The Mercy of God

                                                    Christ Sanctuary  -  24th September 2023      

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Mercy! / Just exactly what is mercy?

Mercy would be a meaningless idea 

if we weren’t guilty of wrongdoing / and deserving punishment

Mercy is offered only where there is guilt / mercy presupposes guilt

If you didn’t break any law / you wouldn’t need mercy

If you did / mercy might spare you from what justice demands

In the law court / when a trial draws to a close

* the jury returns an unanimous guilty verdict
* the judge makes the conviction

And in a few weeks time / the court meets again
* that is when the sentencing is handed down

Now / it is at the sentencing / that mercy is begged for
The defence advocate says something like
“We would like to throw ourselves on the mercy of the court
Your honour / My client has a wife and five children
This is his first offence / We beg for mercy”

 

                             Christ Sanctuary  13 August 2023 

The holiness of God is one of the most neglected attributes of God         There seems to be a certain measure of hesitation / or reluctance

            to delve deeper / into what the holiness of God means 

But if we don’t understand the holiness of God several problems arise

* we will have a deficient view of Who God is

* we will be desensitized / to the decadence of sin

* we will have little or no motivation for repentance

* we won’t be growing Christlikeness in our life

won’t attain to spiritual maturity

It’s most vital / that we understand God’s holiness

 

                                                        Christ Sanctuary - 1st August 2010

Dr. Bruce Waltke, a Reformed evangelical professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, at one time spoke on the subject / “What Does God Require” which as you know is a text taken from Micah 6:8

It was a very fine exposition and after his talk was over he gave opportunity for questions

One of the questions from the floor / was for an explanation concerned certain particular Hebrew words used in the original text of Micah 6. Soon as he heard the question / Dr. Waltke tipped his head back closed his eyes / and prepared to answer

 

      John 18:33-38   -  15th October 2023       

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We’ve been exploring the attributes of God 

And this morning / we’re looking at the truthfulness of God

In our passage we have an encounter between two men / Jesus and Pilate

We must not miss out on the sobriety / the gravity of this encounter

If you were standing there in the same room you might feel like fainting

You could cut the tension with a knife / Pilate is powerful 

and he is also ruthless / two deadly traits when combined

and our Lord stands on the very edge of His earthly existence 

But / even when his own life hangs on a thread
Jesus treats Pilate as a soul who needs light and truth

        He is more concerned with Pilate’s destiny / than that of His own

 

     The Omnipresence of God

Christ Sanctuary - 23 July 2023

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Psalm 139 expresses a number of the attributes of God but one of the most prominent ones / is the omnipresence of God

        the teaching that God is everywhere present

David / the writer of this psalm / has had numerous first-hand experiences
of the presence of God in his life 

in his many close encounters with danger and possible death

So he’s able to talk about it in a way you and I are not able to naturally