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[0:00] welcome to you all to our service this morning special welcome to any who may be visiting with us as we come together to worship God we pray his blessing upon our time together under his word we shall begin singing to God's praise from Psalm 89 Psalm 89 and we're singing from verse 19 to the verse mark 25 Psalm 89 and verse 19 in vision to thy holy one thou saidst I help upon a strong one laid out of the folk I raised a chosen one even David I have found him out a servant unto me and with my holy oil my king anointed him to be with whom my hand shall established be mine arm shall make him strong on him the foe shall not exact nor son of mischief wrong

[1:13] I will beat down before his face all his malicious foes I will them greatly plague who do with hatred him oppose my mercy and my faithfulness with him yet still shall be and in my name his horn and power men shall exalted see his hand and power shall reach afar and set it in the sea and his right hand established shall in the river be and so on we can sing these verses from Psalm 89 verse 19 in vision to thy holy one and thou saidst i have held upon in this church in this church and holy one thou S Houston a

[2:18] And of the poor I raised the chosen one In David I have found In love does there And answer me And with my holy All my king All right, let it be To me With the my arm Shall salvage me My love shall make it strong

[3:21] All in the poor Shall all exile Your son of Israel I will be done In all his face All his marvelous wars I will never pray With the great good earth With the great gentle force My mercy on my faithfulness

[4:22] When the great good earth Shall be A day I gain His horn above And shall exalt his feet His hand His hand The great good earth Is upon I have said In the sea And his right hand And his salvation Shall make the river Free Let us join together in prayer

[5:26] Let us pray O Lord our God As we Call upon your name We give thanks That We can Understand That The God who is before us In this act of worship Is a God who is willing To receive from us Such as we Offer Offer Not Simply because We believe that there is Merit or Acceptability In us That Demands Attention Or a response But because we come Not in our own name But in the name of Another We come in the name of Jesus Christ The one Through whom we Have access To The heavenly Father The one

[6:27] By whom we Are able to Believe That you are a God Who is willing to Hear our petitions And answer them Even in excess Of our asking If What we enjoy In this world If the Blessings The benefits The gifts How do we Choose to Describe them If They depended Upon Our soliciting The blessing Of God If they depended Upon the Fervency Of our prayers If they depended Upon The Beating Upon the Doors Of heaven So that you Would open And pour Down upon Us These blessings We would Truly Be impoverished We would be

[7:28] Destitute We would be Without many If not all Of these things We Believe A rose Of right But you are a God of grace You are a God Of mercy You are a God Who is willing To bestow Upon the Children of Men More than They could Ever Believe Themselves Worthy Of receiving We pray That you would Remind us Of that Even Through the Pages of Your word We give Thanks That you Direct our Attention To these Words That are Wrote Large In scripture And that you Remind us Of who you Are and What we are In relation To you You are Creator God And we are The creatures That that God has Created We are Depended Upon you As another Has said Of old It is in You that We live And move And have Our being

[8:28] We acknowledge That That the Breath that We have Is here To Indicate Life And when Life Ceases So the Breath Ceases So your Word teaches Us That this Is how Life is And That we Are Beneficiaries And recipients Of life In this World But you Have bestowed Upon us Everlasting Life in Christ Jesus All who Have availed Themselves of That provision Are assured Of that That's their Rightful Possession Because Through Christ They are Made Righteous In your Eyes Through Christ They are Made The possessors Of life Without End And we Give thanks For the

[9:29] Way the Gospel Declares That to Us And encourages All to Avail Themselves Of that Provision That the Gospel Presents To us We We pray Your Blessing Upon Those Who Preach The Word Today Wherever Their Loft Is Cast Within The Congregations Of our Island Throughout Our Nation And Beyond The Boundaries Of Our Island Nation Into The Far Corners Of The World We Give Thanks For Those Who Seleously Proclaim Jesus Christ The Alone Saviour Of Sinners Those Who Do So Sometimes When Their Very Life Is In Jeopardy For Declaring That To Be The Truth For There Are Many Who Are Opposed To The Truth Of God And We Acknowledge That And We Pray For Protection To Be Given To Those Who Put Their Life At Risk In Speaking Of The Salvation

