[0:00] Very good evening to you all, wherever you're watching from. It's my pleasure to welcome you to this short service, which is run by Stornoway Free Church.
[0:11] I trust wherever you are that together as we worship the Lord, that we'll know his blessing, that his spirit will apply his word to our hearts, whatever our relationship is with him tonight.
[0:22] May we truly know the spirit of God working in our souls. We're going to begin by reading from Scripture, and I've got two passages to read tonight. Firstly, from the Book of Psalms and Psalm 37.
[0:35] The Book of Psalms, Psalm 37, and I'm also going to read from Paul's letter to the Romans and chapter 5. Verses 1 to 11 in both of these passages, Psalm 37 and Romans 5.
[0:49] Fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
[1:02] Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord.
[1:14] Trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him.
[1:27] Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself, it tends only to evil, or the evildoer shall be cut off.
[1:43] But those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. In just a little while the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
[1:54] But the meek shall inherit the land, and delight themselves in abundant peace. If we turn to the New Testament of Romans 5, we'll read the first 11 verses of chapter 5.
[2:08] Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
[2:25] More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
[2:36] And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
[2:51] For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
[3:05] Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. But if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
[3:23] More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Amen, we pray once again God would be pleased to follow with his blessing these readings of his word.
[3:39] Let's now call upon the Lord in prayer. Let's join together in prayer. Almighty God, and our gracious Heavenly Father, we give thanks tonight as we approach you, and we have much cause to give thanks to you, because you daily load us with your benefits.
[4:01] And so we come to you, O Lord, with our thankfulness, as we give thanks for the many blessings that you pour upon us, the blessings that you have shown us throughout the course of our life.
[4:15] Lord, we come with our thankfulness in relation to the Gospel, that this is where we are found this evening, under the sound and teaching of the Gospel, under the invitations of the Gospel, under the warnings of the Gospel.
[4:28] We give thanks, Lord, for your word, for all that it contains for us and for our benefit, for you have taken account of our situation, as you came to have your word declared and then written, so that we have it in the form now in which we possess it in our Bibles.
[4:46] Lord, our God, we thank you for your goodness, your goodness which reaches far more than we can possibly imagine, your goodness that reaches us in every aspect of life, the goodness in which you have provided us with salvation.
[5:03] Lord, our God, we remember Moses long ago, who prayed to you that you would show him your glory. You were pleased to reply that you would make your goodness pass before him.
[5:17] As you manifested your goodness to him, so you declared yourself to be the Lord, the Lord gracious and merciful, the Lord showing kindness and pardoning sin.
[5:31] We give thanks for your mercy tonight, because we approach you on the ground of mercy. We have nothing of ourselves, Lord, to commend us to you. We know that we are sinners and we confess our sin, so we come without confession, along with our thanksgiving.
[5:48] Lord, we join our confession and our thanksgiving together, when we realise what we are and what we deserve, and yet what you offer to us and bring to us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[6:01] And we thank you especially for him. When we come to you, O Lord, at this time, as at all times, conscious that only in his name can we approach you in a way that is pleasing to you.
[6:13] For without faith you tell us in your word, we cannot please God. But we give thanks, Lord, for the opposite also to be true, that through faith in Jesus Christ, you are pleased with us.
[6:27] You are pleased to bless us with your righteousness. You are pleased to feed us with that spiritual nourishment that we find from your word. We give thanks tonight for fellowship with you.
[6:40] Lord, we are so amazed that you should bring us into fellowship with you. Yet we confess to, O Lord, that our amazement is far too small.
[6:54] We do not realise, Lord, as we should, what it is for God to stoop down and to touch the lives of sinners and to bring sinners into fellowship with himself through his Son, Jesus Christ.
[7:08] We give thanks, Lord, tonight too for the cleansing power of your Spirit and for the way in which we know you as God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, providing us with redemption, applying that redemption to us and securing it for us through Christ's death and resurrection.
