[0:00] Please consider meaning and MALE THE VIDEO Let us resume our public worship of God, singing from Psalm 19 from the beginning, and we'll sing six stanzas to verse 8.
[0:48] The heavens God's glory do declare, the skies his handworks preach, day utter speech to day, and night to night doth knowledge teach.
[1:00] There is no speech nor tongue to which their voice doth not extend. Their line is gone through all the earth, their words to the world's end.
[1:13] In them he set the sun atent, who bridegroom-like forthgoes, from his chamber as a strong man doth to run his race rejoice.
[1:25] From heaven's end is his going forth, circling to the end again, and there is nothing from his heat that hidden doth remain.
[1:37] God's law is perfect, and converts the soul in sin that lies. God's testimony is most sure, and makes the simple wise. The statutes of the Lord are right, and do rejoice the heart.
[1:52] The Lord's command is pure, and does light to the eyes in part. And so on. We shall sing these verses 1 to 8 to Psalm 19.
[2:05] The heavens God's glory do declare, the skies his handworks preach. The heavens God's glory do declare, the skies his handworks bring.
[2:29] Till the earth is finished today and night, the night of the night of the night.
[2:45] The night of the night of the night, there is no speech nor jam, to which their voice does not extend.
[3:04] Their light is gone through all the air, their words to the world's end.
[3:20] filled with the night of the night, From children as a strong man To witness, rejoice From him, say, this is So important to them again And there is nothing from his seed
[4:22] That it ends up repaying God's glory, perfect And God bless the soul In sin that time God's testimony Is for children And make the simple wise The stature of the Lord Aright unto rejoice The heart The Lord
[5:24] Commanded is let us join together in prayer let us pray O Lord our God as we come before you in this act of worship we give thanks that we are found at a throne of grace and that we are on mercy's ground we give thanks that we can call upon your name and that when we call you have promised to answer there are others who have gone beyond the experience of time into eternity and their prayers for sustenance and for relief will never be answered because they have entered into realms of darkness from which there is no return and the awful reality of that is before us and we dare not take it to heart despite the machinations of the evil one whatever instrumentality he uses to convince people otherwise we have your word and your word has set before us two paths and we are found in one or the other one leads to destruction and the other to life without end we give thanks for all who have discovered the reality of saving faith what it entails when they put their trust in Christ Jesus we give thanks for the way that your word speaks to him to us of him and reminds us the truth of all the truth as it is found in him he is himself the way the truth and the life he is the fulfillment the embodiment of truth he came from eternity into this world and he has taken his leave of this world to return to the right hand of the majesty on high he had the place of privilege just the begotten only begotten son of the father and now he has been restored to that fellowship which he longed to enjoy in its perfect fullness without intrusion by the sins of this world we give thanks that he was never prayed to these sins but he lived amongst sinners sinners and he vexed his soul if it is said of another even lord of old when he lodged in amongst sinners that they vexed his soul it must be true of the righteous lord of glory that being in the world and for a time being being being a companion to those who had sin in their lives was a a sore trial to him but we give thanks for his love for his compassion for his patience for the way that he was willing to teach
[9:26] and to encourage and to remind even those who were forgetful that he was there for them to go to as he reminds us the very same truth and he knows our frailty and he knows our shortcomings better than we know ourselves so we pray that this evening hour of worship that we would know your blessing blessing upon our service upon those who could join with us in it we acknowledge that we are at this present time in different different circumstances to the ones we would wish to have but may we be willing to to recline in your own love and to be content with the provision that you are making for us in the midst of of trial and testing we pray for this nation of ours as the effects of the pandemic are still being felt and upon these shores that allows us we are seeing impact of it in a way that we have been spared to the two we pray for all who have been affected by it in whatever way we pray for our hospital the members of staff there the patients that are within it and within the community we remember them all and pray for their healing and for their care to be exercised towards them that it may have a spiritual dimension for them that they would know that God is speaking to each one of us remember all the islands that make up our community from the bud to para and we ask Lord that you would remind us that your your loving kindness is overarching us that underneath of the everlasting arms as an eagle covers her cheeks with its wings so you cover your own people with that care that is exclusively ours as your people we are reading your word of the way the psalmist the way the psalmist looked at his own life and was able to speak of of the tender mercy of God was able to speak of the way that that your feathers shall be and your feathers shall be and your trust under his wings shall be his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler unto thee and we give thanks for those who can remember the words of the psalmist and who can think of these words of the one who is the the safe haven and the watch by night of his people we give thanks that you watch over us and that you care for us and that you