[10:29] That Is In Christ To Those Who Know Nothing Offered Remember This World In Which We Live That Is So Full Of Many Forms Of Calamitous Events Some To Do With Climate And That Is Much To The Attention Of The World At The Present As The Major Powers At Least Some Gather To Discuss The Future As Far As This World Is Concerned And The Way That Man Can In Some Way Influence The Future With Regard To What Is The Present And Clearly Willful Derire Of Duty And The Way That The The Very Environment Is Put In Jeopardy Because Of Of That Dereliction We Pray

[11:29] Lord For Your Own Sanctifying Influence Upon Deliberations And That Good May Come Offered But That You Would Remind Us That Even Though It Is Man That That Proposes That It Is God Who Disposes That You Are The One Who Saw Foot In Your Wisdom To Create This World And Though It Is Now A Fallen World And Man Manifestly Reveals The Fallenness Of Mankind In The Way That The Wickedness That Lies In Our Heart Is Laid Bare That The Day Will Come When You Will Call A Heart To These Proceedings And This World Will Come To An End You Have So Decreed You Have So Revealed However Many May Dispute That Your Word States

[12:30] Clearly That Although It Is Hidden From Our Eyes It Is In The Mind Of God As Clear As Night Is Separated From The Day We Pray For Your Blessing Upon These Things And Upon Your Word As It Goes Out Into All Kind Of Context Remember Our Community Here At This Time We Pray Your Blessing Upon The Grieving Amongst Us Thankful That We Can Commit Them Who Are Heart Sore To The God Of All Grace Who Is Mercy Fully Inclining Your Ear Towards Us We Give Thanks To Those Who Are Heavy Hearted Even Some Of Which May Know Nothing Of Your Grace That They Can Be Prayed For And They Can Be Remembered At Our Throne Of Grace We We Pray That You Would Bless Grieving

[13:31] And Disorrowful Whatever They Are Remember The Sick Amongst Us Remember Those Who Are Struggling With Various Forms Of Illness Of Many Descriptions Some Even Terminal Illness And We Remember That To You Those Who Are Confined To Their Homes Being Cared For Within Their Homes We Pray For Them And Those Who Care For Them Pray For Those In Hospital And Those Who Are Responsible For Nursing Them There And The Various Homes For The Elderly And The Hospice That Cares For The Terminal Ill We Give Thanks For The Many Privileges That We Enjoy That Ensures That When The Need Arises That We Can Trust To Those Who Are Equipped To Help The Suffering So We Pray For Them As An Additional Resource That You Have Given To Us You Encourage

[14:32] Us To Bear One Another's Burdens You Encourage Us To Bring Our Care To You God And To Acknowledge The Power That You Have As The Almighty We Pray That You Bless Our Time Together As A Congregation Bless Your Word As We Read It As We Sing It Remember The Children As They Go To Sunday School Bless What They Hear There To Their Souls Continue To Watch Over As Each One Cleanse From Sin In Jesus Name We Would Ask It All For For Giveness Of Sin In Him Amen We're Going To Read From The Scriptures Of The New Testament The Gospel Of Jesus Christ According To Luke Chapter 22 And We Can Read From Verse 7 And

[15:33] We Can Read Down To Verse 38 Luke Chapter 22 Taking Up The Reading At Verse 7 And Reading Down To Verse 38 Then Came The Day Of Unleavened Bread When The Passover Must Be Killed And Jesus Sent Peter And John Saying Go And Prepare Us The Passover That We May Eat And They Said Unto Him Where Wilt Thou That We Prepare He Said Unto Them And Behold And Behold And Behold When You Entered Into The Good Man Of The House The Master Sath Unto The Where Is The Guest Chamber Where I Shall Eat The Passover With My Disciples And He Shall Show You A Large Upper Room Furnished There Mithredi And They Went And Found As He Had Said Unto Them And

[16:33] They Made Ready The Passover And When The Hour Was Come He Sat Down And The Twelve Apostles With Him And He Said Unto Them With Desire I Have Desired To Eat This Passover With You Before I Suffer For I Say Unto You I Will Be Fulfilled In The Kingdom Of God And He Took The Cup And Gave Thanks And Said Take This And Divide It Among Yourselves For I Say Unto You I Will Not Drink Of The Fruit Of The Vine Until The Kingdom Of God Shall Come And He Took Bread And Gave Thanks And Break It And Gave Unto Them Saying This Is My Body Which Is Given For You Is Do In Remembrance Of Me Likewise Also The Cup After Supper Saying This Cup Is The New Testament In My Blood Which Is Shed For You But Behold The Hand Of Him That Betrayeth Me Is With Me On The Table And

