[0:00] Welcome to our service this evening and as we come together around the Word of God, let us seek his blessing upon his Word. Let us pray. Eternal and ever-blessed Lord, we give thanks unto thee for the privilege of coming together in fellowship one with another around thine own Word.
[0:28] And as we do so, we seek thine own blessing, that it would please thee, O Lord, to bless thy Word to us through thy Spirit, that thou would open our hearts to receive it, that it may be lodged in our hearts and bring forth evidence in our lives.
[0:49] And as we come before thee in this act of worship, we acknowledge thine own sovereignty over us, that thou art the one who ruleth in heaven and in earth, and that all things are in thine own hands.
[1:05] That thou knowest the way that we take, that there is nothing hidden from thee, that thou knowest the thoughts and the intents and the desires of our heart.
[1:18] And as we come before thee, O Lord, we come confessing our sins and giving thee thanks for the promise that thou hast given, that if we come and confess our sins, that thou art faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
[1:39] We give thanks that thou art faithfulness. We give thanks that thou art faithfulness. We give thanks that we can come tonight to our throne of grace, that we can seek thy mercy and thy grace to help us in our time of need, not because of any merit that belongs to us, but in and through the merits of thy Son, our Lord and our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
[2:03] That all our boldness and confidence is to be found in Christ, that all our boldness and confidence is to be found in him. And we give thanks for the salvation that he has worked out for sinners such as we are.
[2:18] We give thanks for the efficacy of his finished work, which is able to reconcile us to our God, so that we can have peace with God.
[2:30] We pray, O Lord, that as that ministry of reconciliation goes forth this night in the preaching of the Gospel, that it may go forth in the power and demonstration of thine own Holy Spirit.
[2:46] For we are dependent upon thy Spirit to take thy word and to apply it to the hearts of our people. We acknowledge that without thee that we can do nothing.
[3:01] And may it please thee, O Lord, to come in a day of thine own power and to bring days of revival into thy church, and days of awakening among those who are still dead in trespasses and in sin.
[3:17] May thou give to them the hearing ear so that they may hear the good sound of the Gospel, that they may come, O Lord, to know that joyful sound, that they would come to experience thy salvation and the joy of thy salvation.
[3:38] Bless our community. We pray thee, every home and every family in their own individual needs, that thou would meet with them out of the riches of thy grace.
[3:49] Bless those who are ill. May thy healing hand be upon them. And those who mourn, we pray that thine own comfort would be their portion.
[4:00] Remember the elderly, those who are confined to their homes and to care homes, those who are come to old age. We pray, O Lord, that thou would bless them, and that thou would come near to them, and that thou would meet with them at their point of need.
[4:19] We pray, O Lord, for those who take care of them, and ask that thy blessing would rest upon them. Remember our young people and our children, and seek, O Lord, that it may please thee to raise up a generation that could fear thy name.
[4:36] Remember thy people, O's whom thou hast redeemed for thyself, that we may be faithful witnesses for thee in this world. Remember the indifferent and the careless.
[4:49] O Lord, draw near to them, grant to them that they may see their great need, and that they may come to know the sufficiency of Christ to meet with that need.
[5:00] Bless the gospel throughout our islands and throughout our land, and to the ends of the earth. And we pray, O Lord, that where there is a war, that thou would bring peace, where there is confusion, that thou would bring order.
[5:18] O Lord, we pray that the gospel may prosper in all lands, and bless all thy servants who have gone forth with the gospel, that they may have the unction of thine own spirit upon them.
[5:31] We pray, O Lord, that thou would watch over us for the moments that we are here gathered this evening. We acknowledge that there are many things to fill up our minds and to distract our thoughts away from thy word.
[5:46] But we pray that our minds may be stayed upon thee, and that we may know thy peace. We pray, O Lord, that thou would continue with us, take care of us, and forgive us for all our sins, and all that we ask is in Jesus' name, and for his sake.
[6:04] Amen. We shall read the word of God as we find it in the gospel according to Mark and chapter 12. Mark's gospel and chapter 12.
[6:16] And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set and hedge about it, and digged a place for the wine-fat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.
[6:35] And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.
[6:46] And again he sent unto them another servant, and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. And again he sent another, and him they killed, and many others, beating some and killing some.
[7:03] Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, they will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the year.
[7:16] Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What shall therefore the Lord of the vineyard do?
[7:27] He will come, and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others. And have ye not read the scripture, The stone which the builders rejected, is become the head of the corner.
[7:40] This was the Lord's doing, and dismountless in our eyes. And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people, for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them.
