[0:00] Now we're going to begin worship singing in Psalm 108, that's on page 146, and the tune is Stuttgart, singing verses 1 to 7.
[0:18] We'll sing to the double verse 7, down to I will measure with my hand. O Lord God, my heart is steadfast, and with all my soul I'll sing. Harp and lyre I will awaken, and my song the dawn will bring.
[0:34] These verses to the end of verse 7, and if you can stand, please stand to sing. O Lord God, my heart is steadfast, and with all my soul I'll sing.
[0:54] Harp and lyre I will awaken, and my song the dawn will bring.
[1:07] Lord my heart among the nations, I will ever give you praise.
[1:20] In the midst of all the peoples, I will sing of you always.
[1:34] Lord, whose steadfast love is one less, greater than the heavens high.
[1:47] But your faithfulness towards us reaches even to the sky.
[2:01] God, my heart of the highest heavens, be exalted, O my God.
[2:14] And through all the earth, the earth, let your glory tread abroad.
[2:27] God, my heart of the highest heavens, be exalted, O my God.
[2:57] I will distribute in triumph, every part of Chicken's land.
[3:08] And the whole of Sacrothed Valley, I will measure with my hand.
[3:21] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Now let's pray together. We're praying especially for the young ones, for the tweenies, and for the Sunday school particularly.
[3:31] Lord, our God, we thank you for these reminders and your word that we are here to glorify your name, to sing praises to you, to call upon your name, to read your word, and to hear its meaning.
[3:47] Amen. We thank you today, O Lord, that we have this privilege, this opportunity given to us once again. Amen. Amen. We thank you for the freedom that we have to gather here to worship you together this morning.
[3:59] Amen. Amen. Bless us, we pray, each one of us. Amen. Bless us together as a congregation. Amen. We pray today for our young ones. We ask, Lord, that you would bless them. Bless them as they receive the teaching of your word from week to week and day to day.
[4:14] Bless them here today and bless them in their own families and in the various ways in which they receive the teaching that is necessary for them to grow morally and spiritually in a way that is appropriate and pleasing to you.
[4:29] And we ask, O Lord, that you would protect them, that you would shield them with your own power, with your own guidance and strength from the many things that are in the world that would seek to draw them away from God and from his word.
[4:42] And we ask that you would graciously, Lord, hear us as we pray for them. And in all of these things, we pray that they will grow up to be a people who will glorify your name and publicly proclaim you as their Lord and their God.
[4:57] Hear us now, we pray, and pardon our sin for Jesus' sake. Amen. Now, yesterday was called April Fool's Day.
[5:13] I don't know where April Fool's Day came from, how the practice actually started. I try to look it up, as I do usually on Google for these sort of things. But, you know, the origin where it started is really unclear.
[5:30] So we don't know where April Fool's Day really came from, from the practice. But April Fool's Day is a time when people try to have some pranks or jokes against others, hopefully good ones, hopefully ones that are not harmful.
[5:46] But April Fool's Day has been about that down through the years. Now, the word fool in the Bible is actually used over 80 times throughout the Bible.
[5:59] Many of them are in the book of Psalms, and especially in the book of Proverbs, which is a book to do with wisdom and learning wisdom and the importance of wisdom.
[6:10] And the way the Bible uses the word fool is not so much stupidity as such. It's actually to do more with not having wisdom or not wanting the wisdom that God Himself wants to give us and gives us in His Word.
[6:25] And I've got three places in the Bible where the word fool is used. And I want you to try and remember these because they're very simple verses, but they're very important. And you can find many others as well.
[6:37] First of all, in Psalms 14 and 53, if you look at the first verse of each of these Psalms, you'll find them exactly the same, which says, the fool says in his heart, there is no God.
[6:51] So there is God telling us that people who actually say there is no God, God does not exist. The Bible says they lack wisdom. They have that foolishness that just wants to ignore God, ignore His Word, and therefore live without the advantage of that teaching.
[7:11] So remember, whenever you hear somebody saying, God does not exist. I don't believe in God. I don't believe He exists. Well, go to the Bible, see what God thinks of that, pray for them.
[7:24] But remember, God is saying that's foolishness. That's lack of wisdom. That's really closing your mind to the things that are really important. That's the first place in the Bible, Psalms 14 and 53.
[7:40] The fool says in his heart, there is no God. Secondly, Proverbs 18 and verse 2. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.
[7:55] You come across people like that, don't you, in life? All they want to do is tell you what they think themselves and insist that what they think themselves must be right.
