The Judgement of Secrets (Rm 2.16)
Our message today sums up the case against the moral man – God will judge all men, pagans and moralists, on the day when God judges the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. The whole argument of Rm 2.1-16 comes to completion in this reference to this black day. The darkness of the day makes the gospel stand in sharp relief, like a sparkling diamond laid out against the background of a flat black cloth. Paul says that this whole concept is ‘according to my gospel’. So against the backdrop of the Day of Judgement, against the backdrop of the judgement of secrets, against the backdrop of the flaming eyes of the risen Christ judging the sins of mankind… against all this is laid the gospel of salvation by faith in the finished work of Christ.
Pilgrim’s Progress: Faithful and Talkative
In this session, Christian meets up with Faithful who becomes his companion for a part of the way to the Celestial City. Faithful recounts his experience till the point he meets Christian and although they travelled the same way, their experiences differed. In this we see that though there is one way, one destination, one faith, and one Christ, the means by which the Lord brings about our spiritual growth differs with each one. The temptations and trials Faithful experienced are different, but the grace of God in overcoming them is the same.
As they go, the two pilgrims encounter one Talkative, a man who has much to say about religion, but no corresponding testimony. He is an illustration of many a vain boaster who finds Christianity very interesting, except when it comes to actually living out the Christian faith.
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We had a number of visitors today with a total attendance of 57, so praise the Lord. Now if some of the visitors would come back!!
The Lord blessed in the services today, with good responses from several people.
You may wonder why no third service today. The reason is that tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, so we will be having our annual Thanksgiving Dinner and Service. Our good friend, Pastor Rick Coursen of First Baptist Church of Sedro Woolley, Washington, will be our guest speaker tomorrow. We will have the audio up sometime tomorrow afternoon.
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