[7:52] And they left him, and went their way. And they sent unto him certain of the Pharisees, and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they said unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man.
[8:07] For the regard is not a person of men, but teacheth the way of God and truth. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give?
[8:18] But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it, and he saith unto them, Whose is this image and subscription?
[8:30] And they said unto him, Caesar. And Jesus, and he said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar, and to God the things that are God's, and the marbled atom.
[8:43] And so on. May the Lord bless unto us the redeeming of that portion of his word, and seeking his blessing and help. Let us again turn to the beginning of the chapter.
[8:55] That's Mark's Gospel, chapter 12. And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.
[9:16] And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. And they caught him and beat him, and sent him away empty, and so on.
[9:31] Jesus has removed the merchants from the temple. And after leaving the temple, he went out of the city, and I think it would be right for us to assume that he returned to his favourite home at Bethany.
[9:48] The next morning, as they returned to the city, the disciples noticed that the fig tree, which on the previous day Jesus had cursed, had withered away. Symbolically, the fig tree represented the spiritual deadness of Israel, who was, while deeply religious, outwardly, with all the sacrifices and ceremonies, were spiritually barren because of their sins.
[10:14] By causing the fig tree to, whether and die, Jesus was pronouncing his coming judgment on Israel, and demonstrating his own power to carry it out.
[10:27] He taught them that although the temple was going to be destroyed, that their future without a temple does not bring an end to effective prayer.
[10:39] Jews regarded the temple as the place where prayer was particularly effective, but the temple is going to be destroyed. But what about prayer?
[10:52] Well, Jesus lays emphasis on faith and prayer. He says, have faith in God. We are to pray confidently, we are to pray expectantly, and we are to pray with a forgiving spirit.
[11:10] On reaching the city this day, he went back to the temple, and he was approached by the chief priests and scribes who questioned him about his authority regarding the events of the previous day.
[11:23] And Jesus answered them, I will also ask of you one question and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men?
[11:37] Answer me. The chief priests and the scribes are caught in a very awkward dilemma. And so we read that the reasoned with themselves, say, if we shall say from heaven, he will say, why then did you not believe him?
[11:52] But if we shall say of men, they feared the people, for all men counted John that he was a prophet indeed. And they answered and said unto Jesus, we cannot tell.
[12:04] And Jesus answering saith unto them, neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things. These people have been trying to trap Jesus, but now they themselves were trapped.
[12:19] While he was in the temple, he told them this parable that we have here for us in chapter 12. A certain man planted a vineyard and set a hedge about it and digged a place for the wine fad and built a tower and let it out to husband men and went into a far country.
[12:41] Now, we must be, always be, very careful when dealing with parables that we do not look or attempt to find a spiritual meaning in every detail.
[12:54] However, in this case, it is quite clear from scripture that the vineyard stands for the people of Israel. You may recall that on another occasion, Jesus spoke of a fig tree which was planted in a vineyard.
[13:12] So, the vineyard speaks of a place of special privileges. privileges and Israel was specifically privileged among all the nations of the earth.
[13:28] They had a special privilege. This is quite a familiar image of Israel for us from the Old Testament.
[13:41] In Psalm 80, the psalmist speaks of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt in this way. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt. Thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it.
[13:55] Thou preparest one before it and its cause it to take deep root and it filled the land. And when Israel came under attack, in the same psalm, we read, Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts, look down from heaven and behold and visit this vine and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted and the branch that thou madeest strong for thyself.
[14:21] This imagery of the vine being Israel, the vineyard being Israel, is not confined to the Psalms. You also find it in the prophets.
[14:32] For instance, in Jeremiah chapter 2, in a braid in Israel, we read, Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, holy a right seed. How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
[14:49] Ezekiel says in chapter 19, Thy mother is like a vine and thy blood planted by the waters. She was fruitful and full of branches by raising of many waters and she had strong rods for the scepters of them that bear rule and her stature was exalted above the thick branches and she appeared in her height with a multitude of her branches.
[15:12] But alas, he laments, that the vine had become withered and useless. But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit, her strong rods were broken and withered, the fire consumed them, and now she is planted in the wilderness in a dry and thirsty ground.
[15:37] In Isaiah chapter 5, we read, for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts, is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah has pleasant fruit. So that this imagery of the vineyard brings before us the people of Israel.
[15:55] This vineyard, as we already noted, it was a very privileged vineyard. we are told that there was a hedge about it, a place for the wine fat, and a tower was built.