[7:29] We come to, O Lord, with supplication. And as we come to, with supplication, we remember others beside ourselves. And so we come also to you, Lord, with intercession, with intercession and prayer for others whom we know and some we don't know.
[7:46] We pray, O Lord, for those around us in our community, we pray for friends and for family, for neighbours. We pray that we may be honest and clear in our life as it is seen by them.
[8:01] And, Lord, we pray that you would help us daily to show forth the praises of the God who calls his people out of darkness into his marvellous light. We ask, too, O Lord, as we pray for our communities that you'd bless our nation at this time, all the communities of our land, we ask that you would deliver us, O Lord, from strife, from hatred, from prejudice, whether it be racial or whatever other kind.
[8:31] We ask that you would bring us, O Lord, to live out the qualities, the values, the principles of your word of truth. forgive us, O Lord, we pray for our people. We ask that you would bring the power of the gospel to bear upon them.
[8:46] We pray that you would deliver people from that selfishness that we have, all of us by nature.
[9:06] We pray that you would deliver us, O Lord, bring us, we pray, to live for you, to live in such a way that would lay aside everything that would be other than to love our neighbour, us ourselves.
[9:17] We pray that you would bless our police. O Lord, we know that at all times they are open to attack, when they need to go into situations that are dangerous.
[9:29] But your providence has shown us, Lord, in these recent times, how much it is a danger for them to deal with situations that develop in our communities.
[9:41] Remember, we pray, the situations in which we find in recent days, tension and hatred, death and violence.
[9:52] We pray that you would grant your blessing, O Lord, to them. We ask that you would be pleased to bless all who would seek to maintain a proper spirit of law and order and righteousness and truth and integrity amongst our police and judiciary.
[10:12] Lord, protect them, we pray. Help us as we remember them before you. Help us to remember, too, those, O Lord, who are assistance to them in the courts of the land and who seek to administer justice.
[10:30] We pray that you would maintain that in our midst, O Lord, in such a way as will be pleasing to you. We will meet with the qualities of your word that you expect and indeed demand of us.
[10:42] We pray that you would raise us up, O Lord, as a people who will value your truth. We will come to exalt your truth. We will come to commend your truth to each other.
[10:54] We pray that you bless those who rule over us in Parliament, both here in our own nation and elsewhere in the world, where world leaders at this time are so caught up in difficulties with the virus that has invaded all these lands.
[11:12] Lord, our God, you show us through this how vulnerable we are to things that are in many ways smaller than ourselves and yet have such influence and power and confel us and even bring us death.
[11:26] Be merciful to us, Lord, we pray, as we seek a way out. And we give thanks for the measure of improvement and advancement in our own land, that there is a decrease in the number of those who are suffering from the virus, especially a decrease in the number of deaths.
[11:45] Lord, we give thanks for this. We give thanks because in your mercy you have heard those who have cried out to you. We do pray, O Lord, that you would continue to bless us further.
[11:57] Bless us, we pray, in these communities locally that we belong to. We thank you for your protective care of us. We pray that you continue to provide for us. Bless now, we pray, those who are in vulnerable positions tonight, those for whom this COVID-19 outbreak and the lockdown has added so much to their situation of tension and concern and anxiety.
[12:24] We ask for those with mental health issues. We pray that you bless also those who struggle with addictions of various kinds. We pray that you bless all who are seeking to help them.
[12:37] And we ask, O Lord, that by your own truth and by your power, you would deliver those who are presently struggling in these ways. Bring them, we pray, into the liberty of the gospel.
[12:50] Bless also your own people because we know that we are not out with proneness to suffer in these ways. We ask, gracious one, that your mercy and grace would go before us each and every day of our lives.
[13:07] Bless our children. We thank you again for them. We pray that you bless them, Lord, as they hear the things of your word being explained to them by parents and grandparents and in Sunday school and church services.