[8:10] And they're closed their minds, their ears to every other opinion. Even if you keep talking to them and try and get them off that track, all they'll do is just come back with the same stuff. Well, the Bible calls that foolishness.
[8:23] It takes no pleasure in understanding. One of the things that is really important for us, whether we're young ones or older ones, is that we try and always add to our understanding. That we give our minds especially to the things the Bible teaches us so that our understanding grows.
[8:41] Our understanding about God, understanding about why things are as they are in the world, understanding about ourselves, understanding about Jesus, why Jesus came, what Jesus did, where Jesus is now.
[8:53] Understanding these things is so important. That's why the Bible is saying that a fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.
[9:05] And one of the important things there is that we learn to listen. Not just to talk all the time, expressing our own opinion and our own view of things.
[9:16] That's what foolishness does. A fool takes no pleasure in understanding. So that's two. The third one is in the New Testament in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12.
[9:29] Here's a story about somebody who was rich, somebody who actually had a lot of ground, and that ground produced a lot more and kept on producing. What did he say to himself?
[9:40] He said, I'll build bigger barns. I'll store all this stuff. And I'll say to my soul, relax. You've got all this laid up for many years. Just take your time.
[9:51] Enjoy life. God said to him, you fool. Tonight, your soul is required of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?
[10:06] You see, when God calls anybody a fool, we should really listen to what that is saying. Because here is God saying to us, life is not about how many things we possess.
[10:19] Life is not about just relaxing and taking it easy. Life is about preparing for eternity, for the future. And especially for the time that we leave this world and need to go to eternity.
[10:33] God said to him, you fool. Tonight, your soul will be required of you. That man was going to die that very night. And he wasn't ready to die.
[10:44] He was just looking at the things he had all around him. And God said, you're a fool. Think of the things that you've laid up. Who is going to possess them?
[10:57] So, these are three places in the Bible. See if you can find other places. You can ask your teachers or leaders other places in the Bible where the word fool is used. And you'll find that it's mostly along the same lines as these three verses.
[11:10] So, let's now say the Lord's Prayer together. Amen. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[11:23] 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.
[11:34] For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Now, our next Psalm of Praise, Psalm 67. Psalm 67 in the Scottish Psalter.
[11:46] That's on page 300. And that's the first version of the Psalm. Lord, bless and pity us.
[11:57] Shine on us with thy face. That the earth, thy way, and nations all may know thy saving grace. So, all the Psalms we're singing today have to do with the gospel going out throughout the world.
[12:09] Or God's call to the whole world to come and put their trust in him. So, Psalm 67 is the same. The earth, thy fruit shall yield.
[12:21] Our God shall blessing send. God shall us bless. Men shall him fear unto earth's utmost end. Psalm 67. The tune this time is Selma. Lord, bless and pity us.
[12:33] Lord, bless and pity us. Lord, bless and pity us. Shine on us with thy face. Lord, bless and pity us. Shine on us with thy face. Love the earth, thy way, and nations all may know thy saving grace. Lord, bless and pity us. Shine on us with thy face Love the earth, thy way, and nations all May know thy saving grace Let people praise thee, Lord Let people all be praised O let the nations be found In songs their voices raise Love justly people judge
[13:41] Honor and rule nations all Let people praise thee, Lord Let them praise thee, Lord Great and small The earth, her fruit shall heal Her God shall bless his name God shall not bless, men shall end here Unto earth that was paid Now, our reading from God's Word today is from Paul's letter to the Romans chapter 15 and reading the verses 1 to 13
[14:50] So Romans chapter 15 and from the beginning We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves Let each of us please his neighbour for his good to build him up For Christ did not please himself But as it is written The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction That through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus That together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
[15:52] Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy As it is written Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name And again it is said Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people And again Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles And let all the peoples extol him And again Isaiah says The root of Jesse will come Even he who arises to rule the Gentiles In him will the Gentiles hope May the God of hope Fill you with all joy and peace in believing So that by the power of the Holy Spirit You may abound in hope
[16:52] Amen May God bless A reading of that portion of his word Let's call upon him again in prayer Let's pray Amen O Lord our God We give thanks for the hope That you have brought into being Through your resurrection from the dead We bless you today That that is the foundation Of your people's hope For you tell us in your word And our own experience tells us That the things of this world Cannot be foundational To a proper and lasting hope A hope that will be fulfilled Ultimately in heaven O Lord our God We thank you today For the reality Of those things For which we give you praise We thank you That they are As real to your people As anything that they can see Physically in this life And we bless you Lord That you have provided them for us In your own salvation So that we might live As your people So that we might Not only praise you ourselves
