September 29^th 2024

10:00 am -------------------------------------------------The Saviour of Sinners – John 8:1-11

This God is Our God -- “ For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.” – Psa. 48:14

This God who is God and beside Him there is none else. This God who created the heavens and the earth. This God who is Sovereign over all, none can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest thou. This God who is holy, just, gracious and merciful. This God who was manifest in the flesh. This God who worked out a righteousness for His people. This God who

satisfied justice by His obedience in His life and in His death. This God who ascended on high and led captivity captive. This God will guide our every step until this life is over. This God is Jesus Christ, as Thomas said, (John 20:28)“And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.” – Jonathan Chapman

The Believer is a Mystery – “the world knoweth us not” – 1 John 3:1

The believer is a mystery to others and to himself, also. He is sanctified yet feels himself to be the chief of sinners. He loves God’s law yet he wrestles with an inward desire to have his own way. He has great sorrow and heaviness of heart over others yet rejoices in the Lord always. His spirit longs to be with Christ yet his flesh clings to this earth. He knows he is secure in Christ yet he examines his faith continually. H.Mahan

Self-Denial -- “Whosoever will come after me, Let him deny himself” – Mark 8:34

Our whole trouble in life is with our sinful self; our concern about self, and what our Lord is teaching here is that self is something which we must rid ourselves entirely. We must rid ourselves of this constant tendency to be watching the interests of self, to be always on the look-out for insults or attacks or injuries, always in this defensive attitude. Self-defense is a sense of annoyance or a grievance, or a feeling that I have been hurt and wronged and am suffering an injustice. The moment I feel this defensive mechanism coming into play, I should examine myself, I must quietly face myself and ask the following questions. `Why exactly does this thing upset me? Why am I grieved by it? What is my real concern at this point? Am I really concerned for some good principle of justice and righteousness? Am I really moved and disturbed because I have some true cause at heart or (let me face it honestly), is it just myself? Is it just this horrible, foul self-centeredness and self-concern? Is it nothing but an unhealthy and unpleasant pride?' Such self-examination is essential if we are to conquer in this matter. We all know this by experience. How easy it is to explain it in some other way. We must listen to the voice that speaks within us, and if it says: `Now you know perfectly well it is just yourself, that horrid pride, that concern about yourself and your reputation and your own greatness'-if it is that, we must admit and confess it. It will be extremely painful, of course; and yet, if we want to rise to our Lord's teaching of self denial, we have to pass through such a process. It is the denial of self.

I wonder whether we have ever realized the extent to which the misery and the unhappiness and the failure and the trouble in our lives is due to one thing only, namely self. Go back across last week, consider in your mind and recall to your conscience the moments or the periods of unhappiness and strain, your irritability, your bad temper, the things you have said and done of which you are now ashamed, the things that have really disturbed you and put you off your balance. Look at them one by one, and it will be surprising to discover how almost every one of them will come back to this question of self, this self sensitivity, this watching of self. There is no question about it. Self is the main cause of unhappiness in life. 'Ah', you say, `but it is not my fault; it is what somebody else has done.' All right; analyze yourself and the other person, and you will find the other person probably acted as he did because of self, and you are really feeling it for the same reason. If only you had a right attitude towards the other person, as our Lord goes on to teach in the next paragraph, you would be sorry for him and would be praying for him. So ultimately it is you who are to blame. Now it is a very good thing on the practical level just to look at it honestly and squarely. Most of the unhappiness and sorrow, and most of our troubles in life and in experience, arise from this ultimate origin and source, this self. – Martin L. Jones

Self

“Deliver me, O Lord, from that evil man, MYSELF.” – Thomas Brooks

“Beware of no man more than YOURSELF; we carry our worst enemy within us.” – Spurgeon

“O Lord, deliver me from the lust of always vindicating MYSELF.” – Augustine

“The denial of OURSELVES will leave no room for pride, haughtiness, or vainglory, nor for greed, licentiousness, love of