[13:21] Remember them, Lord, we pray. Shield them from all the evil that is in the world. Grant that you would give them to be directed by your spirit. Help them to remember your word and to remember to apply it and to own it for themselves and to realise, Lord, for themselves in their young days that this truth is for them even now.
[13:45] Go before us now, we pray. Hear us in our prayer and all our desire. We pray it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Well, children, tonight we're looking at another of the birds of the Bible and tonight we're looking at the ostrich.
[14:02] The ostrich is mentioned a number of places, particularly tonight I'm going to read from the book of Job, just before the book of Psalms in the Bible, because in the book of Job, we find the ostrich mentioned in chapter 39 and from verse 13.
[14:20] The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the pinions and plumage of love? For she leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them.
[14:40] It seems there that, and indeed it appears when the ostrich digs a nest in the ground for her eggs and then just covers them up with some earth or dust or sand, but she doesn't really care about them.
[14:53] And that, of course, is not the case. Job is just looking at that as what appears to be the case. An ostrich, the ostrich, is the biggest bird in the world.
[15:05] So big and so heavy, it can't fly. An ostrich can grow, an adult ostrich grows to two and a half metres, which is about eight feet tall.
[15:16] And that's massive. That's about a metre taller than I am here tonight. And it's also the heaviest bird. You'd expect that because it's the biggest bird. An ostrich can actually grow to a weight of around 140 or 145 kilograms.
[15:34] That's around about 320 pounds. So it's a big, big bird. It's much bigger than any of us. It has long, muscular legs, and although it can't fly, it can run as fast as 70 kilometres an hour, about 43, 45 miles an hour.
[15:56] That's really fast. A huge bird, these huge, muscular legs, and it can go at that speed. And it can travel in one stride, one big step, from about three to five metres.
[16:09] That's about the width of this room that I'm in just now, just in one step when it's running. And it can also defend itself if it's attacked, or if a predator tries to attack its chicks, it actually very easily can deal a death blow to them because it has these long, muscular legs, and it kicks out with them.
[16:34] It's got about four-inch or ten centimetre long talons, like big nails on each of these feet, and it can really do serious harm if it kicks out with those huge feet, with those huge legs.
[16:50] Now, despite the fact that sometimes we hear that an ostrich buries its head in the sand when it's threatened, when it's afraid of something, that actually isn't really true. What does happen is that the ostrich sometimes, and they can do this when it's protecting its chicks as well, it just flops itself out on the ground, and because the feathers are a certain colour, it appears from a distance as if the head of that bird is actually stuck in the ground.
[17:17] But there are three things about the ostrich I want you to remember. These are just interesting facts. I've just looked them up over the last few days about the ostrich. You can find out others yourselves. Ostriches usually live together in groups, groups of about ten, not a dozen, and they have one nest for the group.
[17:38] Each female doesn't have a nest, or a pair doesn't have a nest for themselves. They have what's known as a communal nest, if you like, a nest for the whole group. And all the females in the group lay their eggs in this nest, and you can have an nest, an ostrich nest, can sometimes contain 50 or 60 eggs.
[17:59] And an ostrich egg, as you'd expect again, it's the largest egg in the world. About six inches long, also weighs about one and a half kilograms, three pounds.
[18:13] Now, how would you like to have that for your breakfast? That's a huge egg, isn't it? And that's the, you'd expect it from an ostrich. But the thing is, they live together in this way in groups, and that reminds us of how important it is for us to belong to the church.
[18:31] Because the group that the church is involves you as churches. And just like the ostriches actually help each other with the eggs, and laying the eggs, and looking after the young, and looking after the chicks, that's what it should be like in the church.
[18:45] That's what we're trying to be as the church of God. So that we, whatever our age, we actually work together for Jesus, and work together in making Jesus known in the world.
[19:01] Second thing is that an adult ostrich will really protect its young in such a way that will try and scare off any predators such as hyenas.