[17:53] But that we might Promote your great name And that we might seek That the gospel Would reach forth into the world With this great message of hope And we thank you today That the gospel is Being sounded forth We pray that it may increase More and more O Lord So that many will come Even today To hear For the first time And especially to hear Savingly Of the hope Of eternal life In the Lord Jesus Christ We thank you Lord Today that He came into this world Specifically To die And to rise again From the dead Three days later And we give thanks That he is now At the right hand of glory That he ministers To his people Through his spirit And Lord We ask that today We may know Of that benefit Of that ministry For ourselves Bless us here today As a congregation We pray Bless all those Who are with us Who are visiting At this time
[18:54] Be pleased to Bless them In their time With us And with their families Bless all those Who are away from us As well at this time Be pleased O Lord To be with them And to accompany them In their time of holiday Be with our children As they take a break From school And with our teachers Too As they look forward To time off We pray Lord That you would Refresh them That you would Further encourage them And give them Lord More and more To know of The faithfulness Of God himself Who is true To all his promises And who will never Let his people Other than Have his promises Fulfilled for them We ask Lord Today That you would Bless us As a congregation We pray Your blessing For all age groups That we represent As a congregation And we ask That in all our Variety of need Lord That you would Be pleased To provide us With your blessing Lord We need your blessing For every step of life We need your blessing
[19:54] Even from the youngest days Through to our old age We thank you That your blessing Is assured And brought to us In your word As that which is Guaranteed To all those Who place their trust In you We ask oh Lord That as we have Been reading And as we're thinking Today of the gospel Going forth into the world That the nations May come under The rule of Christ We pray that your kingdom Will indeed come That your will Be done on earth As it is in heaven And we ask That you would Enable us to Continue to pray In that regard And not to lose heart Or be discouraged As we find Lord So much around us That is opposed to you So much that is closed To the demands of God To the rights And the claims Of Christ himself As Lord We pray oh Lord That you would Continue to encourage Your people To reach forth And to continue To pray For the turning around Of the world In which we live And we ask today
[20:54] Oh Lord That you would Grant blessing To us as a nation We pray that in these Challenging times That you would bless Those who govern us For you have required Of us Lord That we constantly Bear in mind And pray for those Who rule over us And we do pray For them Lord Today Whatever our Political persuasions May be You have called upon us To pray For those in authority That we may live Peaceable lives That we may have The gospel Advantageously Given That place In our minds And in our lives And we ask Oh Lord That you would bless Therefore Those who are in Government over us In Scotland And in Westminster We pray for them We pray for Our first minister We pray for Our prime minister We ask that you Bless their cabinets We pray that Lord you would Give them that wisdom To look to you And to look to your word To regard the things Of God As of utmost importance To give place
[21:56] To your laws And your precepts Gracious Lord We long for the day When we will find Righteousness Marking us And exalting us Again as a people We pray that that May be our great Concern as your people That we will see Righteousness restored In our midst As a nation And that truth Will no longer Be fallen in the streets We ask Lord That you would Give those who Rule over us A regard for truth Not their own Version of the truth Not their own Political party's Version of the truth But the truth Of your word The truth of the gospel The truth of your laws The truth of those Things that are firm And sure And that are given To us as a people For our betterment And for our Our wholeness And the things of life We pray your blessing Today for those Who are Today grieving Who miss loved ones For whom The reality of death Is a present Experience in their families
[22:57] Bless them we pray We ask that your blessing Will be with all those Who look upon Times gone by As times of Sorrow and bereavement And loss Oh Lord today We pray that You would again Enable them to Know your encouragement To know the direction And the comfort Of your word And to realize Oh God again That you are At all times Faithful and worthy To be trusted in Remember those Of our number Who are in hospital At this time Who are ill In care homes Or at home We pray for them Oh Lord We ask that you Be pleased To bless them We think especially Oh Lord In these days Of the Graham family William and Morag And William's time In hospital We pray for him For his recovery Pray for Morag As she supports him And for the family We ask oh Lord That you'd bless them In the days to come Be pleased to hear All those who are Praying for them We ask too That you'd bless those Oh Lord Of the congregation
