[0:00] how far I could go. You know what it says? Don't try this at home. Well, that's what I'm going to say. Don't try this at home. But it was only at home and roundabout. But I stopped doing it because I used to get often, I used to get fall, trip, bang. And I remember one particularly bad bang I got. My nose was really bleeding. But I tripped. And I think that's probably when I stopped doing it. But I don't know why sometimes when people are wee, they do things that when you get older, you say, why did I do that? But I wanted to see what it was like in a world where I couldn't see and how far I could get going around. And it's something I still find amazing how it must be one of the worst things where a person loses their sight. And it's amazing how people, how they cope and how much they're able to do when they've lost their sight. I suppose there are times maybe if you get up in the night and you don't put on the light. Suppose you go to the toilet and you don't put on the light. Sometimes you have to feel your way or sometimes you have a good idea where you're going. But normally as we go about, we've got a light to see where we're going. We know where we're going. But you know, sometimes when we step out by faith, when we begin to follow God, it's almost like stepping out into the dark. It's not altogether stepping out into the dark. But sometimes we're just not too sure what's going to happen or where we're going to go. The great picture in the Bible of that is Abraham because God called Abraham to leave his home, his country, his people, his everything, and to go out and follow him. And he didn't know where he was going. Now that's amazing. If you went onto the ferry and you saw one of your friends and you went up to them and I said, where are you going?
[2:02] And they said, I don't know. You'd say to yourself, you're going away, but you've no idea where you're going. You would find that strange. But if you met Abraham way back all these years and you saw Abraham and Sarah and their family moving off, you'd say, where are you going, Abraham? I don't know, but I'm going somewhere. God is going to lead me. God has told me to leave here and he's going to show me. So in a sense, Abraham was going out in the dark at one sense, but his trust was in God.
[2:45] Now, what is it to trust? Well, when you trust, for instance, when you come in today, you sat in a seat because you trusted that that seat would hold you up. You didn't come in and you didn't start feeling it. Maybe putting your knee on it and testing it out and say, yeah, I think that'll do it. You just sat on it because you believed the seat would hold you up. That is, you trusted the seat. You believed that that seat would do what it's supposed to do. And in a sense, that's what we're doing with God.
[3:19] We're believing in him. We're trusting him to do what he has said. And so that's what Abraham did. He went out, trusting God, believing that God would do what he said. And that's what God wants us to do as well, to trust ourselves to him. We think maybe, maybe you're here today and you say, I know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow. And probably that's what will happen, but it might not. Tomorrow might really change for you. Something might happen that will change your Monday completely. We don't know.
[3:55] And that's why it's so important that we go out trusting in the Lord who knows what's ahead. And that's why he says, you put your hand in my hand. That is trusting me and I'll lead you and I'll take you home with myself. That's a great thing that we could do. We're going to sing again Psalm 46. And this is from Sing Psalm, Psalm number 46, verses 1 to 7. Sing Psalm, Psalm 46.
[4:31] 46a. It's on page 59. God is our refuge and our strength, our ever-present aid. And therefore, though the earth gives way, we will not be afraid. Though mountains fall into the sea, the waters foam and roar, we will not fear, though mountains quake as waves engulf the shore. A river flows whose streams delight the city of our God, the holy place in which the Lord, most high, has his abode. And so on, Psalm 46, 1 to 7. God is our refuge and our strength.
[5:07] God is our refuge and our strength. God is our refuge and our strength.
[5:19] God is our refuge and our strength. And therefore, though the earth gives way, we will not be afraid. And therefore, though the earth gives way, we will not be afraid. The mountains falling to the sea, the God is our refuge and our strength. The mountains falling to the sea, the waters fall and roar, we will not hear.
[6:04] The mountains falling as waves engulf the shore.