[19:13] Because it doesn't have a kind of nest that's high up in a tree or something, hyenas and other predators can easily dig up the eggs and even take the chicks as well.
[19:23] The chicks can actually run very fast. And one of the things that came up, the details that I saw was that even at a month old, an ostrich chick can go about 35 miles an hour, half the speed of an adult, but still pretty fast.
[19:38] But they're still very vulnerable. And an adult ostrich will very often, you see other birds doing this as well, try and distract a predator away from the young by pretending to be injured or by pretending even to flop over and be dead.
[19:55] And that's so important for us in the church as well, isn't it? Because we always try as far as we can to teach you as the children of the church to protect you and especially to commend you to God for his protection and the protection of his word.
[20:12] So, living together in a group, that's important. It reminds us of the church. Also defending its young, looking after them. That's what we're trying to do, looking after each other, teaching each other and also defending each other.
[20:26] And you often find groups of ostriches also amongst other animals such as giraffes, zebras, the other kind of animals you find in Africa where the ostrich lives.
[20:39] And that's a benefit to these other animals because the ostrich very often alerts these other animals when they're danger because it's got such a high head above the ground it can actually see quite far and it can probably spot animals like hyenas behind the bushes or whatever sneaking up and so it gives out an alarm call and that alerts the other animals.
[21:02] the animals around the ostrich group that there's danger there's something coming let's just beware and let's just defend ourselves.
[21:14] And you know that's the kind of thing that the church needs to be as well because we need to be telling the world excuse me be telling the world about Jesus about why we believe about why we love him about what God means to us it's not just to keep it to ourselves it's also for those around us that they will hear us and see us living the life that Christians have to live.
[21:42] So there's the ostrich you can find out and a lot of other things about the ostrich that are very interesting but I thought these three things would actually be important for us to remind ourselves of these three things spiritually the importance of being together in the church the importance of actually looking after one another in the church and the importance of telling others around the church of who Jesus who God is.
[22:09] Let's now say the Lord's Prayer again together. Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever.
[22:40] Amen. We pray that God will bless to us these thoughts on his work. I'd like to draw your minds this evening to the passage we're going to look at that's in Isaiah and it's in Isaiah chapter 26.
[22:58] Isaiah chapter 26 we began looking at the passage last week we looked at verses 1 and 2 last week so I'm going to read from the beginning down as far as verse 4.
[23:09] Isaiah 26 verse 3 and 4 trusts in you trust in you trust in the Lord forever for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.
[23:38] Verses 3 and 4 especially last week if you recall we looked at the city that's described in the first two verses and how this is a strong city and we saw that that's really to do with God's salvation that's what's pictured here by the city like Jerusalem but it's actually a picture for us or an illustration of the city of salvation if you like to call it that's what he is saying we have a strong city God sets up salvation as walls and burl works we saw how that was a cause for singing for happiness for celebration that this is a city that we belong to this salvation and we also saw the qualification for entrance the righteousness that's spoken of in verse 2 and now we're coming in verse 3 to a declaration and then verse 4 to an exhortation a declaration of secured peace not just secure peace but secured peace it's secure peace because it's secured by and in God so there's a declaration there of secured peace when he says you keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you because he trusts in you and then there's an invitation or an exhortation to come to know this or to come to enter into this secured peace for ourselves verse 4 trust in the Lord forever for the Lord God is an everlasting rock and just as you find in verse 3 that really follows on naturally from verses 1 and 2 here's the city that is salvation and then there's following on from that the secured peace for those who live and are citizens of that city and then the invitation follows on and it's based on the fact of who God is and what he's like he is an everlasting rock let's look at the declaration first of all the declaration of secured peace in verse 3 now he calls it perfect peace you keep him in perfect peace how is this perfect peace what is this perfect peace because you might actually be tonight saying well