[23:58] Who have bad news In recent times Who have difficult Challenges now to face In regard to their health We pray That you'd bless them And encourage them too And we do ask oh Lord That you would Graciously help us all Whenever the turnings Of life Are difficult And challenging for us Help us to turn to you Help us to turn To your cross To your death To your resurrection To your person Help us to draw All our encouragement From the Christ Who knows us Who knows our position So well Who is able to Give us support In all our circumstances So help us Lord We pray to take All our concerns To your throne Of grace That we may obtain mercy And find grace To help In time of need We ask oh Lord Now that you would Continue to bless us here And we pray That as we turn To your word Once again So we may know The guidance The instruction Of your spirit Coming to lay your word
[24:59] Upon our hearts Giving us to be To rejoice And to be glad That you are God And to take us As your people Here as we pray Pardoning our sin For Jesus' sake Amen Let's sing once again Before we turn To God's word We're singing this In this time Psalm 86 Psalm 86 In the Scottish Psalter Page 341 Verses 6 to 11 And the tune is Ayrshire Hear Lord My prayer And to the voice Of my request Attend In troublous times I'll call on thee For thou wilt Answer send Lord there is none Among the gods That may with thee Compare And like the works Which thou hast done Not any work Is there Psalm 86 Verses 6 to 11 To God's praise Hear Lord
[26:00] My prayer Unto the voice Of my request Lord there is none Among the gods But there is none Among the gods That may with thee That may with thee Compare And like the works Which thou hast done Not any work is there
[27:02] All the ancient truth All the ancient truth Thou hast done And worship reverently And worship reverently Before thy face A day O Lord Thy name shall glorify Because the Lord Because the Lord Exceeding day And works by thee Are done Which are to thee And my love And my love
[28:03] And my love But God Thou hast Thou shalt Alone In thee I pray And in thy truth O Lord Then what will I And in thy truth O Lord Then what will I Unite my heart Thou die thy dear Then what will I And in thy life And in my heart And in thy life And in thy life And in thy life Now please turn with me To the book of Psalms The book of Psalms The book of Psalms And Psalm 117 Psalm 117
[29:06] In the book of Psalms Psalm 117 in the book of Psalms Praise the Lord all nations Extol him all peoples For great is his steadfast love towards us And the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever Praise the Lord Well you'll be aware I'm sure that this is the shortest psalm in length In the whole of the Psalter But while it is the shortest psalm in length It is one of the broadest in width Because it encompasses all the nations in the call that goes out from it To praise the Lord Praise the Lord all nations Extol him all peoples And that has a significance for ourselves that goes on in its significance and importance Because it's not just a call to all the nations As we'll see it's a call that goes out from God To incorporate ourselves in the praising of God
[30:09] As well as to have that actually go out to the nations And we can think of these things as we sing this short psalm It's important always to think through the things that we're singing Even if we're very familiar with them And of course being very familiar with the Psalms as we are The danger with that is that we'll sing just like a kind of rote or parrot fashion We know the words, we sing them through And they slip out of our minds without really thinking deeply of what they mean And it's so important for us that whenever we sing praise to God That we're thinking deeply of the words we're singing Of the meaning they carry And of how we apply that to ourselves The psalm is used as we saw when we read through Romans 15 earlier The psalm is used there And it's used there in regard to all the nations coming to share In the Old Testament promises to God's people So there's no longer the Jewish people
[31:11] It has now come to incorporate the Gentiles Which we are, most of us were, and are, other than Jewish people But now all peoples are being incorporated into the church of God To sing His praises, to know His salvation in Jesus Christ And it's fitting, I think, as we today think of Muriel Our own Muriel who's here for only today's, her last Sunday with us And we're going to finish our service today A prayer specifically for Muriel as she returns to Cambodia And this psalm is a psalm that Muriel knows very well, of course Because she is one of those people who puts it into action In terms of carrying the gospel and the teaching of the gospel Through to other nations as well Such as in Cambodia, where she shortly will be going back to So let's look at this psalm very briefly Here's a single directive and also two reasons A single directive or call to all people to praise the Lord
[32:15] Praise the Lord all nations Extol Him all peoples It's leaving nobody out It's not leaving any nation out Any people of any background That's the first thing There's a single call or directive to all peoples to praise God Secondly, it gives us two reasons Why the Lord's people especially should praise Him Because here are the people of Israel The Lord's covenant people And in verse 2 you find the two reasons He gives for praising Him First of all, great is His steadfast love towards us And secondly, the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever In other words, these are two primary topics In the reasons why we are called to praise the Lord We are called to praise the Lord Because of His steadfast love to His people And because He is always continually faithful towards us Well, look first of all at this call