[6:16] A river, oh, true streams delight, the city of our God, the holy place in which the Lord, most high, has his The Lunar� Children's Speakers Chане On His Holy Place The shit he will not come I pray of cap To be our help and shield
[7:23] The nations are in disarray The kingdoms disappear God's peace and God is mighty white The whole earth melts with fear The Lord Almighty is with us To strengthen and sustain For Jacob's Lord Our strong defense And fortress will remain
[8:28] Let's turn to read God's word in Matthew's gospel Matthew chapter 26 Matthew chapter 26 And we'll read from verse 36 Matthew 26 verse 36 Then Jesus went with them To a place called Gethsemane And he said to his disciples Sit here while I go over there and pray And taking with him Peter And the two sons of Zebedee He began to be sorrowful and troubled Then he said to them My soul is very sorrowful even to death Remain here and watch with me And going a little further He fell on his face and prayed Saying My father If it be possible
[9:28] Let this cup pass from me Nevertheless not as I will But as you will And he came to the disciples And found them sleeping And he said to Peter So could you not watch with me one hour Watch and pray That you may not enter into temptation The spirit indeed is willing But the flesh is weak Again for the second time He went away and prayed My father If this cannot pass Unless I drink it Your will be done And again he came And found them sleeping For their eyes were heavy So leaving them again He went away And prayed for the third time Saying the same words Then he came to the disciples And said to them Sleep And take your rest later on See The hour is at hand And the Son of Man Is betrayed Into the hands of sinners Rise Let us be going See My betrayer is at hand While he was still speaking
[10:29] Judas came One of the twelve And with him a great crowd With swords and clubs From the chief priests And the elders of the people Now the betrayer Had given them a sign Saying The one I will kiss Is the man Seize him And he came to Jesus At once And said Greetings Rabbi And he kissed him Jesus said to him Friend Do what you came to do And they came up And laid hands on Jesus And seized him Amen And may God bless to us This reading of his own Holy word We're going to sing again Now in Psalm 31 From Sing Psalm Psalm number 31 And we're going to sing From verse 13 to 20 Psalm 31 From Sing Psalms Verse 13 It's on page 37 I hear the slander Many spread And terror stalks me
[11:30] All the way Against my enemies Conspire They plot To take my life away But as for me I trust you Lord I say you are My God alone My times are ever In your hands Save me from foes Who hunt me down Upon your servant Shine your face Save me in your unfailing love Lord Let me not be put to shame For I have cried To God above Verses 13 to 20 Of Psalm 31 On page 37 I hear the slander Many spread And terror Stoves me All the way Against the enemies
[12:33] Conspire Conspire With hope To take my life away To take my life away But as for me I trust you Lord I say you are My God alone My times are ever In your hands Save me From foes to undead To love To love Be done Upon your servant Shine your face Save me In your unfailing love
[13:39] Lord Lord Let me not be put to shame For I have cried To God above But let the wicked suffer shame And silent in the grave of life And silent in the grave of life Suppress the lying list Which speak against the just With hope divine Your goodness Your goodness Your goodness Lord Is very great
[14:42] Prepare for those Who feel your name You show your goodness Hope and lead to all Through your protection Through your protection Your presence hides Your presence hides Your presence hides Your presence hides And shelters them From those who've come To take their life And in your tent You keep them safe From evil times that stir up strife Let's turn now to John's Gospel
[15:48] John's Gospel Chapter 18 John Chapter 18 And we'll read from the beginning there John's Gospel Chapter 18 And we read the first nine verses John 18 From the beginning When Jesus had spoken these words He went out with his disciples Across the Kidron Valley Where there was a garden Which he and his disciples entered Now Judas who betrayed him Also knew the place For Jesus often met there With his disciples So Judas having procured A band of soldiers And some officers From the chief priests And the Pharisees Went there with lanterns And torches And weapons Then Jesus Knowing all that would happen To him Came forward And said to them Whom do you seek?
[16:43] Who do you seek? They answered him Jesus of Nazareth Jesus said to them I am he Judas who betrayed him Was standing with them When Jesus said to them I am They drew back And fell to the ground So he asked them again Whom do you seek?