[25:55] I don't have perfect peace I've never had perfect peace I know peace I know peace in a measure but he's talking here about perfect peace and if it means that the peace that I need to experience needs to be perfect in my experience of it does that mean I'm not a Christian does that mean that I'm still not really in a right relationship with God well that's not really what is talking about actually at all there is of course an experience of peace included but that's not primarily what's meant literally in Hebrew here you have you keep him in peace peace very often when you find in the Old Testament a word repeated like that it's repeated for emphasis it's repeated to actually bring out something special about this this peace and other things that are repeated in that way and what it means really is that this peace is the real deal it is the real peace that we need and it's first and foremost not about the peace that I experience or how I feel in my heart it's about the state that God brings me into it's about the relationship that he establishes with himself the state of peace if you like that relationship that bond of peace which he creates for us and has created in Jesus Christ and that's why he's able to say here that this peace is the real deal it's perfect peace it's true peace think of Romans we read just a minute ago
[27:37] Romans chapter 5 the beginning there therefore since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ now you see he's saying there before I think about experiencing peace I must realize that God has created peace for me the same as reconciliation reconciliation doesn't begin with your feeling of reconciliation with your experience of reconciliation as you enter into a relationship with God reconciliation begins in the death of Christ it begins in God's providing salvation for us through Christ's death and resurrection and what he's saying here in Romans 5 since we have been justified you see that's something that's already happened we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ before we ever come to believe and to trust in God God has created peace in Christ for us and the invitations of the gospel are invitations for us to enter into that peace think again the picture here of the city of salvation who has these blocks in its walls the salvation the elements of salvation the death of Christ the resurrection of Christ all of the things we mentioned last week and what he's now doing is telling us this is what
[29:01] God has created for us and the gospel is saying enter into this come and avail yourself of this come into an experience of the peace that God has already created and take it to yourself in other words it is true peace it is absolutely a hundred percent genuine true peace and that's not true of any other peace Isaiah chapter 48 and verse 22 speaks about the wicked people who live openly in defiance of God there is he says no peace to the wicked Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 14 where Jeremiah was plagued by these false prophets who kept misleading the people and talking about things that weren't actually true he says they have not healed properly the wound of my people because they're saying peace peace when there is no peace you imagine all the different varieties of teaching of ideologies of ideas of beliefs that you find throughout the world today and saying this is peace for you human beings if you come to follow this particular track you'll end up experiencing peace and God is saying this is my peace this is where you find the real deal this is where you find the true peace the peace that I have created through Jesus
[30:26] Christ my son the peace that has been created through the death of the cross remember Jesus himself in John 14 and this was him of course teaching the disciples just shortly before he went out to die the death of the cross teaching them what they would need to remember what they would need to take with them as they experienced this saviour this Jesus being crucified and dying he says my peace I am giving to you I leave with you not as the world gives do I give to you let not your hearts be troubled neither be afraid what is he saying he's saying the world out there is full of offers of peace the world out there will give you all kinds of ideas of what peace is but they will not meet the needs of your heart they will not be the real deal they will not be the peace that brings you into friendship with God or that involves friendship with God this is the peace which Isaiah here speaks and prophesies you keep him in perfect peace this true peace this total peace is also an aspect of what it means it doesn't just mean it's the true peace the true peace the peace it means it is total peace there is no element of the meaning of the word peace as God understands it there is no element missing from the peace that he has created for us you can take this peace that you have in