[16:10] It had many, many privileges. And the vineyard was let out to husbandmen. Now, who are the husbandmen who are responsible to look after and take care of the vineyard?
[16:25] Well, the husbandmen are the spiritual leaders of Israel. the very chief priests and scribes that had questioned him on his authority.
[16:37] We are told, and at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. The servant is obviously the prophets whom God repeatedly sent to the people.
[16:56] In Jeremiah chapter 25 we read, and the Lord, hath sent unto you all his servants, the prophets, rising early and sending them. In the parable, what were the husbandmen response towards the servant that came?
[17:12] Well, we are told here, they caught him and beat him and sent him away empty. What was the response of Israel to the prophets, to men like Isaiah and Jeremiah and the rest of the prophets?
[17:29] who were sent to Israel to call the people to faith, telling them to bear good fruit and warning them that if they did not repent that they would perish.
[17:41] But all the prophets, what all the prophets received from Israel was rejection and ill treatment. Many of them came actually to a violent death.
[17:54] Zechariah was murdered in the precepts of the temple. John the Baptist was beheaded. And Stephen, before his own stoning to death, summarised it all for us in Acts chapter 7, verse 52, where we read, Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?
[18:15] And they have slain them, which showed before, of the coming of the just one. You see, the people did not give any heed to the message of the prophets.
[18:27] The Lord said of Israel, Because they have not heathened to my word, saith the Lord, whom I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, but ye would not hear, saith the Lord.
[18:43] You see, everyone who us the word of God and the preaching of the gospel are privileged people. It is a great privilege to have the word of God explained to us.
[18:59] It is a great privilege to be called upon to repent and to believe, to follow the Lord. But how do we respond to those privileges?
[19:12] We may not be accused in our land like Israel was of ill-treating those who bring the message to us. But do we listen or do we close our ears to the gospel?
[19:29] There are places in the world where the messages of the gospel are ill-treated and killed. In Proverbs chapter 1 we find the following words.
[19:41] I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded.
[19:58] But ye have set at not all my counsel and with none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh, when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
[20:18] Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would none of my counsel, that despised all my reproof.
[20:35] Now, these are very solemn words indeed. But what we find in the parable is that despite the people's ill treatment and beating of the first servant, what does the owner do?
[20:54] He sends another. And again he sent unto them another servant. And at him, they cast stones and wounded him in the head and sent him away, shamefully handled.
[21:09] And again he sent another. And him they killed. And man the other speaking some and killing some. What we have here is the long suffering of the owner.
[21:23] He sends servant after servant. And yet all he finds is total rejection. Now the Bible speaks to us of the long suffering of God towards those who continually reject him and the message that he gives through his servants.
[21:48] Paul writes in Romans chapter 2, despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds.
[22:20] Here, although the owner sent servant after servant, they were persecuted, killed, ill-treated, and the people rejected the servants.
[22:33] At last, the owner said, having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last, unto them, saying, they will reverence, my son.
[22:48] Such reaction reminds us of God's test upon Abraham when he said to him, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a bunt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of.
[23:08] This was to be the costliest of all sacrifices, to offer as a bunt offering, his only son, the son of promise.
[23:19] But Abraham was going to learn more about his promised seed, through whom all the earth was going to be blessed, as we saw this morning, that promise of the Messiah, that promise of the Saviour, that promise of Jesus Christ, which was given to Abraham, where Abraham saw the day of Christ, and he rejoiced, that there was going to be from him the seed through whom all the earth was going to be blessed.
[23:50] And here, in this test upon Abraham, when the Lord asked him to offer his beloved son as a bunt offering, he was going to learn more about his promised seed through whom all the earth was going to be blessed, as God told him to sacrifice his beloved son.
[24:10] son. In this incident with Abraham, God was telling him about himself. He was telling him about himself.
[24:20] He was telling him how he would sacrifice his beloved son, so that the whole earth would be blessed. As we noted this morning, no earthly father ever loved his son more than our heavenly father loved his son.
[24:40] Twice, as we noted, he expressed his love as the son began his public ministry after being baptized, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
[24:53] And there, just before the cross of Golgotha, there on the Mount of Transfiguration, the same voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
[25:05] Hear he him. God the father sends his son. The writer to the Hebrew reminds us of this.
[25:16] He says, God who had sundry times and in diver manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.
[25:38] God the father loved his son, and the son loved his father, and so the father sends him into the world.
[25:51] How did the people here respond? But those husbandmen said among themselves, this is the heir, come let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.
[26:06] And they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. The beloved son of the father in the parable speaks of, as we noted, of another beloved son of the father.
