AM Service – Salisbury Baptist Church

The Blood that Atones

30th March 2025

The atonement is not achieved by our actions but entirely through Christ's blood. Many people misunderstand atonement, thinking it involves their own efforts to get right with God, but Scripture reveals it is completely God's work. Jesus' sacrifice has already paid for our sins in full, requiring nothing from us except belief. His blood changes everything: it propitiates God's wrath, reverses our fallen position, and silences Satan's accusations against us. When we trust in Christ's finished work rather than our "dead works," our conscience is purified, and we serve God not to earn salvation but out of grateful love.

The Blood is for the Father’s Eyes

23rd March 2025

The blood of Christ was shed not merely for us to see, but primarily for God the Father to see. When Jesus ascended to heaven after His resurrection, He presented His blood before the Father as an eternal, once-for-all atonement for our sins—past, present, and future. This perfect sacrifice can purify our conscience from "dead works"— futile attempts to earn God's favour through our own efforts. This is ours when we come to God receiving a full acceptance on the basis of this atonement due to Christ’s shed blood. Because Christ's atonement is complete, we need only to be reconciled to God by receiving this once and for all forgiveness of sins. Thereafter if we sin, we need only to confess to God those new sins and rest in the assurance that we are cleansed from them by the faithfulness of God to honour the full effectiveness of that finished atonement.

Love on the Stretch

The Joy of the Sent Ones

16th March 2025

Jesus promises His disciples that their sorrow will turn to unshakable joy—not mere happiness, but a deep current that remains despite circumstances. This joy flows from three realities outlined in John 17: being sanctified by God's Word, being kept by Christ, and being sent into the world. When we truly grasp that we are His and He is ours, we experience the fullness of His joy. This joy becomes most evident when we witness to others about Christ, not seeking spiritual experiences for their own sake, but focusing on Christ Himself. God's love stretched to its limits produces in us a joy that no one can take away.

Love on the Stretch

The Ministry of the Comforter

9th March 2025

The Holy Spirit's role as Comforter extends far beyond mere emotional soothing. The Greek word "Paraclete" gains rich meaning from its Old Testament Hebrew equivalent, describing God's comfort which includes forgiveness of sins, a fresh experience of God, and victory on our behalf. The Comforter convicts the world of sin (pointing us to Christ for cleansing), of righteousness (applying Christ's life through us), and of judgment (demonstrating that evil has been conquered). These three ministries represent God's love stretched out in its fullness—forgiving our past, transforming our present, and securing our future as we experience victory through Christ.

Love on the Stretch

The Father’s Dwelling Place

2nd March 2025

The Father's house isn't primarily about heaven but about the reciprocal relationship of rest. When Jesus said He goes to prepare a place for us, He was speaking of providing rest for our souls through His death and resurrection. This creates a two-way relationship where we find rest in God through faith in Christ, and God finds His rest in us. The same Greek word used for "rooms" in John 14:2 appears again in verse 23 when Jesus says He and the Father will "make their home" with believers. Our belonging to God's family means we enter His rest, and He dwells within us—a beautiful picture of God's love on the stretch.

Love on the Stretch

The Love of Servanthood

23rd February 2025

Jesus displayed the full extent of His love through servanthood when He washed His disciples' feet. This act depicted His supreme sacrifice of becoming a servant who would die for us. Like a bath that cleanses us completely at salvation, Christ offers ongoing washing for our fellowship with Him. His love on the stretch calls us to serve others in the same way, laying down our pride and embracing the menial tasks that demonstrate genuine love. When we follow Christ's example, church conflict would vanish as we put others before ourselves in genuine servanthood.

The Two Halves of Our Salvation

16th February 2025

Salvation encompasses more than just the forgiveness of sins through Christ's blood—it includes the transformative power of Christ living within the believer. While the blood of Jesus deals with our individual sins (plural), the indwelling Christ provides victory over the power of sin (singular) in our daily lives. Just as Peter could only walk on water by keeping his eyes on Jesus, believers can only overcome sin's power by completely surrendering to and relying on Christ's life within them, rather than attempting to live the Christian life through their own strength.

Famine for God’s Word

9th February 2025

There are seasons when God appears to be silent, even with His most faithful servants. These periods of divine quietness can draw us to trust Him and rely more fully on His previous promises as we await on Him to reveal Himself again to us. But a deeper problem arises from our end when we neglect listening to what He has already revealed; or when we neglect the Scriptures and rely on our own wisdom, when we distance ourselves from reliance on His word and become unaware that we are not hearing God as previously we might have done. This introduces a dreadful famine for the Word of the Lord. It leads to spiritual death. In such a famine for the word of God a desperate restlessness appears. We run around everywhere seeking for something new. We sense something wrong and missing in our lives. It is a desperate famine of needing to hear from God but being dull of hearing even if it were to come. We are not hearing even when He does speak. This condition is serious, as it indicates not God's temporary silence but our own spiritual deafness. When we find ourselves in such times, the solution is not to wander aimlessly seeking new voices, but to return to Him in humble obedience, ready to respond to when He connects with us again. Sometimes this means a humble address of the Scriptures seeking to grow closer to God as we wait on His mercy and renewed freshness.

Last Days: From Pentecost to Return

2nd February 2025

The term "Last Days" in Scripture has often been misunderstood as referring only to the final moments before Christ's return. However, the Bible teaches that the Last Days began at Pentecost and continue until Christ's Second Coming. This broader understanding carries significant implications for how we view both current times and the Gospel message itself. The Second Coming is not merely a motivational addendum to evangelism but rather forms an essential part of the Gospel proclamation, as Christ returns not only as Saviour but as Judge of all.

The Fullness of Christ

26th January 2025

The Lord Jesus Christ contains within Himself the complete fullness of God's deity in bodily form. When we receive Christ as Saviour, we receive all of God's grace and truth - not merely a portion. Just as God revealed Himself to Moses as full of steadfast love and faithfulness, these same divine attributes are perfectly expressed in Jesus. There is no need to seek additional spiritual experiences beyond Christ, for in Him dwells all the fullness of God. This foundational truth provides assurance of salvation and forms the basis for genuine Christian fellowship across denominational lines.