Banner 2013 04

Apologies that we are not keeping up very well. I was chairing the session this morning. We began with a helpful short piece first off from Andrew Swanson who, approaching 70 this year, reflected on the eternity of God and the brevity of life.

The first main address of the morning was from Warren Peel, who continued to looks at the gospel, which he had already noted is the A-Z not the ABC. He quoted Don Carson's warning that "a litany of devices designed to make us more spiritual or mature or productive or emotionally whole threatens to relegate the gospel to irrelevance, or at least to the realm of the boring and the primitive". Whereas yesterday he was reminding us about justification, he took us today to sanctification. First he quoted William Romaine who wrote that “No sin can be crucified either in heart or life, unless it be first pardoned in conscience; because there will be want of faith to receive the strength of Jesus, by whom alone it can be crucified. If it be not mortified in its guilt, it cannot be subdued in its power.”  Warren commended a clearer grasp of the gospel in order that we may have our motives purified, our distrust cured, our desires satisfied and humbles our hearts. He had an excellent illustration from classical mythology referring to the sirens. Odysseus had the ears of his sailors blocked but Jason had Orpheus play. The point being that if we focus on what God offers we will not be drawn away to anything lesser.

After coffee, Jeremy Walker spoke from 1 Peter 2 on gospel character calling on us to mine the gospel deeply and widely, to present the Saviour winsomely, to apply the message faithfully and wisely, to deliver it easily and sweetly and to preach persuasively and prayerfully.