[26:19] When Jesus was giving them this parable, actually he was speaking about himself. Jesus knew exactly who he was, that he was the beloved son of the father, that he was the only beloved son of the father.
[26:38] And the people's response is recorded for us by John in the gospel, chapter 1, where he writes, he came unto his own, and his own received him not.
[26:52] He came to his own vineyard, and his own vineyard did not receive him. he came to a privileged people, and they did not receive him.
[27:04] Here we are told, and they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. This was exactly what they were going to do with Jesus in a truly short time.
[27:16] As Peter says to us in the book of Acts, ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you know yourselves.
[27:33] Him being delivered by the determined counsel, and for knowledge of God ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Here is Jesus, and he's telling them what the husbandmen did to the beloved son of the owner of the vineyard, that they cast him out, and that they killed him.
[27:55] And there he is relating to them what they are going to do to him as the beloved son of the father. The son was sent by the father on a mission, and so was Jesus, sent by the father on that mission.
[28:14] Jesus knew who he was, that he was the son of God, and that he was the last in the line of the prophets that was sent to Israel. he knew that he would be rejected and killed.
[28:29] In the previous chapter, when he cleared the temple of the merchants, we read, and the scribes and Pharisees heard it and saw how they might destroy him.
[28:40] And as we saw this morning, the father and son knew that his mission was to die at the hands of wicked men. What shall therefore the Lord of the vineyard do?
[28:57] He will come and destroy the husbandmen. You know, people do not like the way that God deals with sinners, but we can hardly argue with God on the basis of justice.
[29:15] Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, says that Jesus will return, and he says that he will return in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[29:34] Now I want you to take that to heart tonight. He will come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel.
[29:49] of our Lord Jesus. You may be here and say, well, no, we don't find anything wrong with taking vengeance on those that know not God. But listen, it also says that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[30:09] God's God's God's God's God's God's God's God's God's God's God's God's God's Son and His salvation, the rejection of the gospel, and the gospel command is serious.
[30:42] The writer to the Hebrews put it like this, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that hurt him?
[30:58] How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? You know, the thought there is there is no way of escape. There is no way of escape. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
[31:15] This salvation is the greatest work that God has ever done. It is greater than the work of creation. The work of redemption is far greater than the work of creation.
[31:32] It is the greatest work that God has ever done. He brought the universe, he brought the world into being by his word. God said let there be light and there was light.
[31:44] He brought the universe into being by his word. But salvation, redemption, was worked by God becoming Emmanuel, God with us.
[32:02] sharing our nature without sin, going to the cross of Golgotha to suffer and die for sin that was not his own, but ours.
[32:17] And what our sins deserve been reckoned to him. Salvation is a great work.
[32:28] It's a great work. God the Father had to lay upon him the curse and the damnation of sinners.
[32:39] Jesus in our nature had to undergo unspeakable agonies in his mind, in his body, and in his soul. Our sins were imputed and reckoned to him.
[32:51] He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. Christ has paid the debt that we owed to the justice of God because of our sin.
[33:06] What we could not do, the Father sent his Son to do it. The Son came on a mission, and that mission was to die in the room and the place of sinners.
[33:22] what creates salvation? How shall we escape if we neglect this salvation?
[33:40] Jesus says that he will give the vineyard unto others. He was telling the chief priests and scribes that the day was coming when they would no longer lead to the people of Israel.
[33:53] Others would come and work in the vineyard. The role of leadership would be given to the apostles of the church, and the gospel would go out to the Gentiles.
[34:07] He will give the vineyard unto others. Telling the chief priests and scribes the day is coming and you will not be the leaders of Israel, but the leadership will be given to the apostles.
[34:22] And the day shall come and the vineyard will no longer belong to you, but it will also belong to the Gentiles. They're going also to be a privileged people.
[34:35] And to confirm his saying, he quotes from Psalm 118. He says, Have you not read this scripture? The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.
[34:48] This was the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes. And the thing interesting here is that this was the very psalm that the multitudes sang from as he entered Jerusalem just a few days before that.
[35:06] Remember how we looked at that recently when he shouted Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. This is the very psalm that they were quoting.
[35:19] And now Jesus quotes from that very psalm and he says, Have you not read this scripture? The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.
[35:30] This was the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes. Now there is a story behind this verse which has come down by tradition over the years from the time of the building of Solomon's temple at Jerusalem.
[35:46] You won't find the story in the Bible, it has just come down by tradition. And it is that the stones for the temple were cut at a quarry and chiseled into the right shape some distance away from the temple and then they were transported to the temple site and there they were assembled, they would fit into place.
