Lord's Day January 20 2013

A busy two days means I've not been able to report on last Sunday until now. I preached on 2 Peter in the morning, having looked at the first three verses on false teachers the week before. I began by remarking that if anyone was unsure whether we needed to be warned about false teachers they have only to consider what has been reported about Steve Chalke, a professedly Evangelical Baptist, saying that in certain cases homosexual relationships are perfectly biblical. It would be unfair to label Chalke a heretic quite at this point (even though he has already given cause for concern with his denial of penal substitutionary atonement) but one begins to wonder where this will all end. The morning message was a wide ranging but solemn one on judgement and salvation. In the evening I preached on secret sins, leaning heavily on the work of Puritan Obadiah Sedgwick, I trust, dealing with the people before me. Numbers were down rather, especially in the morning, as the older folk weren't out due to the snow on the ground. We hope to have baptisms next Sunday evening.