[17:04] They said Jesus of Nazareth Jesus answered I told you That I am he So if you seek me Let these men go This was to fulfill The word that he had spoken Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one Not one There is a sense of inevitability About what is to take place As we know The previous chapters Were chapters of intimacy Where Jesus was Having a time of fellowship Communion Of teaching Of instruction Of his disciples And then from there Moved into what we have been looking at The high priestly prayer Where Jesus has been praying About himself And his own relationship With the father And his particular role And also then praying About his immediate disciples Praying for them
[18:05] And then praying for All his people Down throughout all the generations But now Jesus moves on From there And we pick this up Where Jesus with his disciples Comes across the Kidron Valley To the garden And we believe this of course Being the garden Of Gethsemane And there is a place Where Jesus often went With the disciples We read that It is Jesus often met There with the disciples And Jesus knew That he had come to die And he knew now That the time The heavenly timetable The clock of heaven Was beginning to chime The hour had come Because very interesting We are told that In verse 4 Then Jesus Knowing all that would happen To him Came forward So Jesus Isn't somebody Who is going forward Into the unknown Blind so to speak In the way that We might go
[19:06] We might go He knew He knew Why he was here He knew Who he was There was this Sense of identity This sense of purpose In everything that Jesus was doing And we have got to Emphasize that Because some people Have the idea That the cross Was a terrible tragedy I have even heard it Spoken of within Christian circles Of the tragedy Of the cross And while from a human Point of view Everything about it Was awful And the whole betrayal The trial Just the flogging And the actual crucifixion The whole thing Is really a horror story You could say that Yet it's not a tragedy Because it is glorious We talk of the glory Of the cross Because this was all Part of God's appointment Yes man exercised His own free will And the worst
[20:08] Of man Came to the surface As they vented Their hatred Against Jesus Christ And yet It was all part Of what God's appointment That his son Was going to die So there is no tragedy With regard to the cross Because a lot of people Look at Jesus And they say A lot of people will say He was a great person Great man Radical for his time And he came And he set up This amazing lifestyle And he lived the life But you know His whole vision Died with his mission On the cross And there are people Who actually Influential people Who look on Jesus As a type of loser Of somebody Who had great ideas Who was a great person And wanted to influence People for good But that he failed Well that Is absolute nonsense Because the Bible Makes it absolutely clear That Jesus was in control
[21:10] All the time And that every step He took Was keeping it According to the timetable That had been set Before him He was always Fulfilling the father's will There was no loss Nothing Losing about this This is triumph This is victory Again there are other people Who look on Jesus And they kind of think That he went to the cross That he fulfilled his work Like some kind of Super hero Or super man Who was Immune As it were From all the suffering And all the distress That was round Well again That's not true We find Jesus On various occasions We saw that saying For instance Up in the upper room He said Now is my soul troubled It talks about The distress of Jesus In the other gospels When we read about Jesus In the garden of Gethsemane Praying We read about how In his great agony There were like drops of blood
[22:10] As he was sweating Drops of blood The intensity The ferocity Of the struggle Was so great So at no point Are we ever to think That Jesus Was immune To all the suffering And the pain And the distress That was around him He felt it Every single step Of the way But he was still In control And so we find That Jesus comes To this garden And we read That this is a garden That he obviously loved And he and his disciples Entered For Jesus Often met With his disciples So this place Would have been A place of seclusion A place of fellowship And a place of prayer And yet this place Which would have been I'm sure A place of many blessings In Jesus' experience In this world Turned into be A place of conflict It was a place Where Not only he met With the Lord
[23:10] But where Satan came forward To do his very worst And we shouldn't Be surprised Sometimes In our prayer life When we also Enter into conflict Sometimes we think That prayer Is simply going to be A time of blessing But there are times When the forces Of darkness Will try To interrupt us In prayer And there are times Where prayer Does become A battle Where there is Conflict And we find this In Jesus' experience But we see here That the time has come And we see Everything about it Shows how voluntary Jesus is Because if Jesus Was wanting to avoid Arrest and capture The last place He would go to Would be to the garden He went to the garden Because it was a place He often went to And we also It's very interesting It tells us in verse 2
[24:11] Now Judas Who betrayed him Also knew the place For Jesus often met With his disciples there So Jesus is going To the one spot Where he knows That Judas Is most likely To lead The band of soldiers So that Knocks forever On the head That Jesus Was arrested Just That he didn't know What was happening He knew Absolutely everything And so we find Judas And he's leading And it's a huge band We find There's representatives From the Pharisees From the priests But there's also The temple police And there's also A band of soldiers Now The garrison Of the Roman soldiers Usually stayed down In Caesarea But at the time Of feasts They would be deployed To Jerusalem Because there was Such an influx Of people So every time There would be The feasts The Roman soldiers The presence Of the Roman soldiers Would be seen
[25:12] And experienced In Jerusalem So a band Of these Roman soldiers Was procured So we find here There's a great crowd There's the temple police There are representatives From the priests And from the Pharisees And there are There's Judas Leading the Lord And these hardened Roman soldiers And here they come With their weapons With their lanterns With their torches And as they come To Jesus Jesus takes the initiative And he asks the question Whom do you seek?
[25:46] And they said Jesus of Nazareth Now when Jesus answered He actually only used Two words Although it's got here The translators Have put They've added I am He Originally All it says I am When Jesus When they ask Whom do you seek?