[32:08] Christ and you can be absolutely assured there is nothing missing from it there is nothing lacking in it it is total peace just as it is true peace has been secured by Jesus and in fact Isaiah Isaiah is often known as the evangelical prophet because his prophecy is so full of references and prophecies about Jesus let me just remind you of what it says in chapter 9 when you go to chapter 9 a prophecy about the coming of this leader this king unto us he says a child is born to us a son is given words we associate often with the Christmas time the Christmas event birth of Christ for to us a child is born to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father prince of peace of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end then you go to chapter another instance of that is chapter 32 verse 17 where you find again the prophet referring to this piece in a wonderful way chapter 32 verse 17 and this is a chapter beginning of course behold a king will reign in righteousness and he talks then about the refuge the wonderful security that's provided through the king this Jesus that is to come and then he says verse 17 the effect the effect of righteousness will be peace and the result of righteousness quietness and trust forever my people will abide in a peaceful habitation see what he's saying there it's all about this wonderful condition this state of peace that God creates and has created in Christ and of course you know very well yourselves the wonderful passage in Isaiah 53 that is so incredibly detailed about the sufferings of Jesus and one of the references there in verse 5 the chastisement of our peace was upon him the chastisement that brought us peace was upon him the chastisement that created peace the suffering that created peace is what you find in the sufferings of Jesus so it's that peace it's that true peace it's that total peace it's that state of peace that God has created for us in Christ and he's saying now that you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you how do you come to partake of this peace this state of peace this wonderful relationship of peace with God well of course it reminds us that we don't keep ourselves in that peace we don't create it for ourselves it's saying you keep him in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed upon you our security is not in our own trusting not in the quality of our own trusting or anything at all to do with our trusting in terms of faith or leaning upon God it's not in faith itself that you find this trusting it's not faith itself that forms the foundation of this perfect peace not even great faith because the verse really emphasizes you keep him in perfect peace and then at the end of the verse because he trusts in you
[36:03] I want to try and bring out the way that the emphasis is upon the word you at the beginning but also the words in you at the end of the verse something like this you keep him in perfect peace because it is in you that he trusts there's the emphasis there is no security there is no peace there is no life without our trusting in God he invites us to trust in him he creates trust in our hearts but our security is not in our trusting in itself but in the God we trust in the God who is foundational and upon whom we lean in trusting you know it's with a ship at sea when it casts out the anchor however strong the chain or the rope is that ties it to the anchor however secure the way of joining it to the anchor is what really makes it secure is the ground that the anchor actually comes to grip because without that the ship is going to drag the anchor the ship is going to actually not know the security the stability that a secured anchor will bring that's how it is for faith as well if you think of faith as the chain or the rope that binds you to God if you think of the anchor as being your act of faith if you like that you cast yourself upon God but that's not what gives you the security is the ground it's what the anchor actually comes to hold on to it's Jesus it's God himself it's that wonderful security that you have in him and that's what he's saying here the keeper of his people
[37:54] God himself you keep him in this total peace in this true peace because it is in you that he trusts and then he describes those who are kept who are these people who come to know of this relationship with God in which there is this security well he says those whose mind is stayed upon you and who trusts in you he says here they those whose mind is stayed upon you by mind here he means we would probably nowadays call it mindset or a frame of mind it's the kind of idea where your own frame of mind how you think the way that you actually see things and judge things and come to conclusions about things well he says that mindset and then he says is stayed upon you and the best way of think of understanding that is to the one whose mindset is supported upon you it's not the mind so much in itself as that on which again it leans
[39:09] I think you've got a passage in Proverbs which is very helpful in this regard as well it's very similar to what it says Proverbs chapter 3 you remember in verse 5 trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths be not wise in your own eyes fear the Lord and turn away from evil trust in the Lord do not lean on your own understanding don't let your mind be governed by your own opinions don't let it be governed by the opinions of the world by the offers of peace that you find out with the gospel out with God because what he's saying is you will keep him in this perfect peace this total peace this true peace the person whose mind is supported upon you he leans upon you he relies upon you he comes to have all his weight taken up by you
[40:19] God so there's a declaration of secured peace human beings cannot avoid looking for peace we need peace our souls crave peace even though we live in such a disturbed world even though sometimes we create difficulties for ourselves relationships that get mixed up and broken and need to be mended renewed all sorts of ways in which peace eludes us here is God saying to you and to me tonight whatever your situation is whatever your circumstances are whatever age you're at however it is in your life whatever you're struggling with here is peace here is peace that is true peace and total peace and lasting peace
