Portrait of a Good Religious Man (Rm 2.17-20)

Our passage finds us in the midst of Paul’s argument against those who are religious men. Pagan man is under God’s wrath for rejecting natural revelation; moral man is subject to God’s judgement for ignoring conscience; now we will find religious man under condemnation for disobedience to God’s word.

The argument begins with a description of the religious man as a religious man. He thinks possessing the blessings of his religion are sufficient for his justification without requiring an obligation to total holiness on his part. Today we are attempting to paint a portrait of what that man looks like.

By-ends and Hopeful [Pilgrim’s Progress]

Our next section of the Pilgrim’s Progress concerns Christian’s departure from Vanity Fair, his new companion Hopeful, won by the testimony of Christian and Faithful, and their encounter with a crowd of characters whose only interest in religion is how they may profit from it. Christian’s answer is a powerful argument against the purveyors of ‘health and wealth’ Christianity.

A Church Organized around Preaching [various texts]

why we call ourselves ‘the Bible-preaching centre’

Our afternoon service gives us an opportunity to return to our occasional series “Our Church”, which is a discussion of our philosophy of ministry. This message deals with the central focus of our ministry, the focus on preaching and teaching God’s Word. The message is mostly simply a reading of passages teaching the Importance of God’s Word, the Imperative of Preaching God’s Word, and the Impact of God’s life-changing Word. It is essential that church ministry be dominated by the Word of God. Everything we do flows from this overriding purpose.

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Another great day to serve the Lord. One couple returned for a second visit! May the Lord grant an increase.

If You Bear the Name ‘Jew’ (Rm 2.17)

As we work our way through Romans, we find the apostle Paul systematically proving the guilt and condemnation of all men. In Romans 1, the pagan man is under God’s wrath, in the first half of Romans 2, we find the moral man subject to judgement. Now as we begin the second half of Romans 2, Paul’s attention turns to the religious man, the Jew, who depends on his ritual and heritage for his standing with God. Though Paul’s message applies directly to the 1st century Jew, it ultimately applies to any man who depends on his religion for right standing before God.

Vanity Fair

This week we cover the experience of Christian and Faithful as they go through Vanity Fair. No one can escape the Fair, since the Way to the Celestial City leads through it. It represents the world, with all things respectable and profane, but things which distract Christians from the Way. The pilgrims do not fit in with the fair and offend the residents of the city so are held in a cage. Ultimately Faithful gives his life for his testimony, but some are won to the Way as a result.

Men Under Authority (Ac 6.1-6)

Our afternoon message concerned our philosophy of church governance: our congregation is pastor-led and congregationally governed. This message covers some of the biblical rationale for our philosophy and illustrations and applications to show how that works.

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None of our visitors from the last few weeks came back, but we had a great day worshipping the Lord nonetheless.

Bless the Lord O my Soul (Ps 103) [Thanksgiving Day]

Today we were blessed with our annual Thanksgiving Day dinner and service. Pastor Rick Coursen of 1st Baptist Church of Sedro Woolley. WA was our guest and speaker.

Pastor Coursen’s message took us through Psalm 103, giving us reasons as the Lord’s people to give thanks for the many benefits, especially spiritual benefits, that we have through faith in Christ.

We thank the Lord for a good day among God’s people.

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.