[12:46] I never slumbers nor sleeps the God who keeps Israel we remember all our cares and concerns and bring them to you and ask that having done that we would be unburdened so bless our homes, our families our loved ones at home and away from home young and old alike we pray for the infant child as we pray for the for the elderly and frail we remember those in their homes or in care homes we pray for those who nurse them and minister to their needs we remember all who govern us be it locally, nationally or internationally we pray for remedies to be found that would be suitable to the needs of the day we give thanks for the various experts who have devoted their energies and their attention to finding a suitable and a lasting remedy remedy for COVID-19 we pray that you would encourage such and especially amongst them any who would have an eye to your own glory we pray Lord that you would remember the nations of the earth especially these places that suffer because of poverty and want we know the strain that this virus has placed upon our own nation a nation that is wealthy many of the measurements of this world but spiritually impoverished we give thanks for the nations that may have little of this world's resources at their disposal and yet who have put their trust in the Lord and there are many far beyond number who are in that category
[14:51] Lord hear our prayers bless your word as we sing it as we read it as we meditate upon it by ourselves or with others bless the preached word as it goes out through the channels that you have ordained by which the word is heard may it find a place in our hearts and may we be given grace to utilize the teachings that are there for our good watch over us now continuing with us in Jesus name amen we're going to hear God's word as we have it in the new testament and we're reading from the book of acts chapter 13 and we can read from verse 13 verse 13 read down to verse 42 now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos they came to Pergat in Pemphylia and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem but when they departed from Pergat they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down and after reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them saying ye men and brethren if you have any word of exhortation for the people say on then Paul stood up and beckoning with his hands said men of Israel and ye that fear God give audience the God of this people of Israel chose their fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt and with a high arm brought him brought him out of it and about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness and when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan he divided their land to them by lucht and after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years until Samuel the prophet and after they desired a king and God gave them Saul the son of Kish a man of the tribe of Benjamin by the space of forty years and when he had removed him he raised up unto them David to be their king to whom also he gave testimony and said
[17:30] I have found the son of Jesse a man after mine own heart which shall fulfill my will all my will of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a saviour Jesus when John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel and as John fulfilled his course he said whom think ye that I am I am not he but behold there cometh one after me whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose men and brethren children of the stock of Abraham and whosoever among you feareth God to you is the word of this salvation sent for they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers because they knew him not not yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day they have fulfilled them in condemning him and though they found no cause of death in him yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain and when he had they had fulfilled all that was written of him they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher but God raised him from the dead and it was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem who are his witnesses unto the people and we declare unto you glad tidings how that the promises the promise which was made unto the fathers
[19:19] God hath fulfilled the same unto his children as his children as their children in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the second psalm the word my son this day have I begotten thee and as concerning that he raised him up from the dead now no more to return to corruption he said on this wise I will give you the sure measures of David wherefore he saith also in another psalm thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption for David after he had served his own generation by the will of God fell on sleep and was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption but he whom God raised again saw no corruption be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses beware therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets behold ye despisers and wonder and perish for I work a work in your days a work which you shall in no wise believe though a man declare it unto you and so on may the lord at his blessing to a reading of his word to his name be the praise like us to turn for a short while to this passage that we have read read and we can read again at verse 26 men and brethren children of the stock of Abraham and whosoever among you feareth God so to you is the word of his salvation sent and so on the passage that we are looking at contains a description of the apostle Paul's first missionary journey to the gentiles the new testament scholars give it the grand title of the beginning of world world evangelization