[17:34] Truly The Son Of Man Goeth As It Was Determined But Woe Unto That Man By Whom He Is Betrayed And Those That Should Do This Thing And There Was Also A Strife Among Them Which Of Them Should Be Accounted The Greatest And He Said Unto Them The Kings Of The Gentiles Exercise Lordship Over Them And They That Exercise Authority Upon Them Are All Called Benefactors But He Shall Not Be So But He That Is Greatest Among You Let Him Be As The Younger And He That Is Chief As He That Doth Serve For Whether Is Greater He That Sitteth At Meat Or He That Serveth Is Not He That Sitteth At Meat But I Am Among You As He That Serveth Ye Are They Which Have Continued With Me In My Temptations And I Appoint You I Appoint Unto You A Kingdom As My Father

[18:34] Hath Appointed Unto Me That Ye May Eat And Drink At My Table In My Kingdom And Sit On Thrones Judging The Twelve Tribes Of Israel And The Lord Said Simon Simon Behold Satan Hath Desired To Have You That He May Sift You As Wheat But I Have Prayed For Thee That Thy Faith Fail Not And When You Are Converted Strengthen My Brethren And He Said Unto Him Lord I Am Ready To Go With Thee Both Into Prison And To Death And He Said I Tell Thee Peter The Cock Shall Not Crow This Day Before That Thou Shalt Thrice Deny That Thou Knows Me And He Said Unto Them When I Sent You Without Purse And Scrib And Shoes Lacked Ye Anything And They Said Nothing Then Said He Unto Them But Now He That Hath A Purse Let Him Take It And Likewise His Scrib And He That Hath No Sword Let Sell

[19:34] His Garment And Buy One For I Say Unto You That This That Is Written Must Yet Be Accomplished In Me And He Was Reckoned Among The Transgressors For The Things Concerning Me Have An End And They Said Lord Behold Here Are And So On May The Lord At His Blessing To Reading Of His Word And To His Name Praise Boys And Girls Before You Go Out To Sunday School This Morning I Believe That In Sunday School You Are Looking At Some Of The Parables And Today You Might Be Looking At The Parable Of The Sword Some Call That Parable The Parable Of The Soils Because In The Parable The Story That Jesus Tells Is A Picture Of The

[20:35] Kind Of Soil Into Which The Seed Falls That Is Sown And I Think I Often For Myself I Often Think About Jesus When He Was In The World We Not Really Told Much About What He Was Doing Some Of The Most Important Things Were Told About And Some Of The Most Important Things He Said Were Told About But He Was In The World For Many Years And Maybe Some Of The Things That He Did And Said Were Told Nothing About And I Often Thought That Much Of What He Said Especially When He Was Telling The Stories That Are Called Parables They Come From His Observation And Seeing Things In The World Around

[21:35] About Him For Example You You You Are Told About Jesus Sitting Beside The Sea Of Galilee And We Don't Have Pictures In Our Bibles Some Bibles We Have Pictures Of Jesus But They Are Not Really The Pictures In The Mind Of The Person Who Is An Artist Who Drew That Picture And Things About What Jesus May Have Looked Like But We Don't Really Have A Picture Of Jesus We Don't Have A Picture That Was Drawn When Jesus Was In The World Or A Photograph That Was Taken Because Obviously Photographs Weren't Around Then But In Our Mind's Eye We See A Picture Of Jesus And We See What He May Have Been Doing And How He May Have Been Sitting As He Saw The World Through His Eyes And That's Where Many Of The Stories Come From He Probably Was Sitting Beside The Road And He Saw

[22:35] A Farmer Going Out To Sow The Seed And What He Saw Became A Story And The Story Is Very Simple And Many Of The Best Stories Are Simple Stories He Saw The Seed Sown Falling In Different Places And He Imagined What It Would Be Like When That Seed Would Start To Grow And He Could See The Birds Eating Some Of The Seed Because The Seed Fell On Stony Ground Or Hard Ground So Hard Beaten Because People Are Walking By The Wayside He Saw It Fall On Stony Ground Where There Wasn't Much Soil And He Saw It Fall In Amongst Thorns And Then He Saw It Fall On Good Soil And The Picture Is Very Simple It Tells Us Of A True Image Of What Things are