[33:18] Or this directive to all people to praise the Lord Now that of course anticipates the New Testament itself The call that goes out from the New Testament For example, Acts chapter 17 You'll recall that that's the great chapter of Paul in Athens And Paul addressing the heathen pagan people of Athens Bringing them the message of the gospel And wonderfully working that through into how he addresses them But in verse 30 of Acts chapter 17 In verse 17 you find the apostles saying That we must not think that the Lord is like gold or silver and stone Formed by the art and imagination of man The times of ignorance God overlooked But now He commands all people everywhere to repent Because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness By a man whom He has appointed And of this He has given assurance to all
[34:18] By raising Him from the dead In other words, the resurrection of Jesus is fitted in exactly and foundationally To the call of the gospel To go out to all the nations In order to come and place their trust and their confidence in this Christ To repent of sin and to turn to Him believingly In the Old Testament in the likes of Psalm 117 has become If you like embodied in the person of Christ As the basis of this great call of the gospel To come, repent of our sin and turn to the Lord and praise the Lord In other words, Paul is incorporating Psalm 117 Not just to actually give us a reminder that the gospel must go forth to all the Gentiles As well as having come to the Jews already It incorporates a mandate for our evangelism Psalm 117 is magnificently evangelistic Because there you have an Old Testament passage
[35:19] Into which you find Jesus Placed by the apostle in the likes of the chapter we read in Romans 15 But that comes home to ourselves Because as we'll see the reasons why we have to call upon all people To praise the Lord It's all to do with Christ He has raised Him from the dead This Jesus who died on the cross And this is the mandate we have To go forth with the gospel To call upon all people to come and place their trust, their confidence in God Now I know what you're saying You're immediately saying Well, when you go out with that gospel You meet with this kind of opposition This kind of response Why should I trust in your God?
[36:02] Why should your God be better than any other God? Why should it not be the God Muslims believe in? Why should it not be Buddhism? Why should it not be atheism? Well, we as a people, as a Christian people Believe in freedom of religion We believe that people, as they choose whichever God Or no God at all to believe in or to trust in That's a freedom given them In the way that we, as a nation Have freedom of religion as an important concept We are not in the business of forcing people to believe what we believe What we would want them to believe Nevertheless, that means That does not mean that freedom of religion Does not mean in our multi-faith setting That we ought not to evangelize That it's actually wrong in some way or other To try and get people of other religions
[37:05] Or no religion at all To come and place their trust in Jesus Christ We believe that we are not in the way We believe that we are not in the way We believe that we are not in the way We believe that we are not in the way We believe that we are not in the way No one comes to the Father except through Him And because that is the case We have that mandate to go forth and to evangelize And to actually call upon the world to come And place their trust and their confidence In this God, in this Jesus, in this Savior And that is where we come across the idea that is very current at the moment Which is called conversion therapy And you will find a clamor for the introduction of laws Which would ban so-called conversion therapy Now that gives the impression that when we are thinking of conversion as Christians We are thinking of forcing people into believing what we believe I was across at the Nicholson a couple of weeks ago there And one of the questions, there were very many questions the class was asking I was talking about what it is to be a Christian minister
[38:07] What does a minister do? And amongst the many, many good questions that the pupils had One was this Would you force an atheist to believe what you believe?
[38:20] And of course my response to that was No, we don't force anyone to believe Whether they are atheists or otherwise We don't force anybody to believe what we believe We don't force anybody to believe in Christ In fact, we couldn't anyway And if we tried to do it, it would just be damaging Remember your catechism, children maybe Your catechism Catechism 31 What is effectual calling?
[38:48] It's one of the ones I dreaded being asked to repeat in Sunday school Because it's the longest I think in the whole of the catechism And especially when you are learning it in Gaelic It wasn't easy to remember it Nevertheless, it was so useful to remember it Because effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit And then it goes on to tell us what's involved in effectual calling That's God calling us and uniting us to Jesus for our salvation And what the Spirit of God does in our hearts when He does that When we are effectually called is He convinces us of our sin and misery He instructs or enlightens our mind in the knowledge of Christ And He renews our will Three things Three things, the threefold elements of our effectual calling But the third one is what's important for us just now When we are saying we don't force people Or try to force people into being Christians And to believe in what we believe God when He comes to actually bring us to know Himself He doesn't force our minds
[39:51] He renews our minds And your mind is never as free As it is when God sets it free And don't listen to the things that you find out in the world There are people that say Actually you Christians are the ones with the closed minds You're not prepared to listen to other alternatives Yes, we've tried all the alternatives We know what the alternatives are They're not the way, the truth and the life But Jesus is, the Lord is His death is, His resurrection is His return to judge the world Is part of all that we come to believe in How do we come to believe in it?