[21:52] Saul and Barnabas are set apart by the church as prompted by the Holy Spirit to go out with the message of the gospel we read in verses 2 to 4 the combined experience of God's calling as they ministered to the lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away so they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed unto Seleucia and from thence they sailed to Cyprus the Holy Ghost now we see there the spirit working in the spiritual leaders and in Saul and Barnabas at the same time and both parties responding positively as they go they meet positive encouragement and they also meet testing to that calling a satanic opposition such as is offered by Elemas the social it's interesting the way the spirit works he works in Paul in Saul and in Barnabas and he works in the leaders who are responsible for the church at the time and both and both are aware of the spirit leading them to direct
[23:43] Saul and Barnabas to go out with the word and sometimes the spirit and sometimes the spirit does work like that sometimes he works in an individual and sometimes he works in more than one but the same end is in view Saul or or his his friends his his friends his entourage although they are not all everybody's everybody's not convinced that Saul is the leader at this point they make their way to Perga and then Presidia Antioch where we find the first Pauline sermon on record so at least when they attend the synagogue there an invitation is given to any of their number to offer a word of exhortation and it is Paul who instantly responds and takes up the offer despite it being a Roman colony there are clearly numerous Jews there and we are reminded by various scholars familiar with the synagogue worship that the Sabbath service would have followed a regular pattern of scripture readings and prayers plus at some stage an exhortation possibly taken from the passages read or some personal word of encouragement or testimony various suggestions are made as to the actual what readings are or if they are following a prescribed liturgy for example then they would know beforehand what passage was to be read some of the divine some of the theologians suggest that from the words of the apostle that his mind was on
[25:51] Deuteronomy 1 and Isaiah 1 well we are not told with any degree of certainty what was the exact liturgy for the day but from what Paul says we may have hazard a guess he begins with a rehearsal of the past history of the Jewish people beginning with Egypt now I'd like to focus our thoughts on what Paul has to say and to him first we have a direct word as well as a distinct word secondly we have the word unrecognised and thirdly we have the word fulfilled three main thoughts a direct and a distinct word the word unrecognised and the word fulfilled what do I mean by a direct word well you can see that he is speaking to men and brethren a term that is in itself meant to draw the hearers to him it's a word of respect and identification it is added to appreciatively by calling them children of the stock of Abraham an honourable designation
[27:16] Abraham being the father of the faithful further intensified with the words whosoever among you feareth God God's chosen people belonged to this bloodstock they were chosen they were the elect of God and we must not forget that when Paul spoke to them he did not know if they would ever come to faith in Christ but he knew that they were singularly favoured by God as a race John Calvin reminds us of that he calls them children of Abraham that they may know that they be heirs of eternal life and that they were counted the first begotten in God's family of course Paul could not say anything as to the state of their heart but here he was addressing an audience in the place of worship appointed for the Jews who believed as a place to meet with God now when I speak to my congregation
[28:34] I can usually address them with the same affinity because of the gospel blessings we have shared we have all been under the gospel message and many of us share the sign and seal of the covenant of grace which is baptism we too can address you boldly in similar terms with this affinity and knowledge that under the gospel we have enjoyed shared blessings the second thing is that it is a distinct word he says to you is the word of salvation sent again to quote Calvin for clarity salvation was sent to them because they were first in order and Paul addresses especially the true worshippers of God for notwithstanding privileges of race and even spiritual exposure all was in vain unless the fear of
[29:41] God reigned in their hearts but the key thing here is this to you is the word of this salvation sent where we are recipients of the word of God that reminds us of our need for salvation it shows us where such salvation is to be found God has seen fit to identify us in this way in the simplest possible terms and what a privilege to hear about God's way of salvation in Christ Jesus as Donald S Faulkner states God's purpose of grace is sure God promised a redeemer a king and a saviour and he must come and this is Paul's doctrine in spite of our sin rebellion and unbelief God is faithful he has promised and he will be faithful to his promises the message of salvation as declared by
