[0:00] I extend a very warm welcome to everybody this morning and everybody here and also we could say on behalf of Stornow Free Church to everybody who is joining with us online and again I'm sure we'll soon be able to extend a warm welcome to visitors so that'll be good as well.
[0:34] Now if you've looked at the notices online there's quite a number so I'll run through two or three which really we'll have to highlight. Now regarding congregational singing we are allowed now to sing but only with masks so we can today we're going to try doing congregational singing but we have to keep our masks on. We tried on Wednesday to sing along with the recorded singing and it didn't really work too well but today we're going to try the normal way of singing. Ian McRae will lead us in the singing and again with masks we feel it'll be very restrictive so I want you to to really try and sing as loud as you can and I know it's more difficult when we're isolated because we we kind of rely on one another when we sing to be together so it's quite difficult singing when we're we're all kind of separate one from another and become quite self-conscious of our own voice but I want you to really sing. The Bible talks about making a joyful noise and maybe you think that that's all that comes out of you say it's only a noise when I sing well still a joyful noise in the sight of the Lord so I encourage everybody to try and sing as loud as you can because apart from the presenter we'll all be masked for it and of course we're able to to stand as well. Regarding the monthly record subscriptions for July to December those who subscribe to the record will know that due to the lockdown restrictions only six issues were printed during 2020 January to March and October to December. As subscribers had already paid for 12 copies they received the January to June issues of 2021. Subscriptions for the July to December 2021 issues are now due and those who wish to continue receiving the record should put £12 along with your name and address in an envelope clearly marked the record in the record in the record in the record. And with regard to the record also new subscribers at the most recent meeting of the deacons court it was agreed that from now on copies of the record will be ordered for regular subscribers only and if you would like to begin receiving regular copies please put £12 along with your name and address in an envelope clearly marked the record in the record in the record in the record in the plate. And if you're paying by the subscription by check please make it payable to Stornoway Free Church.
[3:15] Then there's an intimation regarding the freewill offering envelopes and for those who are still this this is not so much for yourselves but those who are online those who are still unable to attend services of worship an opportunity will be given to return their freewill offerings offering envelopes this Saturday 13th June in the hall next door in Kenneth Street between 2 and 4. And if you wish to take advantage of this opportunity you should come along during these times or arrange for a family member or friend to deliver the envelopes on your behalf.
[3:52] You can also contact your district elder or deacon and arrange a time for one of them to collect the envelopes from your home. On arrival at the hall a one-way system will be in place and you will enter by the main door and leave the exit door at the far end of the hall and face covering coverings are mandatory should be worn and hand sanitizers available and the recommended two meter social distancing on arrival and inside the hall.
[4:23] The notices for the week the the reassured prayer meeting at half past seven now every Monday the press for the has run a press for the prayer time during lockdown and as lockdown has been eased they've decided to suspend these meetings just now so the monthly meeting will revert back to the half past seven but again it tomorrow evening it'll be on zoom and the zoom link for the monthly meeting if you could just use that so not eight o'clock tomorrow evening but half past seven prayer meeting as usual on Wednesday at half past seven in the seminary and the service is next Lord's Day the 13th I hope to conduct the English here in the church at 11 the Gaelic will be conducted by Mr.
[5:14] Murdo Martin and the English at half past six conducted by Mr. Scott McLeod. Also I've noticed on the intimations if you've read them online that I'm announcing my retirement I did so a wee while ago but it had to go through session presbytery committees assembly and so on so just to me I'm retiring God willing at the very end of July well it's the first I think it's the first second of August the official date but Sunday 25th will be my last Sunday with regard to as assistant minister and finally to say that as a congregation we are and as a community we are devastated at the passing of Ruth and Finley McLeod's little baby boy Finley Eric and please remember Finley Eric Finley and Ruth in your prayers and their siblings and also the grandparents Murdo Ian and Erica and Ian and Mary it's a terrible blow for them we're going to begin our service singing to God's praise in Psalm number 40 Psalm number 40 well as I say we'll be standing to sing and we're going to sing this is from sing psalms Psalm number 40 sing psalms and from verse 6 6 to 12 five stanzas you did not ask that calves or goats be brought a sacrifice for sin but you have opened up my ears you did not seek burnt offering then I declared Lord I have come it's written of me in the scroll I want to do your will my God your law is in my heart and soul in the assembly when it met your justice I proclaimed abroad I did not seal my lips at all you know all this about me Lord I did not hide within my heart your saving grace and righteousness in the assembly I proclaimed your steadfast love and faithfulness do not withhold your mercy Lord surround your servant constantly with your great love and faithfulness for many troubles threaten me we're going to sing these verses and as I say we stand to sing and please give it your all because the mask will muffle you somewhat you did not ask that calves or goats you did not ask that calves or goats be brought a sacrifice for sin but you have opened up my ear you did not ask that calves or goats być or goats He brought a sacrifice orStar Sty
[8:16] But you have opened up my ears. You did not seek burned offering.
