From Sunday: June 26, 2011

In the morning, we looked at 1 John 2:23-27, where John exhorts to abide in the message we received concerning Christ. It is a message that communicates the benefits of the gospel, for we are saved through believing this message and as we receive Christ, we receive all the benefits of redemption that he has purchased for us. Further, it is a message which separates us from the world as holy unto God. Therefore, we should not be surprised when some fall away as this is just Christ sifting out his church such that it does remain infected with the leaven of hypocrisy and unbelief. Finally we saw that this message which we have received is sufficient to instruct us, not exhaustively, but such that we can know the truth about God and therefore be able to know error from truth.

In the evening, we looked at Deuteronomy 16:18-17:13 (no audio yet). Here Moses gave the Israelites instruction in the establishment of a judicial system in Israel. We saw the character, the process, the authority and the purpose of justice in Israel. We were reminded of the connection between the qualifications for judges in the Old Testament and those for elders in the New Testament, our need to love justice as a reflection of God's character, and to love Christ all the more for taking the full penalty of the law due to us for our own sins.