[23:36] Like When a Farmer Goes Out To Sow But Jesus Made This Picture Come To Life In The Way That We Sometimes Hear God's Word Sometimes We Are So So Indifferent We Don't Really Care We Don't But We Don't Listen To The Minister We Don't Listen To The Teacher We Don't Listen To Moms And Dads If They Tell A Story From The Bible We Are Not Really Interested So When That Story From The Bible Is Told Us It's Just As If It's Falling On Ground That's Hard Sometimes We're Too Busy Or We've Got Other Things To Do The Picture You Can See In Your Mind This Is What Jesus Is Saying So You're Going To Hear All This I'm Sure Question For You Is

[24:36] What Am I Like What Kind Of Soil Am I Like What Am I Like When I Hear The Word Of God When I Hear The Bible When I Hear A Story From The Bible How Much Of Do I Listen To How Much Do I Take With Me How Much Of Do I Make Use Of In My Life How Much Of It Will I Carry With Me Forever And Some Of The Things I Heard When I Was Youth I Remember To This Day Some Of It Not A Lot Some Of The Teachers That I Have Had In School They Are No Longer In This World I Often Think Of Them But I Wonder How Much Did They Say To Me Did I Actually Listen To How Much Of It Did I Take With Me How Much Do I Remember I Hope That You Listen And Hear

[25:36] And Remember All The Good Things That You Told What We're Going To Sing As You Go Out To Sunday School From Psalm 85 Psalm 85 At Verse 6 That In Thee May Thy People Joy Will Thou Not Us Revive Show Us Thy Mercy Lord To Us Do Thy Salvation Give And Hear What God The Lord Will Speak To His Folk He'll Speak Peace And To His Saints But Let Them Not Return To Foolishness To Them That Fear Him Surely Near Is His Salvation That Glory In Our Land May Have Her Habitation Truth Met With Mercy Righteousness And Peace Kissed Mutually Truth Springs From Earth And Righteousness Looks Down From Heaven High Yea What Is Good The Lord Shall Give Our Land Shall Yield Increase Justice To Set Us In The Steps Shall

[26:36] Go Before His Face These Verses Verse 6 To The End Of The Psalm That In Thee May Thy Peaceful Joy Will Thou Not Us Revive That In Thee May Thy People Joy Will Thou Much Revive Show us Thy Mercy Lord To Thus To Thy Shall Wisdom Give I'll Hear What The Lord Will Speak To His Hope He Will Speak And

[27:37] To His Faith But Let Them Know Return Wish Will transformed whopping Get To They To 데� End yard Then Die greatly Still Their Their Cena Has In our crowned beheld, our arbitration.

[28:25] Truth met with worship, righteousness, And the righteous mutual aid, Whose pains coalesce the mountain of righteousness, Groves down from heaven high.

[28:58] If all is good the Lord shall give, Our God shall give in grace, Just as to set our sin is set, And the righteous shall go before his grace.

[29:37] We can turn now for a short time to the passage that we read from in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22. We can read again verse 37.

[29:55] Luke, chapter 22, verse 37. For I say unto you that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me.

[30:09] And he was reckoned among the transgressors, For the things concerning me have an end. He was reckoned among the transgressors.

[30:24] If you were to ask a Christian, What does the Bible mean to you?

[30:37] Then you would possibly hear many answers that are similar. You may hear answers that are different.

[30:54] All of us will have a personal opinion as to the place that the Bible has in our lives. There was a book written a number of years ago.

[31:08] And it's a book of testimonies, I suppose, of Christians, Where the question was asked them. Just that question.

[31:20] What does the Bible mean to you? And I looked at it and just referred to two answers that was given.

[31:32] And I was thinking, well, this is probably true of the answer I would give. There was a time when the Bible meant nothing to me.

[31:46] And had little influence on my life. Is that true of you? It certainly was true of me. Even though I was raised in a home where the Bible was readily available And we were encouraged to read it.

[32:02] But it wasn't an important book. We were taught to give it the place that was believed it ought to have.

[32:16] But this question goes on. Times have changed. The Bible has not. I have.

[32:28] Times have changed. The Bible has not. I have. And because he had changed. He was able to say, for me, the Bible is now the most important book in the world.

[32:47] That is a personal opinion of someone who was not a Christian in the sense of living a Christian life.