[8:30] Then I declared, Lord, I am come. It's written of me in the snow.
[8:48] I want to do your will, my God. Your law is in my heart and soul.
[9:04] In thee, I'll send me when it may. Your just desire proclaim the Lord.
[9:22] I did not steal my lips at all. You know this about me, Lord.
[9:41] I did not hide within my heart. Your sacred grace, unrighteousness.
[9:58] In the assembly I proclaim. Your steadfast love and faithfulness.
[10:15] Do not withhold your mercy, Lord. Salve your servant constantly.
[10:32] With your great love and faithfulness.
[10:42] For many troubles threaten me. Let us pray.
[10:58] Oh, Lord, as we bow in your presence today, we give thanks for being able to sing. Give thanks, Lord, for the fact that even although we wear the masks, it was lovely to hear the singing.
[11:10] We were able to give expression to your song in our heart. And we pray, Lord, that we will get the restrictions eased gradually, bit by bit.
[11:25] And we give thanks for every step that takes us a little forward. We pray, Lord, that you will bless us and enable us to focus upon you. We give thanks, Lord, for your word.
[11:38] And we know that your word directs us. It directs us even in worship. Because were it not for your word, we wouldn't know how to worship you correctly. We give thanks for the inward working of your spirit.
[11:49] Applying your word. Applying this truth to our hearts. So that we can understand more and more of what is required of us. And of how we can worship you in a right way.
[12:01] We give thanks, oh, Lord, that your word is new to us every day. Even although the actual written word is so many years old. But it is timeless.
[12:14] Because it is a word of the living and through God. And even the historical aspects of your word are ever fresh to us. While the historicity of it all is so true and important.
[12:28] Yet the spiritual application of it and all the examples that are set before us are so relevant to where we are. And we learn from these things. In fact, the Bible tells us that all these things are recorded there also for our examples.
[12:45] And so we pray that we might have teachable spirits. That we might be willing to learn. That we might be ready to be taught. And that our hearts will be open to your truth. Lord, our God, we pray that you will bless us with every great and spiritual blessing.
[13:02] Blessing us in our bodies, our minds, our souls. Enrich us in the knowledge of Christ. Make us willing to find your will and to do your will. To do your will, I take delight, the psalmist sang.
[13:17] And Lord, it is true for us as well. And yet we have to confess that our times, sadly, it's not our delight. It is always our delight when your spirit is guiding us in the truth.
[13:30] But there are times when the sin that is within us takes us along a different path. And when we turn aside from your truth and we ask you, Lord, to forgive us for these times.
[13:41] Forgive us, Lord, for that terrible side that we have towards sin. Where we're inclined towards sin. And where we walk in that direction.
[13:52] O Lord, be near to us, we pray. We ask, Lord, that you will bless each and every one of us here. Bless our homes and our families. Pray, Lord, for those who are struggling at this time.
[14:04] Those who are going through difficult situations and difficult circumstances. We commit them to your care and keeping. Remember those who are ill and laid aside in hospital and in their own homes.
[14:18] Remember the age that we commit them to you. Remember those, Lord, who are facing terrible challenges and great difficulties. Peace in our heart today goes out, as it has been in this last week, to Ruth and to Finley.
[14:35] I say more in the passing of their little precious baby, Finley, Eric. Lord, we commit the whole family to your care and keeping. And ask, Lord, that Ruth and Finley's siblings and also the grandparents, Marduian and Erica and Ian and Mary, that they will know your comfort.