[36:11] But apparently one day the builders received a stone that did not fit. And the builders rejected that stone and they set it aside. Later on when they were ready to place the top stone, they looked for a stone and found that the stone that they had rejected was the proper fit for that purpose.
[36:33] The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. were ready to hear.
[36:43] The disciples must have heard this quote from Jesus because Peter uses it in the same way and with the same application.
[36:54] When he and John were put on trial before the Sanhedrin following the resurrection and ascension of Jesus as recorded for us in the book of Acts chapter 4 there we read Be it known unto you all and to the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified whom God raised from the dead even by him doth this man stand here before you whole that is when they healed the lay man at the temple.
[37:25] And then he quotes This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders which has become the head of the corner. He quotes the very words that Jesus quoted to the chief priests and to the scribes.
[37:42] Peter must have overheard Jesus quoting that and now he uses it in this situation where he stands trial before the Sanhedrin.
[37:54] Jesus of course knew that the words of this verse were fulfilled in him. He was a stone rejected by the builders. However that is not the end of the story. The Jewish leaders were trying to destroy him but the stone that they were rejecting would become the cornerstone.
[38:13] He would be rejected and killed but he would rise again and become the cornerstone of salvation. The chief priests and scribes sought to lay hold on him but feared the people for they knew that he had spoken this parable against them and they left him and went their way.
[38:37] Peter in his first epistle again in chapter 2 says wherefore also it is contained in the scripture behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded unto you therefore which believe he is precious but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed the same is made the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of fence even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient whereinto also they were appointed.
[39:17] Do you believe in Jesus or not? What is your response in God the Father sending his own beloved son to die at the cross of Golgotha as a substitute for sinners like me and you?
[39:35] What is your response to the message of the gospel? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
[39:51] For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.
[40:14] And what is the condemnation? That light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
[40:28] The beloved son, the only son of the father sent into the world and as we saw this morning not spared but delivered up by the father in order to work out salvation for sinners like me and you.
[40:47] in order to give life eternal life to sinners like me and you. In order to reconcile us to God.
[41:01] In order that we would have peace with God. In order that we would be brought into communion and fellowship with God. That that communion and fellowship that was broken by sin could be restored for us.
[41:17] He gave his son to the cross of Golgotha. Well maybe tonight you are like the chief priests and the scribes for they knew that Jesus spoke of them and they wanted him destroyed.
[41:37] Is the message of the gospel leaving you uncomfortable tonight. Maybe like the chief priests and scribes you wish that it would just all go away.
[41:51] That it would all vanish away. Well these people were a privileged people and we are a privileged people.
[42:06] What did they do with the privilege that was given to them? Well we see that they neglected it and they wasted it all away. And in a few years the temple would be destroyed.
[42:23] Jerusalem would be destroyed. Dear friend, I and you are a privileged people. But what are we doing with the privileges of the gospel?
[42:34] What are we doing with the fact that God the Father sent his son and delivered him up to the cross of Golgotha in order that a way of salvation, a way of life, access into communion and fellowship with God would be available for sinners like me and you?
[42:54] Well, are you neglecting it? Are you neglecting it? Are you despising it? Well they despised it. they wished that it was all gone.
[43:09] Yes, they wanted to destroy it. They wanted to destroy it. Oh my dear friend, to reject the gospel, not to obey the gospel is a serious matter.
[43:23] To neglect the salvation that God offers you tonight is a serious matter. may the Lord bless our thoughts.
[43:34] Let us pray. We pray, O Lord, that thou would impress upon us the seriousness that pertains to the neglect of the gospel message, the rejection of the gospel, which is a rejection of the way of salvation, which is a rejection of thy son, a rejection of the salvation, that he has worked out for sinners on the cross of Golgotha.
[44:07] Oh, what great love and mercy that thou did show to us when thou sent the son of thy bosom into this world, and when thou did not spare him, but delivered him up to the cross, when thou laid upon him what our sins deserved, so that we could have life, and yet to know those privileges, and to know that and to neglect it, what great sin that is.
[44:35] Oh, Lord, we pray that through thy Holy Spirit that thou would impress upon our people the seriousness of the neglect of the gospel message of Jesus Christ and him crucified.
[44:50] Pray, oh, Lord, that thou would bless each one of us in the coming days, that thou, Lord, would lead us and guide us and protect us, that thou, O Lord, would forgive us for all our sins and for all our shortcomings.
[45:07] And all that we ask is in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forever more.
[45:25] Amen. Amen. Amen.