[26:03] And they say Jesus of Nazareth Jesus said I am Now again That statement Is loaded Because we know That throughout The Old Testament The Lord revealed Himself As the I am Remember when he Called Moses At the burning bush And Moses was asking When Moses was saying When I go Into Egypt And to Pharaoh And Pharaoh's You know Who am I going to say Has sent me Who is commanding To let the people go And remember The Lord said I am I am I sent you This is his great Declaration His self declaration Declaring that he is The Lord On Remember Wednesday We were looking at Jesus Saying that He was That When the truth Sets you free You will be free Indeed When we read Through that chapter How Jesus had This discussion
[27:04] With Non-believing Jews And They were saying To him They were trying This argument About Abraham And they said You are not yet Fifty Remember how they were saying You are not yet Fifty And you are saying That You were Before Abraham That Abraham Saw your day And remember What Jesus said To the Jews I say to you Before Abraham Was I am Not I He didn't say Before Abraham Was I was He said Before Abraham Was I am I am I am without Beginning and without End My being is not Derived from Any other I am not dependent Upon any other For my being Here is The second Passion of the Godhead Yes in human Nature But he is He is God Of very God He is the I am And so this is
[28:04] What Jesus Says And you know This is one of the Things that I sometimes stop And I think Right About people There are There's an explosion Of religions Around and about And there are so many People And they'll say Oh this is This is the way And that's the way Well if you Examine All the other Religions All the representatives That have come Have come They make out That they've come From God Or they've sent By God Or prophets Or seers Or sages Or whatever None of them Will say I am The God I am God They will say We've come to show You the way to God Here is somebody Who is saying I am I am God I haven't come Just to show you The way to God I have come To save you Because I am God And that's what I find very distressing
[29:04] Who people just Dismiss Christianity Because nobody else In the world Is making this claim This is the most Extraordinary claim Made by anyone I am I am God And yet people Dismiss Christ They dismiss Jesus Oh yes He's a great prophet And they That's it If you study The scripture The prophecies Regarding Jesus And study his life There is no Equal Anywhere in the world Nobody ever Ever Ever Ever Resembled Jesus Either with regard To prophecy Or life In this world He stands Alone Unique And that is why It is It is really Quite extraordinary How people just Dismiss As if It's just Somebody else Another choice To follow this Or to dismiss I am The way I am
[30:05] The truth I am The life Jesus says And then After Jesus Says I am Something Quite amazing Happens Whom do you seek They answered Jesus of Nazareth Jesus said To them I am Judas Who betrayed The most standing With them When Jesus Said I am Notice what Happens Verse 6 They drew back And fell To the ground Isn't that Extraordinary Here's this band Every one of them The soldiers The temple police Here are hardened Roman soldiers As disciplined As tough Battle hardened Men And they draw back And they are thrown To the ground Every one of them Falls to the ground Backwards It's quite an Extraordinary Moment What has Happened I believe It's just One Little Glimpse Of the glory
[31:07] Of Jesus Christ That is Veiled Remember His glory In this world Is veiled For a moment It's like a beam Of his glory Has shone out And no one Can stand In the presence Of the Lord We're told that In scripture There are lots Of examples Of this very thing Happening You remember When Solomon Was dedicating The temple And we find The priests Broaden the ark Into the temple And the glory Of the Lord Began to fill The temple In the demonstration Of by A cloud So it tells us The priests Could no longer Stand to minister For the glory Of the Lord Filled the house All these priests Who had come in They fell To the ground You go right Through the Bible As God reveals Himself to Ezekiel At the beginning Of Ezekiel We find the very Same thing Such was the Appearance Of the glory
[32:08] Of the glory Of the Lord When I saw Him I fell To my face And I heard The voice Speaking That's Ezekiel Saul of Tarshish Riding down To Damascus Jesus Reveals Himself In his glory Saul falls To the ground Blind Can't see Can't stand John in Revelation Gets a glimpse Of the glory Of Jesus He falls At his feet As one dead It happens All the time This is What No Person Can stand In the presence Of the Lord And Jesus Is giving His accusers His enemies It's just A beam Just this It's like a blink Just like a blink Of his glory And they Draw backwards And fall To the ground Quite an extraordinary Moment They must have All one What on earth Happened there You know
[33:09] If you're ever In the presence Of someone Who's really Great Somebody Who has Achieved Something great In this world Or somebody Because they're Supposing it was Royalty or whatever And you were there In the immediate Presence And you had to Do something And their eyes They're watching you You'd feel Kind of nervous You'd say Oh Because you've Got this sense Of here I'm in the Presence of Greatness Well multiply This a million Billion Zillion Times Here we are In the presence Of divine Greatness And you know This is You know what I can't help But think about This is That everybody Is one day Going to have To stand In the presence Of the Lord At the day Of judgment And you know The Bible Tells us Very clearly If thou Shouldst mark Iniquity Oh Lord Who shall Stand therein Isn't that a thought The only way That we can stand We're told In the Bible And the day Of judgment Is if we are