[14:58] We have endless questions. We wonder so often when we're confronted with these mysteries. There's always the why, what if. But we can turn this way and that way and twist this way and that way.
[15:11] Help us, Lord, to know that even in the darkness and in the uncertainty and the vulnerability that is felt when something like this happens, that in that darkness you are there and that your voice calls out to desire, be not afraid.
[15:31] And we pray that we may lay hold upon you and look to you. As a family will at this time, we pray that we might all do so. Because when something like this happens, as it happens now and again within our families and communities, it creates within us a real sense of uncertainty and vulnerability.
[15:54] And so we pray, Lord, that every day we may look to you and depend upon you. And remember that it is in you that we live and move and have our being. Lord, our God, we pray that you will dry up the tears of the weeping and that you will mend the broken hearts.
[16:12] You are the great physician who understands and are able to probe into the deepest recesses of our hearts and minds and bring healing and help where no human hand or no human touch can reach to.
[16:28] And so we ask, Lord, that that might be true today. We pray that you will bless us as a nation. Bless us, Lord, as we are still facing aspects of this pandemic.
[16:43] And yet we are seeing the great work that the vaccine has done. And we pray that we will continue to discover the lifting and lifting of restrictions.
[16:55] We pray, Lord, that our economy will turn again and that prosperity will be brought back through work. We ask, Lord, for those who are struggling just now with regard to employment or threatened maybe to lose it or have lost it.
[17:14] Lord, these are difficult. Every person who loses a job, and it's a great difficulty that faces them. The economic circumstance of the home changes drastically.
[17:29] And so we pray for every home where that is the situation. Lord, we pray that you will provide for them. We ask that you will help us to focus upon your word and that you will do us good and that you will guide us in the truth and grant your grace to all our leaders, all an authority over us, whether that's in Westminster, Holyrood, or here locally in the council.
[17:54] Grant them your wisdom and your guidance and your direction and blessing. Bless Muriel, we pray, in Cambodia. We give thanks for her. And we give thanks, Lord, for the way we're able to link up with her.
[18:05] We pray to watch over us all and do us good, cleansing us from our every sin, we pray. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Amen. Amen. Just a wee word to the young folk before we read God's word.
[18:25] The other day, early in the morning, I ran to the cope to get one or two things. And I had Joshua, grandson, with me.
[18:37] And when I was putting him back in the car, he said, Oh, Papa, I want to go to the fire station. He loves going to the fire station. And I didn't really have time to go, but I thought, okay, we'll go there. So quick stop, fire station, and look in all the windows to see the fire engines and then back to the car.
[18:54] And when I was putting him back in the car, I saw my phone on the back, outside, on the boot of the car. And I thought, how on earth did that get there?
[19:08] And then I thought, I bet I left that there at the cope. Because I'm very, often forget what I'm doing. And then I thought, you see, there's a cover on the phone and there's something magnetic in it, so it must have stuck on.
[19:24] But then I thought, I bet my wallet was there as well. So I searched the car and sure enough, my wallet was gone. And I'd just taken out quite a bit of money and all your cards, everything is in it. I thought, oh, no.
[19:34] So I went straight back to the cope and parked the car and I was going round all looking, trying to look under every car and everywhere in the area that I might have driven. And Joshua kept saying, oh, here's Papa's car.
[19:47] I said, I'm not looking for Papa's car. I know that's Papa's car. Trying to find my wallet. So what I decided then to do was to just go back walking the way that I had driven.
[19:59] And I thought, maybe it came off at the roundabout. And anyway, when I was passing the butcher, Charlie Burris, I went to the door and I shouted, did anybody by any chance hand in a wallet?
[20:10] And a butcher at the back says, I've just handed it in to the police station. He said, I was driving up the road and I saw a wallet, Matheson Road. I thought, oh, that's wonderful. So I went to the police station, got the wallet.
[20:23] Anyway, about half an hour later, we were having a press party meeting. And it was a busy day. There was a lot happening. And I needed the phone for that.
[20:34] This was about, what, and half an hour later, I couldn't find my phone anywhere. So I went out to the car to see, did I leave it in there? And do you know this? When I went out, on the bin was my phone on my wallet.