[41:22] God is saying I've created this for you it's part of this secure city this wonderful salvation and this is the benefit we have when God has secured that for us it is in Christ peace then there's the exhortation in verse 4 trust in the Lord forever for the Lord God is an everlasting rock a declaration of secured peace followed by this exhortation to enter into this peace trust in the Lord forever whether he's talking to those around him in Judah at the time and there were many people of course in Judah that had abandoned the Lord gone after the idols of the Canaanites and so on or maybe this is just a representation of God's people speaking out to the world around them in any case what is really important is that one of the things that's important is that and it's a wonderful point in itself that knowing the truth whether it's about peace or whether anything else to do with
[42:27] God's truth knowing the truth makes you as a person concerned that others will come to know it too it makes you an evangelist even if you don't go into other parts of the world you've got your own community around you you've got your family and when you come to know the truth this is actually what you do isn't it this is what your life is reflecting but this also is what our lips must be saying trust in the Lord forever you see this word trusting here what is the meaning of trust what does it mean to trust in the Lord in a word it means that you renounce your self confidence the very thing that's at the heart of our sinful being this self confidence this self reliance this self opinion this self righteousness everything to do with this horrible self which God teaches us is part of our fallen nature
[43:29] God is saying trusting in me means you renounce that you surrender to me you surrender to my better judgment my will to my son to my provision to my salvation you leave your own self behind now of course that's still not perfect in any of us but that's what trusting in the Lord and it's the word Lord that's used here and that word is the covenant name of God and when you think of the covenant name of God this word Lord it brings to mind immediately the faithfulness of God and when he says you trust in the Lord forever well it means you're trusting in one who is faithful it's very similar to what you find in the New Testament as well Hebrews 10 verse 23 for example in terms of our confession of hope let us hold fast the confession about hope without wavering why what's the ground of it what gives us the confidence to do that because the one who is promised is faithful faithfulness of God and he's saying here trust in the
[44:45] Lord forever you'll be tempted as I am tempted many times to stop trusting in the Lord Kenny I referred to something very similar this morning from his passage in Isaiah and here is Isaiah saying trust in the Lord forever in other words don't ever give in to the temptation to stop trusting in the Lord don't ever think as Kenny said this morning that the Lord forgets his people in chapter 49 you can't do that you will not do that however much it seems like it to yourself however much others may actually try and persuade you that this is the case trust in the Lord forever rely upon his faithfulness every day because this truth is truth for every day these great truths are truths for every day of our lives we're filled at times with doubts concerns with anxieties I put a post up this week something that came up on my Facebook feed from I think six years ago that's a quotation from a Puritan
[46:01] William Gurnall this is how he wrote thousands of saints whose voyages were marked with doubts about whether God's grace was truly in them have crossed the gulf and safely landed in heaven sincere faith faith unfeigned puts a believer into the ark with Christ and shuts the door but it does not necessarily keep him from getting seasick in the ship that's a wonderful illustration you're safe in the ship or in the city of salvation you think about it as a ship sailing towards the haven of heaven you're safe in that ship God has secured you in that ship it doesn't mean you don't get seasick but the ship isn't tossed around and you don't have times when you're scared when you're struggling and that's where Gurnall's wonderful words are so important it doesn't necessarily keep you from getting seasick in the ship and one responds to that text as I put it up the other day went something like this how true this person said and in my experience he said
[47:19] I find that whenever it's like that whenever I'm seasick I fall to my knees literally seasick you very often go to your knees to be sick spiritually seasick troubled anxious tossed about go to your knees in prayer you come to the Lord for your security is you come into this knowledge of perfect peace and you say well even though I don't feel at peace I know that I have peace in Christ that my relationship with God is not altered by how I feel and so you come to know this trust in the Lord forever and you want that to continue for he says the Lord is an everlasting rock let me just finish with this for the Lord God is an everlasting rock he's saying this is really why we have to why we can trust in him forever and go on trusting in him for he is an everlasting rock you know if I asked you tonight if somebody asked me how would you define the meaning of rock of the word rock and you might say well let me just take you to let me stand you outside