[34:10] Standing in Jesus We're not standing In our own worth But in him And if he is our Lord If he is our king Then we're going To be able to stand It's the only way We can stand Otherwise We will collapse Remember Isaiah Isaiah got this picture This vision of Jesus We read about it In Isaiah chapter 6 Of the Lord Lifted up High and lifted up And what was Isaiah's reaction Oh woe is me For I am undone I'm falling apart I'm coming apart I'm unraveling That's really what it means In the presence of the Lord I am collapsing How great will the collapse Be on the day of judgment If we have no covering And you know We've all to appear Bible tells us that We have all to appear Before the judgment seat Of Christ Every single one of us
[35:12] And we cannot stand If iniquity Is marked Against us And so there's this Quite amazing Moment I wonder Afterwards What these men Would have thought About it But at the moment Anyway we find They regroup And Jesus said To them again He asked the question I am he So he asked again Whom do you seek And they said Jesus of Nazareth Jesus answered I told you That I am he So if you seek me Let those men go And again we see This wonderful moment From Jesus Because you've got to remember These men here Are hardened soldiers Right Soldiers These are trained killers These are ruthless men Who would as quickly Slit a person's throat As swat a fly And they've come up To do business Here are the followers Of Jesus And it would be Very easy
[36:12] To think Right We'll take Jesus We'll kill His followers But Jesus says Let them go Yes Some of them Were to lay down Their life for Jesus But they weren't ready For that yet Some of them Like James Was going to suffer Quite shortly After that But Jesus is saying Let them go And it's a command It's not just a request It's a command Let them go Yes they're going to go But in this moment We have a picture Of Jesus' substitutionary work Me for them Take me But let them go And that's what the gospel Is all about In this little part here We have the whole Of the gospel message Me for them That's what Jesus is saying And he's still saying The exact same thing Today Because the law Is demanding Our death The law Is saying
[37:13] You shall die Jesus is saying To the law Let them go Because I have put myself Under the curse Of the law I have received The whole punishment Of the law For them They must go free And today In Jesus Christ We have freedom Because of what He has done The great question Is this For you Have you taken Jesus As your own Lord And Savior Remember what we said Jesus alone Makes claims That are The claims we have In scripture No other person Ever Ever In the history Of the world Has ever had A prophecy Written Fulfilled And taught And declared As Jesus did We believe this
[38:15] Do we accept it Are we ready today To say Right Lord You are who you are You are king I need you Because otherwise My life I am all on my own Jesus says You don't need to be I will be with you I will be with you In life I will be with you In death I will be with you In the judgment I will own you up I will acknowledge you As belonging to myself You will stand Because you are standing In me There is No other way Let us pray Lord our God Lord we We give thanks For the word That we have And being brought Face to face With the reality And with the power Of Jesus We give thanks That this is A living word That is able To bring life And meaning And hope Into people's lives And experience And we pray Today That our hearts Will be stirred up
[39:15] So that we will Know your blessing And your enriching Within our lives Oh Lord Do us good We pray And guide us And keep us As we go on our way Be with us In land Sea and air Be with us In all the different places As they journey Through life Watch over us And bless the cup of tea In the hall After For giving us Our sin In Jesus name Amen Our concluding psalm Is Psalm 130 We quoted from it Psalm 130 And it's from The Scottish Psalter And we sing The whole psalm Psalm 130 Lord from the depths To thee I cried My voice Lord do thou hear And to my supplications Voice Give an attentive ear Lord who shall stand If thou O Lord Shouldst mark iniquity And here's the great thing But yet With thee Forgivenesses
[40:15] That feared Thou mayest be I wait for God My soul doth wait My hope is in his word More than they That for morning watch My soul waits For the Lord So on page 421 Psalm 130 In the Scottish Psalter Lord from the depths To thee I cried Lord from the depths To thee I cried My voice Lord do thou hear Come to my soul congratulations To be valeur
[41:16] Shrews my dignity But yet with thee forgivenesses That fear thou mayest fear I wait for God my soul that way My hope is in His word For now may that for more reward My soul is far alone I say, Lord, am they after watch
[42:20] The morning light to see Let is I have hope in the Lord For with Him mercy be And when Diaz's redemption Is ever found within And from all His iniquities He is the chari 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.