[20:48] It had been sitting there for the last half hour. And I said to myself, this is not just a bad memory. This is downright careless. And it got me thinking back to when I was a boy.
[21:00] And you know this, all these years later, I was careless as a boy. And I, it came back to me what my mom and dad used to say because I was, I was always like that, leaving things and losing things.
[21:14] And they always used to say to me, or often, I often got roused for being careless. And you know, it's one thing being careless about your books or your toys or your clothes.
[21:25] It's not good to be. And can I say to all the young people, don't be careless. Be careful about everything that you have. But they used to lecture me about being careless about my soul because they said, your soul is the most precious thing you have.
[21:41] It's worth more than all the money in this world. And nobody can look after it but Jesus alone. And they used to say to me, you make sure that you're not careless about your soul but that you ask Jesus to look after your soul.
[21:59] And I'm going to say the very same to you as well. Because that, what happened on Tuesday was a reminder to me just everything came back about how careless. And they used to be at me, my parents, when I wasn't seeking Jesus.
[22:13] Remember, don't be careless about your soul. And I'm going to say the same thing to you as well. Because the worst thing that could ever happen is to lose your soul.
[22:25] But if you give your life to Jesus, then your soul, your everything, is safe forever and ever. So you remember that.
[22:36] Put your trust in Jesus from the youngest age. I'm going to say the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
[22:47] 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.
[22:58] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. Amen. We're going to read God's Word now in the book of Isaiah, chapter 53.
[23:14] Isaiah, chapter 53. And this would be our in-house communion. The first Sunday in June if normal things were happening.
[23:29] So with this in mind, I want us today to look at this, something of this great prophecy regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. And then this evening, we see what God has done this morning in how he has intervened with regard to our straying.
[23:47] And this evening, we will look at the Jesus who has come and how tenderly he deals with us and invites us to come to him with all our weariness and all our burdens.
[24:01] So Isaiah 53. Who has believed what they have heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of a dry ground.
[24:16] He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
[24:29] And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
[24:39] Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his stripes we are healed.
[24:56] All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth.
[25:10] Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before it shearers are silent so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away and for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living.
[25:28] Stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.
[25:40] Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for sin he shall see his offspring he shall prolong his days.
[25:51] The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. by his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities.
[26:09] Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors yet he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
[26:27] Amen and may God bless to us this reading of his own holy word. Now I want us to focus in on verse 6. Isaiah 53 verse 6 All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[26:55] I'm sure this chapter in Isaiah is one of the best known chapters in the Old Testament and the prophecy that we have here appears before us so accurate that you would believe that Isaiah had actually been an eyewitness to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[27:17] This account is so spot on that you could almost believe that this chapter could be placed in the New Testament with the name of Jesus applied at the particular place.
[27:33] Because here we have God's great plan of salvation. Here we have God's great sovereign work and redemptive purpose in order to save his people.
[27:45] And here we have the suffering servant. Now a lot of people think when they talk of love they talk of a nice warm glow in the heart of feeling really good of just this warm feeling coming within us and just this these lovely sensations and sense of emotion within us and all of that is very true within love we have to remember that love is far deeper than that.
[28:17] And love means rolling up the sleeves and getting the hands dirty. love means getting our heart hurt. Love means getting getting into the places where it costs us the most.
[28:32] And that's why God's love as is shown to us in Jesus Christ and Christ's love to us as is shown to us in his work is a love really that is without equal anywhere in this world.
[28:49] If you want to see love in action you go to Bethlehem and go to the manger there and you see the little bay of Jesus. You hear the words of Jesus saying the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the son of man he doesn't have anywhere to lay his head.
[29:09] You hear it in the voice of Jesus saying father forgive them for they know not what they do as they hammered the nails into his hands and into his feet. You see love in its highest point in the cry of dereliction from the cross.
[29:26] Father where he's saying my God my God why hast thou forsaken me. So that really is love. So this is the great demonstration of love.
[29:41] And so we know that in the councils of eternity father and son they purposed and planned to save our lost humanity. Now in verse 5 we have this remarkable insight into Christ being our substitute.
[29:57] He's there in our place. In verse 5 we see that he was wounded for us. He was crushed for us. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with the stripes we were healed.