[32:58] But who became a Christian. Another quotation from the book concerns a Christian lady.

[33:11] I don't know when she became a Christian. I was told about her. I was told about her that she was a nurse. And that before she, leading up to her marriage, in her account, she was preparing to get married.

[33:31] And she was a nurse. And she was a nurse. And she was a nurse. And she was a nurse. And she went for an MRI scan. And through the scan, it was discovered that she had the beginnings of multiple sclerosis.

[33:46] Now, she was a Christian. And even though she was a Christian, it wasn't an easy thing for her to deal with as a Christian.

[33:59] But this was what she said. All we could do was pray and ask God for help from his word. What the Bible means to me can be answered in many ways.

[34:15] But one of the most precious is it is where I find God's promises. Where I find God's promises.

[34:28] The Bible is important for a whole host of different reasons. But most important to the Christian believer.

[34:41] Why do I begin our service today with these words? Well, I want us to think about the importance of the Bible.

[34:51] And I want us to think of its importance by simply recognizing and acknowledging the fact that the Bible is God's word.

[35:07] And it is identified as the word of God. And its importance is highlighted and underlined by the very fact that the person of whom this verse speaks that we're looking at today.

[35:23] The person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Shows us that this word was important to him. He acknowledges this word for what it is.

[35:41] But its importance to him is something that he not only helps us understand.

[35:51] But if we think about how it is spoken of by him, we understand something of why it should be important to us, I hope.

[36:04] Jesus spoke to the disciples at one point. And he said to them, and he said to others who were there at the same time, he said to them, Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life.

[36:21] And they are they which speak of me or testify of me. He encourages them to look to the word.

[36:37] And the reason why they are to look to the word, because this word, this Bible, this scripture speaks of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Some of you will remember a minister who was in the free church continuing in Stornoway for some years when he went to teach and preach in America, Reverend David Murray.

[37:03] He's quite a well-known conference speaker over in America, and he's written a number of books. But he speaks on this particular part, and he says, he's talking in, the topic of his book is really the scriptures speaking about Christ.

[37:24] The Old Testament being the word that opens out understanding to who Christ is and what Christ was going to do.

[37:37] And he refers to it to this point in the book. He speaks about Jesus. If you know the story, it's in this gospel.

[37:48] Jesus walking, following his resurrection, following his crucifixion and resurrection. He's walking on the road to Emmaus. And he comes into contact with two men who are on the road.

[38:04] And he speaks to them. And he discovers that they are very downcast and depressed. And he knows why they are so sad, but he wants them to explain their sadness to him.

[38:21] And they do that. They explain how Jesus has been crucified. And Jesus was supposed to be their saviour, their redeemer, the messiah who was waited for.

[38:34] And there he is. He's been crucified. He's been buried. So the conversation is recorded for us in the gospel of Luke. But this is what Murray says.

[38:46] This is Jesus' Emmaus road. Said what he says. The things concerning himself. He took a big text.

[38:58] Moses and all the prophets and all the scriptures. And it had two main points. His sufferings and his glory. In other words, the substance of what Jesus had to preach on was the whole of the Old Testament.

[39:19] And the emphasis fell upon this fact that it was all about him. Now, when you look at what Jesus is saying here, you think, well, this person, if he's talking about the Bible, and he's saying, the Bible is important because it speaks of me.

[39:41] Well, he's saying more than that because you could accuse him of being egocentric. You could accuse him of being somebody who's very much wanting attention to Paul upon himself.

[39:55] There's no lack of such people in the world. But Jesus is not just saying, it's important because it's talking about me.

[40:06] But when it talks about me, it explains who I am. It explains why I'm in the world. It explains what I'm going to do when I'm in the world.

[40:17] It explains everything about me. But he also says, the scriptures are telling me about me.

[40:30] The scriptures are telling me about myself. The scriptures are what I look to that is enhancing, I suppose, or describing to me and to others what is happening, why it's happening, and how it's happening in this particular way.

[40:52] So if you bear that in mind when we look at these words, very simply, we can look at four things. First of all, it is written, Jesus says. It is written.

[41:05] Secondly, it will be accomplished because it must be accomplished. Thirdly, it is the whole unvarnished truth. And fourthly, it must be accomplished because of the purpose for which it is purposed.

[41:26] There's a reason for it. What Jesus is doing, what Jesus is undergoing, what Jesus is encountering, what those people of which the scripture speaks are doing, these things must happen because there is an end.