[30:49] John the Baptist and preached by Paul leaving no one in any doubt this is the lamb of God God himself assumed our nature in the gospel of John it is stated the world was made flesh and dwelt among us in order to be the saviour this world craves but when he came the same John states he came unto his own and his own received him not and that's the next thing that we have to think of that Paul highlights for they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers knew him not the world was not recognised for who he was many of the Jews did not see Jesus for who he was he was merely the carpenter from Nazareth this carpenter's son they rejected him they were waiting no doubt for the
[31:53] Messiah but they did not see the messianic traits that they had been taught many of them erroneously no doubt he stood before each of them he walked amongst them he spoke repeatedly to them yet they did not see him for whom he was now in many respects there are many today who are under the same same malaise in the teaching of the gospel Jesus Christ is faithfully and lovingly set before them yet they do not see him for what he is they want someone else a Christ of their own making perhaps that they will be able to love and respect because he will love and respect them as they are and they are wrong to think like that
[32:54] Christ will have all men and all women young and old come to him as they are and he will have them all that they are saved but not to remain as they are not to continue in their sin not to go on without experiencing the transforming power of the Holy Spirit upon heart and mind and will notice Paul says not only did they not recognize him they did not recognize him in his word they did not recognize the world made flesh they did not recognize his picture drawn by the Holy Spirit and committed to the written word listen first of all to how the writer to the Hebrews sees Christ God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his
[34:02] Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom he also made the worlds who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his passion and upholding all things by the word of his power now just for a moment notice this God spoke to the fathers by the prophets yet Paul says the voices the voices they have heard they have not recognized who it is they are speaking about we know the words of one such who said of the Lord Jesus Christ he has no form or comeliness he is without beauty so as to make him desirable despised and rejected this the prophet says will be what Messiah will be like and yet the penny doesn't drop the writer
[35:10] William J Larkin states the following the people's ignorance was not simply a lack of knowledge but a false understanding a false path to knowing and thinking that led them away from a relationship to God in Christ Jesus he goes on one of the great ironies of our sinful human existence is that religion can make us blind to the true way of salvation even years of studying the Bible can leave us without understanding of the liberation Christ desires to bring every Sabbath day the scriptures were read many of them specifically speaking about the kind of person the Messiah was going to be his birth his life yes even his death and resurrection are all there in the plainest of language yet the blind cannot see tell me do you see
[36:22] Christ in the scripture not only do you have a description of the hell deserving sinner we have in the clearest terms possible the description of the saviour of swords experienced the sinner so that all who trust in him will never encounter such an end as Paul preaches it seems almost impossible not to realize what he is saying the innocent one wrongly accused condemned to die on the cross by the hands of the Roman authorities not only can Paul say this is what happened it happened just as the scripture described hundreds of years before the time Jesus died as one who was accursed the tree was the instrument provided by God so that it would speak clearly as to what was being done many gospel writers speak of the deliberate use of language that demonstrates the purpose of the apostle
[37:33] Paul's reference to the cross as the tree implies the divine curse he writes Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written curse it is everyone that hangeth on a tree Paul not only speaks of a corrupt court and an unjust sentence of death he reminds us of death burial and resurrection all coincidentally prophesied in the scripture and yet they did not believe the truth concerning Christ there it was staring them in the face but they chose not to believe do do you believe these blind Jews to be foolish well the question for you is not do they believe or how many of them believed but do you believe perhaps there were some and doubtless there were who believed
[38:36] Paul's words if they did they would know the truth of the salvation of which he spoke when Paul preached he preached to those who weighed up what he said and some dismissed it out of hand and yet to others it was blessed and they saw the Christ of the gospel as God's provision for the salvation of sinners when you read the scripture when you hear the gospel when you see those who have the close in with faith to Christ Jesus do you see the embodiment of Christ in their lives or do you see something that you do not understand not just don't understand but do not want to understand or may God in his mercy bring you to the word that you may see the word who became flesh that you may see the Christ who became sin that the sinner might find salvation in him may the words of the scripture remind you of the great God who sees all before him as if it was one event may he bless to us these thoughts let us pray heavenly father you see us as we stand before you and you marvel at how blind we are when we see so little of the fullness of your grace be merciful to us and open our eyes that we marvel at the beauty of the saviour watch over each and every one of us continue with us cleanse from sin and now may grace mercy and peace from God
[40:35] Father Son and Holy Spirit be with you all now and always Amen