[48:35] Edinburgh Castle and look at the huge rock on which that castle is situated and you might say to me there's a definition of rock for you because that castle is sitting on that rock and that rock is its foundation and therefore that's my definition of a rock you might be told but Isaiah is actually saying something more amazing than that he's saying you want me to define what a rock is what the meaning of rock is well here it is God that's the meaning of rock this is the essence of the meaning of the word rock all that is true about God he is a rock he is a everlasting rock he is the rock of our salvation so here is a declaration secured peace and an exhortation to enter this peace to trust in the Lord forever and not be tempted away from that you know by now that I really like the songs of
[49:49] Ellie Holcomb not just for musical quality but they're full of really rich teaching and before she began recording the album Red Sea Road her father who was actually producer of the album went for a regular appointment to the doctor and startlingly when he went for the checkup he was told that he had cancer Ellie said we were about to start recording and this blow happens to our family but her parents' response surprised and encouraged her this is what she said it was so strange because I remember my mum and dad had a lot of peace they were saying things like we're going to choose to praise God and at the end of the day no matter what happens healing is ahead whether it's this side of glory or the next we have this hope we have hope because of Jesus and she said that watching their peace and their trust in God allowed her to feel that sense of peace as well and she wrote the circumstances were not good and yet we sensed God's nearness and felt peace when it made no sense to feel that way it was a powerful season that marked new meaning and depth to Philippians 4 verses 45 rejoice in the Lord always I will say it again rejoice let your graciousness be known to everyone the Lord is near so drawing from that experience she wrote the first song in that album it's called find you here use your syllabus words it's not the news that any of us hope that we would hear it's not the road we would have chosen no the only thing that we can see is darkness up ahead but you're asking us to lay our worry down and sing a song instead and I didn't know
[51:52] I'd find you here in the middle of my deepest fear but you were drawing near you were overwhelming me with peace so I lift my voice and sing you're going to carry us through everything you were drawing near you're overwhelming all my fears with peace you say that I should come to you with everything I need you're asking me to thank you even when the pain is deep you promise that you'll come and meet us on the road ahead and no matter what the fear says you give me a reason to be glad you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon you because it is in you he trusts trust in the Lord forever for the Lord God is an everlasting rock Lord our
[52:54] God we give thanks for the assurance you give us that you are indeed a rock at all times one on whom we can depend in all circumstances we pray that you would nourish us through your word so that our confidence may grow so that we may not be afraid of whatever things may lie in our way whatever things may happen even in our relationship with others we pray tonight that you would fill us with your peace with that experience of peace based upon the peace that you have created in your salvation we ask that you bless us now throughout the remainder of this week ahead hear us we pray now forgive us our sins for Jesus sake Amen our concluding praise tonight is from Psalm 62 in Sing Psalms Psalm 62 in Sing Psalms and that's on page 157 my soul finds rest in God alone from him comes my salvation sure my safety fortress sheltering rock in him alone
[54:06] I am secure Psalm 62 at verse 1 singing to a tune Marelle my soul finds rest in God alone from him comes my salvation sure my safety fortress sheltering rock in him alone I am secure how long will you assault a man do you all seek to lay him low this leaning walk this clustering fence and bring about his overthrow they plan his fall from his high place they take delight in spreading lies with false and fighting must be blessed but in their hearts curse and despise find rest my soul in
[55:52] God alone in him my hope is ever sure my safety fortress sheltering rock in name alone I am secure my honor and salvation rest on God my rock and mighty heart O people trust in him always to him alone pour out your heart now may the grace of the Lord
[56:53] Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you now and ever more amen thank you sincerely once again for joining in this service with us from Stornway Free Church this evening I pray that God will bless it to you and that he will keep you safe in these days to come thank you you and that love and thank you me