[40:26] Not because somebody forces our minds But because God renews our mind He opens our mind He gives us a mind that we didn't have before And when you come to have your mind renewed by the Holy Spirit What does the Catechon go on to say?
[40:46] Thereby, He persuades and enables us To embrace Jesus Christ As He is offered in the Gospel It's not my business today To try and force anybody here to become a Christian To actually be converted To come to believe in Christ My business is to preach the Gospel that says Here is God's call to come to trust in Jesus Here is God's provision in the cross And in the resurrection of Christ Trust in Him Place your faith in Him Whether you do that or not Is your responsibility I can't force you Not what I want to force you But I can try To persuasively present Christ to you And your need of Christ And all that is in Christ that you have to do without When you don't accept Him When you don't present When you don't have As He presents Himself to you When you don't receive Him
[41:49] And trust in Him So we are not in the business of forcing minds And that is an important matter In the current day and age in which we live Now this psalm is really saying to us Actually that God's kingship Extends over the whole of creation Now it doesn't matter whether you or I Or hundreds or millions of people Would come to actually not acknowledge that When we would come and say Well I don't believe in that I don't want that Well that's fine It doesn't actually do anything To displace this truth This still remains true However many people choose not to believe it God is still the king God still reigns You and I are still answerable to God Whether people choose to believe otherwise Or you and I choose to believe it or not Praise the Lord All peoples
[42:51] He has a universal right To be praised And that means Praised by you and by me individually as well How can it possibly Be cruel Or intolerable To present a God who is essentially good Who calls us to eternal life Who calls upon us to leave our ways of sin And enter the ways of righteousness How can that be cruelty?
[43:26] You know the cruelty would be If I stood in a pulpit today and said There are big chunks of the Bible You don't need to believe anymore That's cruelty That's intolerable That's just providing people with a cushion On which they can sleep all the way through life And then wake up to the reality and eternity in hell Praise the Lord All you nations God's rights Extend over all human life Over all human beings And what we have to constantly remember of course Is that There is no greater privilege given to us Than to know God And to praise God It's such an immense privilege We can't possibly take it in In our own puny minds But it is such an immense privilege That God Brings us to know himself And to know why he is worthy of our praise
[44:29] And that takes us to our second point There are two reasons why the Lord's people Should praise him First of all For his steadfast love The greatest of steadfast love toward us Now you know that The steadfast love of the Lord Often mentioned in the Old Testament This is an important word It's a covenant word It's a word that means love But love that's steadfast Or in the Old Word Which I think is also good The Old AV word Is loving kindness It's not just love In the sense of something that goes out Without really affecting your life much It's loving kindness It's actually bringing you things Which are beneficial Which will actually be good for you That's what the love of the Lord does That's what the love of the Lord is It is loving kindness It is doing good It is providing life It is rescuing from death The steadfast love Of the Lord toward us Is the first point
[45:32] Why he calls upon us To praise him It's the foundation of A covenant relationship With himself Where God Comes to Take us as his people And we take him as our God That's what The essence The core of The covenant is That God's people have with him He is their God And will be their God They are his people And will be his people In other words Great here Is more than just To do with size The word in Hebrew That's used here Is the root of a word That's used in the Old Testament For warrior For somebody as great In might as a warrior And what it means really Is to prevail It's used Psalm 65 Verse 3 for example Our iniquities prevail against us But as for our transgressions You will atone for them In other words That's just saying The power of sin is great It has us in its grip But Lord
[46:33] You are the one Who prevails over that While sin prevails against us You outdo that In providing atonement for us So this really is saying to us The steadfast love of the Lord Is great It prevails It conquers What a wonderful emphasis That is for you today When you know the Lord As your Savior And as your God You are placing your trust In someone Who has such a love Such a commitment in love Such a covenant love As is mighty love A love that can't possibly go wrong A love that will achieve Its objective Come what may Where has that been shown to us Most clearly Well it's in the death And resurrection of Jesus
[47:35] Isn't it? God so loved the world That he gave his only begotten son That whoever believes in him Should not perish But have everlasting Or eternal life God has demonstrated his love to us Paul says to the Romans In that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Who died for us?
[48:01] Christ died for us Who is Christ? The Son of God Does anyone doubt the love of God? Does anyone doubt the power of God's love?