[30:12] Can I ask you as you look at that verse? Are you able to say Christ was wounded for my transgressions? He was crushed for my iniquity.
[30:28] Can you say that the chastisement was upon him for my peace and with his stripes I was healed?
[30:39] Are you able to say that to put you yourself personally at each point there? Because if so then you are the most privileged blessed man, woman, boy, girl in the world.
[30:54] To have had Christ do this for you to take upon yourself upon himself what you should receive from God. He's taken it.
[31:06] It's wonderful. God will say that. It means that right now you are still in the place where God can wound you because of your transgression and still crush you because of your iniquities.
[31:25] You see, it's either we take it or Christ takes it. So if you are on your own today, ask Jesus Christ to come and to take your life, to come in your place so that all this is dealt with in himself.
[31:43] And so this verse shows us that why Christ came to do what he did. Because it tells us that all we like sheep have gone astray. And the all at the beginning of the verse corresponds with the all at the end of the verse.
[31:58] Because that is involving every Christian, every believer of every age from the very dawn right down until the last believer that will be in this world takes a final breath before this world as we know it, before the curtain falls as it were on this world as we know it.
[32:23] That all at the beginning, as we say, covers every believer, to the very, very end of time, the all at the end. And we see here the universality of straying.
[32:36] All we like sheep. All of us from Adam down, we have strayed. You see, we got the straying gene from Adam. That's what Adam did.
[32:47] Adam began to stray, and we began to stray as well. And sometimes people say, well, how does it work like that? Well, we've got to remember that Adam was our head.
[33:01] And our shorter catechism, you remember, tells us a couple of things that we inherited from him. Do you remember how it says, the want or the lack of original righteousness?
[33:15] In this world, if parents die in poverty, if parents die penniless, if any parents died and they had absolutely no money, they had nothing, then they were incapable of passing anything on to their children.
[33:33] They don't have anything to pass on. And that's exactly with regard to righteousness, how it is and how it has been with Adam. Because as our head representing us all, he lost, remember, he had been made in the image of God, in knowledge, in righteousness, and in holiness.
[33:56] And when he sinned, he lost that. So he didn't have that to pass on to us. All that he had to pass on to us was the lack of what he once had.
[34:10] So that's how we are born in that condition. And then the other thing our catechism tells us is the corruption of our whole nature. Not only is there a lack of righteousness, but our whole being is corrupt.
[34:26] That's why David said that, he said, I was shapen in iniquity, in sin did my mother conceive me. So that our whole being, you see, like produces, like, if I plant potatoes, it's potatoes that I will get.
[34:40] If I plant carrots, it's carrots that you'll get. Whatever you put down, that's what will come in its place. That's what will grow. And so it is spiritually.
[34:53] Like produces like. You know, sometimes we say to ourselves, oh, well, but I had good parents. I had parents that loved the Lord, grandparents. I had a good uncle or a good, well, that's a great blessing and there's great privileges you've been prayed for.
[35:09] That's a wonderful thing. You know, we can never put a price on having parents or grandparents or some member of family praying for you.
[35:22] And let me assure you, you're prayed for every day by them. Or you were as long as they lived. And that's one of the great blessings. But like that, it doesn't, grace is not a gene that we can pass on.
[35:42] It's something that the Lord, now we know that the Lord works from the very earliest age, even works in the womb. We know that's a wonderful thing. We're told that, for instance, John the Baptist and Jeremiah, the Bible tells us that even in the womb, that the Lord touched them with his saving grace.
[36:02] He separated them, set them apart, even there. But it's by nature, we are all sinners, every single one of us. And then it tells us the manner of our straying like sheep.
[36:16] You and I know there's no animal that's more prone to straying. They just go. They go and they go and they go. And it's amazing at Fanks how you will discover sheep despite fences.
[36:28] You watch sheep, some sheep are the best vaulters in the world. They just jump over the fence. And it's amazing how you'll get sheep turning up all over the island, sheep in the west side arriving down in Harris and so on.
[36:43] And you say, how on earth is that possible? Because they stray, they go. That's what sheep do. In fact, we read in the book of Jeremiah, the Lord saying about his people, they have loved to wander.