[41:43] There is a purpose, a providence undergirding it, and so on. So the first thing, this that is written.

[41:58] Now clearly, when Jesus is speaking there about what is written, he is making reference to one thing in particular.

[42:10] He was reckoned among the transgressors. This that was written is identifying a passage from the Old Testament which is written, recorded, declared.

[42:29] He knows it, they know it, and it is written, he says. and it is written for a particular reason. He is quoting the prophet Isaiah.

[42:43] He is quoting this servant of God who is a forth teller. Not only is he prophesying, looking into the future, and declaring what the future will hold for everybody, but in particular for Jesus, and those upon whose life Jesus will impact.

[43:11] He spoke probably 600, 700 years before Jesus was born. The last book of the Old Testament was written 450 years before Jesus was born.

[43:23] And yet, when you go through the whole of this Old Testament, you'll find repeated references to the passion of Jesus, what he was going to be doing when he was in the world, and in particular, the focus comes to bear on the most important thing that he was going to do when he was in the world, which was the salvation of sinners, and the way he was going to do it.

[43:52] And in the context, Jesus, just to help us understand the importance of the scripture, and how fascinating a close study of the scripture is.

[44:09] In the passage here, not only is Jesus speaking about this verse that we have here that he identifies, and that he applies to himself, he speaks to others, and he says to them, this is what is going to be true of you.

[44:30] You know, it's one thing to think of Jesus, the prophet, which is what he was, he is prophet, priest, and king, and many times Jesus showed that he was able to see into a person's heart, and he was able to look into the future and describe what was going to take place long before it did, and you wouldn't expect anything less than that from the son of God.

[45:01] But interestingly here, at the same time as he is bringing this to our attention, that the scripture is speaking of him, just before that you see him speaking to the person of Judas Iscariot, and he tells Judas Iscariot, and he tells the disciples that there's one of these twelve that is going to betray him.

[45:29] Jesus knows that. Jesus knows exactly who it is. But not only does Jesus know it personally, not only can Jesus understand what he is seeing there on the basis of the Holy Spirit's guiding influence upon his own mind, he goes to the scripture, and he knows from the scripture, from the Bible, that the Bible had declared this fact long before it ever came to pass.

[46:09] The Bible had set out that there was going to be someone who was going to betray the Lord Jesus. in Psalm 14, 1, Yea, even mine own familiar friend, on whom I did rely, who ate my bread, even he whose heel against me lifted high.

[46:32] Some people say that had a context immediately when David composed it, but it had a prophetic application to the person who was in close proximity to Jesus all the days of his earthly ministry, and who was to betray him.

[46:54] The prophet Zechariah even more specifically refers to the actions of this person and the consequences that these actions will result in for him.

[47:08] so I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast it to the porter in the house of the Lord. All you have is the Old Testament reference.

[47:22] You may not understand that, but if you know the New Testament, you'll know what happened to Judas Iscariot. having betrayed the Lord, he was incapable of repentance.

[47:39] He was filled full of remorse. He went out and he tried to, well, he took his own life. And he wanted the silver that he got for betraying the Lord was used to purchase a land where his body was buried.

[48:00] Zechariah, 450 years before the event, declared that. That's the way scripture is. When we think of the next part of this passage, Peter, we are told, is someone who denies the Lord.

[48:20] I wonder if there was a scripture from the Old Testament that makes reference to that denial. Jesus predicts anyway the denial of Peter.

[48:35] And here he refers to the prophecy and applies it to himself. And many recognize it because when we read the Old Testament there are passages we are drawn to because they are so full of Christ.

[48:49] They are so full of who Christ was and what Christ came to do. And in the prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 53 we read these words, therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he has poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

[49:15] The words of the prophet. Jesus reads these words, remembers these words, applies these words to himself. These are the words that speak of me.

[49:29] Interestingly, if you go to Mark's Gospel and Mark's account of the crucifixion of Christ and he draws a picture for us of Christ being crucified between two thieves, he in the context of his description quotes these words of Isaiah and says, he was numbered amongst the transgressors.

[49:53] He identifies the position of Jesus crucified between two thieves as a fulfilment of this prophecy. But here Jesus applies it to himself.

[50:07] So not only does Jesus give peculiar weight to the scriptures by drawing attention to the significance of where it is written, but what is written there?