[48:12] Does anyone doubt the mightiness The all-mightiness Of the steadfast love of the Lord When you look at the cross And you say Not just that's love But that's powerful love That's love that conquers death That's love that deals with sin That's love that brings us righteousness That love that atones for sin That's the love that rescues From the grip of death Praise the Lord All you peoples Why?
[48:43] Because his steadfast love toward us Is great The steadfast love of the Lord Where are you today? With regard to your relationship To this truth or to this God Do you know the steadfast love for yourself?
[49:04] Are you trusting in a love That's somehow less than this love? A love that can never achieve What this love has achieved for God's people? His steadfast love toward us is great And you know when When I think of my own love When you think of your own love And when you think of how easily it's deflected How often it fails How often it wanes How often it may grow cold How often it fluctuates What a huge advantage you have as a Christian To know that your life Is founded on and fed by God's steadfast love A love that does not change A love that will be the same For all eternity Praise the Lord Why?
[50:05] For his steadfast love His powerful love His great love Is great, it's powerful, it's mighty Toward us And then his faithfulness Endures forever And that of course is tied up with his love being steadfast The faithfulness of God And the love of God Are aspects as we experience God As our Saviour Aspects of the same Grace of God Grace that flows from His love The grace, the kindness And also the faithfulness of God Here as well Remember in Hebrews Chapter 10 verse 23 You have an emphasis there on Let us hold fast the confession of our hope Without wavering And sometimes you find these words are so challenging Because you say, well, that must leave me out Because I often waver in my hope I don't have that same steady hope In God and in his promises that I ought to have How can I actually meet the terms of that verse that says
[51:10] Let us not waver in hope Well, the verse finishes For he is faithful Who has promised Your continuance in hope Living a hopeful life by faith in Christ It's not based on the strength of your hope Your hope is not based on itself It's not based on your faithfulness It's not based on the quality of your prayer life It's not based on the quality of the congregation you belong to Your hope is based on this The faithfulness of God Let us hold fast, he says To the profession of our hope The confession of our hope Because he is faithful And you can depend on that faithfulness You can depend on that But absolutely And entirely throughout life He is faithful
[52:13] He is faithful Who has promised He says here The faithfulness of the Lord Endures forever There's one great passage in the Bible That I think is A really tremendous passage in the context And it's in the Lamentations of Jeremiah It's not a book perhaps that we Very often refer to Or preach from But in chapter 3 Of Jeremiah Remember Jeremiah had faced The greatest disaster of his life The arrival of the Babylonians Who wrecked Jerusalem Wrecked the temple Took people captive Plundered it Absolutely devastated Vandalized it And here he is In lamentations Sitting down And crying his heart out to God Asking serious questions of God And telling us about the depth of his sorrow Then he comes in chapter 22 Of this verse Of this chapter
[53:15] Verse 22 of this chapter rather My soul continually remembers it My affliction and my wanderings My soul is bowed down within me But this I call to mind And therefore I have hope What does he call to mind?
[53:31] What is it that gives him hope? What is it that pierces the darkness Of his agony at this time? This is it The steadfast love of the Lord Never ceases His mercies never come to an end They are new every morning Great is your faithfulness The Lord is my portion Says my soul Therefore I will hope in him I know it's easy to say In pulpits You know it doesn't matter what happens In your life God is steadfast God is faithful But that is true And I have to apply it to my own life And you have to apply it to yours When the difficult times come When the challenges come When the pains come When the afflictions come When all of these things actually Sometimes unexpectedly come upon us What do we turn to?
[54:24] What do we do then In our grief of soul? The steadfast love of the Lord Is from everlasting to everlasting We remind ourselves that God Does not make mistakes That God is always As he says here Faithful and steadfast All through And that we need to come Anew to place our trust in him And in his word that tells us Now we need to take this back To the beginning of the psalm Here are the two points The steadfast love of the Lord toward us And the faithfulness of the Lord Endures forever The reasons why the Lord's people are to praise him There are other reasons But these are the two in the psalm Now we take that back to the first verse Praise the Lord all nations Extol him all peoples And you need to feed that Feed that into the call of the gospel Into the evangelistic exercises and endeavors of God's people Why do you go out with the gospel?
[55:26] Why are we concerned to actually bring the gospel to people around us in this town Or wherever it is we belong? What is it that we seek to convey to them? What is it we seek to bring to them in seeking to instruct their minds meaningfully?
[55:40] Well this The steadfast love of God is great And the faithfulness of God endures forever Therefore come and place your trust in him You see these are arguments that the Bible gives us That we feed into our evangelism And say this is the God we actually serve And this is the God we commend to you Not the God of the caricatures you find all too often in public life But the God Who loves and who is faithful To the extent of giving his only begotten son And raising him from the dead That we might have hope And so that's our task Go he says And make disciples of all nations On the basis of what?