[36:58] Is that what the Lord says of you and me? That we love to wander? I hope not. But you know, that's a natural bent, as it were, within our heart, within our life. You see, God has set a path out for us.
[37:12] But so often we wander away from that path. Sin is so powerful in our life. You and I know what it's like in the morning.
[37:22] Sometimes you have a quick time of, a quiet time when you're reading the word and having a quiet time of prayer. It might be just a short time. And as you're reading God's word, God draws very close to you.
[37:34] And you know you're saying to the Lord, and you're saying to the Lord, Lord, I really want to walk close to you today. I want every step to be in step with you. Lord, I do not want to be straying in any shape or form.
[37:49] And yet very, sometimes only moments after that, a thought comes into your mind, or a certain look or something, and unless it's checked right away, it's gone.
[38:03] You're gone. In no time at all, from there with that great desire to this be a day where you're really going to walk with the Lord, you check yourself a while after and you realize, I'm gone.
[38:16] I've gone off that path. I'm straying already. And that's how we are. There's this bent within us, this incredible desire towards sin.
[38:30] And so, sin is, you see, the thing is, we're used to sin because we're sinners and we side with sin. That's what made Jesus so different because he saw sin for what it really is.
[38:44] He saw its ugliness, its heinousness, how repulsive it really is, and yet, Jesus was exactly the inner nature. But the thing is, irrespective of how godly a person is, they still have indwelling sin.
[39:01] And sin sides with sin. And the thing is, we become tolerant of sin and used to it. And sin is often so packaged so attractively.
[39:13] And the zero tolerance that we should have rarely applies within our life. And so we wander. We all wander. And you know that straying sheep are in a dangerous place.
[39:27] And you know when you're out for a walk, sometimes you'll see a sheep, the carcass of a sheep lying maybe at the bottom of a cliff. It's fallen over.
[39:38] Or maybe dead in a swamp at the top. It couldn't get out. A straying sheep is always in a place of vulnerability. And so it is with us. Sometimes you see, I remember a couple of times, seeing it actually happening.
[39:53] We're trying to get hold of a sheep on a cliff. If it jumped, it jumped to its death. up was impossible. It had managed to get down onto this ledge, but it was stuck.
[40:04] The only way possible was the rescue of the sheep by the shepherd or whoever. God is that's really how it is for us by nature as well. We are stuck on the ledge of sin.
[40:18] And the only hope for us, the only recovery for us is by the good shepherd being lowered down from heaven to lay hold upon us and take us to himself.
[40:31] And if you've never had the touch of the shepherd on your hand and in your heart, ask him today, Lord, save me. I'm in a precarious spot. I'm on a ledge here. And I'm, as it were, just dangling over a pit.
[40:47] Lord, save me. You know, if you cry that, the Lord will save you. And it tells us here that we have all, notice what it says, all we like sheep have gone astray.
[40:57] We have turned everyone to his own way. Although everybody strays, you see, here to a certain extent, we see that while there's a general manner of straying, our departing and straying from the Lord can be very personal, very individual.
[41:15] Like, for instance, the apostle Paul would say, oh, you know, my great sin was I was a persecutor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Speak to Zacchaeus and he said, you know, I was a covetous thief.
[41:27] That was the main bent of his life was covetousness and pocketing. Speak to Manasseh and say, I was an idolater.
[41:40] I was a murderous idolater who hated the cause of Christ. Speak to so many of the different people. And there was, yes, we all stray, but so often it's individual, the particular weaknesses that we're on.
[41:57] And you see, the Bible talks about a broad road and a narrow road. On the broad road, it accommodates every kind of sin, every kind of weakness. It's all there.
[42:09] But the narrow way is so different. On the narrow way, there's only one way, and that is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we see, we're just skipping through this, we see very briefly the remedy that is given.
[42:23] And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So he said, here we are, lost, helpless, completely unable to do anything for ourselves.
[42:35] And as we said, here's the great display of love. Where God the Father put our iniquities, he laid them, that's what it says. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[42:49] Now the word laid doesn't carry the violence, doesn't convey to us the violence that's attached to that word. This word really means a violent collision, to strike violently.
[43:08] And that's what happened to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was struck violently. There was a violent collision took place on the cross of Christ.