[50:19] And he identifies the scripture as something that he draws support and comfort from because he sees himself in the scripture. Maybe that sounds a bit strange to you.

[50:33] Because the author is God. Jesus is God. Surely he knows what the scripture is saying. But as the God-man, he is in the world and he looks to the word of God and he builds his life around the word of God and the word of God and what it says is all important to him.

[50:57] And he sees that that trajectory of his life as something that is going on towards the cross and he is saying, I see the word of God fulfilled as I progress because the word of God that I know and am familiar with is saying that.

[51:18] So the second thing is it will be accomplished because it must be. It must be accomplished. Not only does Jesus give way to the scripture by drawing attention to it, he says there are many ways that we must be familiar with this word because this word must is all important.

[51:41] I say unto you that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me. it must be accomplished in me. I think you could argue and say I am the only passion through whom these words are going to take place, where they are going to be fully realized.

[52:05] It must be true of me because this is why I am in the world. This is what I have come to do in my journey into this world. this is what I came to accomplish.

[52:22] It must because it is written in one sense because the Bible says nothing that the Bible tells us can be overlooked or trivialized, however mysterious it may seem to us.

[52:37] if you look at the Old Testament prophets, when they became prophets, those that they prophesied to, those that they ministered amongst, they probably had a superabundance of people claiming to be prophets or seers.

[53:00] but one test was supplied to them all that their prophecies would be fulfilled and another test was that their prophecies did not contradict what God's word already said.

[53:24] Jesus is telling the disciples before the cross what is going to happen to them and it's so difficult for them in their human condition and where that human condition seems to find the word of God, the scripture unacceptable, they do not want God's word to say what it's saying.

[53:54] Christ is telling them that he must die on the cross. Christ is telling them repeatedly that this is what awaits him and this is what he has come to do.

[54:07] Humanly speaking, that is not what they want to hear. And you find that humanity is something that tells us about the nature of faith, that if it is not really from God, if it is not genuinely strengthened and supported by God, it will fail, it will not prosper in the way it should.

[54:31] Jesus knows that the hour was fast approaching and for him that meant death, that meant going to the cross, that meant dying in the way that he was to die in the place of his people.

[54:47] And if it did not happen, and if it did not happen in the way that the scripture said it was going to happen, then it could not accomplish what he intended it to accomplish.

[55:02] One of the commentators, Leon Morris, says this, Jesus sees his death as one in which he will be one with sinners. This surely points to his death as substitutionary.

[55:16] Jesus will take the place of sinful people. Jesus knew why he was there and what he was going to do. And when you think about it, there are many people who will go to death and have gone to death bravely and fearlessly.

[55:36] But I don't think any one of them could go to the death that Jesus was going to with the same knowledge that he had. Because he knew from the scripture that the death that he was to die was the death of his own people.

[55:56] and the death that he was going to suffer as the surety of his people, settling their death and facing the judgment of God was such a death that no one in his right mind could go forward to that with the same fearlessness as he did.

[56:17] death. There are many mysteries in the word of God. I'm not saying that you'll be able to understand them all or that you'll be able to believe them all even.

[56:32] But if the word of God says it, no matter how difficult it may seem to us, no matter how unlikely it may seem to us, there must be a way in which the truth that that word contains can be believed.

[56:55] you know there's a verse there and I'll just refer to it talking about someone who was the high priest in Israel at the time of Jesus' death, a man called Caiaphas and he spoke to those who were Jesus' accusers and he says this, you know nothing at all.

[57:29] Nor can you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not.

[57:41] And this spoke he not of himself, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. Now this was not a friend of the Lord Jesus.

[57:58] This was not someone who believed in what Jesus was doing. But according to what the Bible is telling us there, because this person occupied a unique position officially within the scheme of the religion of that generation, a God-ordained position, I might add.

[58:25] Even though personally he did not believe in Jesus, even though personally he thought Jesus was his enemy and he himself was an enemy of Jesus, he could not but prophesy as the Spirit of God gave him utterance, allowed him to speak, something that he quite clearly did not believe himself.

[58:48] and what he spoke of was that this man, Jesus, in some way he didn't believe or want to believe, his death was going to mean the salvation of Israel.

[59:03] He was going to die because God meant for one man to die for all. The scripture brings before us truth in an unvarnished condition, sometimes.