[56:38] All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me This is Jesus shortly before his ascension Therefore, therefore because this is who I am Because these are the great truths of God Go and make disciples of all nations Baptizing them In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit Teaching them to observe All things that I have commanded you And lo, I am with you To the end of the age And that's a promise And a fact That's based on God's steadfast love and faithfulness What is our great concern today?
[57:23] What is your great concern? Surely it is to know God for yourself To be like those people In John chapter 4 To whom the woman of Samaria Of Samaria Spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ That she had come to know As she sat at that well Near Sychar Come and see a man Who told me all things that ever I did Can this not be the Christ?
[57:44] So they went out of the town And they believed in him Many of them believed in him And they said to the woman Now we believe Not just because of what you said But we have heard him for ourselves And know that this is indeed the Christ The Saviour of the world Now isn't that what you're saying?
[58:19] You're not going to base your life Merely on what someone else tells you Not even from the pulpit You're going to come to him for yourself Aren't you?
[58:33] You're going to listen to him for yourself You're going to embrace him yourself With your own mind And with your own will As God will enable you And you're going to say Well now I know Now I believe Now I accept him Because I've come to know him For myself And may God bless these thoughts On his word today to us We're going to sing now to God's praise Our final psalm today is Psalm 47 And that's on page 62 We're singing to a tune Warrington Singing verses 1 to 9 That's the whole of Psalm 47 As you find it there on page 62 All nations Clap your hands and shout Let joyful cries to God ring out How awesome is the Lord most high Great King who rules the earth throughout Psalm 47
[59:35] And we'll sing the whole psalm End Time On John还是 2 through 1, Psalm 49 And we'll sing the whole psalm plopнее song How awesome is the Lord most high, With he through rules we e'er through love.
[60:16] He hath subdued beneath our feet The nations who hath been our foes In blessing Jacob whom we love The heaven is which for us he chose God hath gone up with showers of joy The Lord hath made the trumpet sound Sing, praise, sing, praise to God most high
[61:18] To God the King that plays the world For God is King of all the earth Sing sounds of praise to him alone For whose the nations from on high He sits upon his holy throne The leaders of the nations come To yield and stand to Abram's war
[62:21] To him below the shields of man Exalted in the midst of Lord Will you please take your seats for a moment?
[62:48] Muriel, I can speak to you directly from here Even though I'm not facing you at the front here I know you didn't want to make this a big thing But we are pleased to be able to commend you to God As you return shortly to Cambodia Let me just assure you if you need any assurance Of our love for you Of our prayers for you That they will follow you And of our prayers for you As you go back to Cambodia And as you serve the Lord there We pray that you may know More and more of his presence each day Of his blessing upon your life His blessing upon your work as well for him In Cambodia And you leave, as I say, with our love And our prayers And we thank you for your time with us here For the times you've taken To tell us about your work Both for the congregation as a whole And also for the young folks When you spoke to them a few weeks ago At the Sunday school We appreciate all of that very much
[63:49] And please keep sending us your newsletter Even though I have to apologize For the few times that I respond to that By email But we do take delight in receiving News of your work From time to time As you send us your newsletter So please do be assured We will continue to remember you in prayer And we're going to pray for Muriel And finish the service with prayer And then that'll include the benediction And afterwards please allow me To get to the main door To shake hands with you then Let's stand now for prayer Almighty God we give thanks For the gospel We give thanks for those you call To proclaim the gospel To be workers in the gospel In the name of Christ We pray now Lord for Muriel We thank you for her months with us here With her family elsewhere We pray that you'd bless her now As she anticipates leaving
[64:50] To go back to Cambodia We thank you for the strength Of her call For her love for you And for her desire to serve you there We pray that she will see much blessing Oh Lord in days to come We pray that your protective care Will be with her in her travels And in all that she does for you When she returns to Cambodia Be with her Lord As we commend her to you once again We commend her to you And to the word of your grace And we pray that The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ The love of God the Father And the communion of the Holy Spirit Will be with us now Forevermore Amen That little table Good Thank you What have you come to?
[65:52] Whether to man Notchuss Will be with us So Thank you That little table If we want to come to you And we make everyone It's time to bathroom And it's time tomadı And we let our job There's life The world Hang her Throughout And it's time to Campaignioni It's time to And the MC Trim And It entered