn’t understood anything, the significance of what had happened, look at what the Lord says in response to them coming v3, As surely as I live, I will not let you inquire of me, declares the Sovereign Lord.’ These elders who came to the Lord we might want to give a pat on the back and sure at least they came what more does the Lord want, like sure if someone comes to worship it can only be a good thing, give them a pat on the back for it. The problem was and is for us today is that anyone who comes to the Lord failing to hear and respond to the word of God then they will rightly face his judgment. Failing to hear and respond brings the Lord’s derision. Think to what they are doing, even though the Lord has told them time and again that they need to repent they in effect have done what they can do to explain it away. For all of us, if you’re at home unable to get to worship because of age and infirmity or if you’re out every Lord’s day morning and evening what we must do is hear the word of the Lord and respond appropriately. What we need to do is hear it, respond accordingly trusting in Jesus for our salvation and live as response. Nothing else will do. We might think that it doesn’t really matter but it does, for all who refuse to hear and fail to respond they will face the consequences of that, his judgment but for all who hear and respond the receive his amazing grace that would save wretches like you and I. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q 98. What is prayer? A. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies. |
Alan
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