[59:19] Sometimes we like things to be easy, to handle, simple truth that we can digest at our leisure, something that won't stick in our throat.

[59:32] That's something that was true of the disciples. They didn't like the idea of this man. They considered Messiah, like the two men who were on the road to Emmaus.

[59:44] How could they reconcile what they thought was going to be the purpose for Jesus and the future for the whole of Israel to what actually happened?

[59:58] How could they reconcile a dead saviour to the living salvation that they expected them to accomplish? The salvation that would be the salvation of a nation.

[60:11] salvation. But Jesus says that the word was going to be fulfilled in him. He was reckoned among the transgressors.

[60:23] He was reckoned among the transgressors. You read for yourself. I'm not going to keep you too much longer. Read for yourself Isaiah 53.

[60:34] Do it at your leisure. See if you can digest what the prophet is saying there. See if you can think of it as words that apply to anybody else more than they apply to the person of Jesus Christ.

[60:50] The prophet says he was the lamb of God who was come to take away the sin of the world. John the Baptist said the same truth. He was going to be offered pure and unblemished without sin and yet he was numbered amongst the transgressors.

[61:09] He made his soul the prophet says an offering for sin. He was numbered if we believe Mark and why not. He was alongside in the midst two thieves on the cross even though he himself had committed no sin let alone the sin that was worthy of death.

[61:30] But he was there as the surety of his people settling the debts of his people paying for their paying for our sin if you believe in him.

[61:43] His soul stood in stead of the soul of his people his body for their body. And Jesus knows that. For the things concerning me have an end.

[61:57] The last thing. Now I was looking at various commentators and they believed and they believe I suppose what Jesus is saying here this is talking about the end being near.

[62:14] The things concerning me have an end. In other words the end is in view. The cross is in view. My death is in view. This is the climax and I'm nearly there.

[62:27] My own understanding such as it isn't. Probably I could be wrong. that all of what Jesus is saying has a purpose.

[62:38] There is an end in the sense that this is the purpose that Christ was in the world to accomplish. He was there. The cross was something that was not something that had to be endured and forgotten about.

[62:57] That was the whole point of his coming into the world. That was the whole point of his life that at the end of it would be the cross and through the cross salvation would be for sinners.

[63:13] And that is the end of Christ as in view. That he would be numbered amongst the transgressors for no other reason.

[63:25] Whatever people thought of him, whatever people felt about him and many people thought you go to the cross read the words of the accounts that we have in the gospel and there are many there and they're glad he's there.

[63:42] They surround the cross and they're shaking their heads and they're saying well what kind of person deserves such misery. But they agreed with it. They were blind to the real reason for his being there but Jesus was not.

[63:58] He knew why he had to die. He knew why his death was important because through his death life would be the possession of those who otherwise would experience death and that without end.

[64:15] May God create in your heart a desire to study the word of God to think about the word of God.

[64:27] To try and understand the relationship there is between the Old Testament and the New and how we are to use that word to encourage us in our faith if we have it or to bring us to faith if we have not because of the place that it had in the life of Christ.

[64:47] Not just a word that spoke about him but a word that spoke to him just as surely as it speaks to you if you believe this word to be his.

[64:58] Let us pray. Lord we pray that you would bring your word to bear upon our hearts and upon our minds in a way that we would understand that you are speaking to us through it.

[65:12] Bless us together pardoning our sins in Jesus name. Amen. we're going to conclude singing the words of psalm 118 psalm 118 verse 17 I shall not die but live and shall the works of God discover the Lord hath me chastised sword but not to death given over or set ye open unto me the gates of righteousness then will I enter into them and I the Lord will bless this is the gate of God by it the just shall enter in thee will I praise for thou me heard and hast my safety been that stone is made head cornerstone which builders did despise this is the doing of the Lord and wondrous in our eyes and so on these verses verse 17 of psalm 118

[66:18] I shall not die but live and shall the works of God discover I shall not die but live and shall the works of God discover the Lord of the just I say so not to death in O land O send ye all glad unto me the gates of righteousness then when I enter into this land thy the

[67:18] Lord will bless this is the gate of God high the just shall enter in here when I praise for the the holy earth stand as my shield he that storm is made that on the storm which bill is in his fight this is the name of the Lord and one rest in our eyes the name of the

[68:27]  Father the Son and the Holy Spirit rest and abide with you all and always Amen