[43:20] Where our sins were violently placed upon him, hit him. And the word iniquity, as I say, uses it here, has reference not only to the actual transgression, but also to the guilt that's associated with sin, and also the punishment that follows.
[43:43] So the Lord has struck Jesus Christ violently, and he's laid on him violently all our sin, and all the guilt that is attached to that sin, and all the punishment that that sin deserves.
[44:04] Isn't that amazing? That's what's really caught up in that verse. all our sin, and all the guilt attached to that sin, and all the punishment that that sin deserves, all that has been violently collided, as it were, upon Christ on the cross.
[44:29] And that really is quite extraordinary. And when we think, as we said earlier, the Lord Jesus, he had such a hatred of sin, he saw sin for all the ugliness and the offensiveness that it was.
[44:44] It's no wonder that he sweated as it were drops of blood in the garden, when he anticipated, with fear and dread, this violent collision that was to take place, where he was to bear upon himself all the...
[44:59] You know what it's like when you feel really guilty about something, when you feel ashamed and guilty about something. or you were, when you think back of days, maybe you were punished for something.
[45:13] Well, Jesus is anticipating with dread and with horror that he is to take all the punishment and all the guilt of our sin, all of us, everyone, the all at the beginning and the all at the end of that verse, all upon himself on the cross.
[45:32] his holy soul, no wonder it was reclining in horror at what he was to do. But you know, the wonderful thing is that God is altogether just, altogether right.
[45:48] And he will never, ever, ever, ever strike violently. He will never place the punishment and guilt of anybody's sin on themselves if Jesus has borne it.
[46:05] Because God is just, absolutely just. And if Jesus has borne your sins and all the guilt of your sin and all that's caught up in that, then that's it.
[46:17] The prison door is open for you. The condemnation that is spoken about, it's lifted off. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. You're a free man, a free woman, a free boy, a free girl.
[46:32] That's it. It's all been taken care of. And that's the wonder of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what we would be remembering if the situation permitted, where we would be gathering around the Lord's table to remember just what it is that he has done for us.
[46:53] And we will hopefully in the not too distant future be able to do that again until he come. If Jesus has never taken your sin on himself, ask him today to do just that.
[47:09] Let us pray. Lord, our God, we give thanks for being able to reflect upon your word for a wee while and ask that this word will go deep down into our souls.
[47:20] We give thanks for the wonderful work of Calvary. We give thanks, Lord, for the great planning and purpose that went on in the councils of eternity. And so often when we stop and reflect we say, I'm not worthy of these things.
[47:34] Of course we're not. But that's love, that's grace. And so Lord, we pray that we might give thanks for your great love and great grace today. Do us good then, we pray, cleansing us from our sin.
[47:46] In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. We're going to conclude singing from Psalm 119 in the Scottish Psalter.
[47:58] Psalm 119 and verses 172 to the end. And again, you did really well there because it's difficult.
[48:09] We're very muffled with the masks, but you did very well. That came across well. We'll do so again. Psalm 119 from verse 172.
[48:21] It's on page 415. My tongue of thy most blessed word shall speak and it confess, because all thy commandments are perfect righteousness. Let thy strong hand make help to me, thy precepts are my choice.
[48:36] I long for thy salvation, Lord, and in thy law rejoice. O let my soul live, and it shall give praises unto thee, and let thy judgments gracious be helpful unto me.
[48:48] I, like a lost sheep, went astray, thy servant seek and find, for thy commands I suffered not to slip out of my mind. I just want to say how good, it's lovely to see the little ones here and how good you've been in the service.
[49:05] I know that you long to be able to get back to tweenies, to Sunday school, and creche, and everything, but it's lovely to see here. Psalm 119 verse 172.
[49:16] Psalm 119 My tongue of thy most blessed word shall seek and live confess worth a gebrutening voice love in pends worth in night and give to me thy peace and my joy I long for thy salvation
[50:19] Lord and in thy joy rejoice O let thy soul live on his child give praises unto thee and let thy judgment grieve shall me and pull unto me I like a bull she breath astray thy servants seek and fight for thy commands thy sovereign
[51:35] Lord to slip out of my mind now may the grace, mercy, and peace of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rest and abide upon each one of you now and forevermore. Amen.