WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.960 in our worship this evening, singing in Psalm 75, Psalm number 75, that's in the Sing Psalms version, 00:00:09.200 --> 00:00:15.259 page 98. We're singing to Tchun Malan, verses 1 to 10, the whole of the psalm. 00:00:16.260 --> 00:00:22.240 We give you thanks, O God, because your name is near. All speak of your majestic deeds, 00:00:22.339 --> 00:00:27.320 your voice we also hear. I choose the appointed time, I judge with justice sure, 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:36.159 when earth and all its people quake, its pillars I secure. Psalm 75, these verses to God's praise. 00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:37.100 We stand to sing. 00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:22.319 We give you thanks, O God, because your name is near. I choose the appointed time, I judge with justice sure, 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:37.319 when earth and all its people quake, its pillars I secure. 00:01:37.319 --> 00:02:02.359 O God, I tell the pride, the wicked I am rest. Do not lift up your heads with pride, 00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:22.360 or speak with thoughtiness. No one in all the earth can truly give freedom. 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:46.620 God is the judge. He raises one, and puts another down. The Lord's handholds are come, 00:02:46.620 --> 00:03:09.280 with one of our full end. He pours it out, and wicked ones must drink it to the end. 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:24.080 God's words I will proclaim, and Jacob's Lord I'll praise. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:39.760 The wicked strength I will destroy, the righteous I will raise. 00:03:42.760 --> 00:03:46.560 Let's join together once again in prayer. Let's call upon the Lord in prayer. 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:57.140 O Lord our God, every part of your word reveals aspects of your being and of your works. 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:01.120 And we thank you that in these words we have been singing together, 00:04:02.020 --> 00:04:06.259 you are also revealed to us as the one who is sovereign over all your creation. 00:04:07.319 --> 00:04:10.699 And we thank you, Lord, that whatever your word reveals about you, 00:04:10.900 --> 00:04:15.400 your people are always concerned to believe and to act accordingly. 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:20.980 And we pray tonight for the help of your Holy Spirit to enable us to do so, 00:04:21.220 --> 00:04:26.939 that when you bring to us such declarations against wickedness and sin and evil, 00:04:27.420 --> 00:04:29.759 we might tremble at these threatenings. 00:04:30.660 --> 00:04:33.660 And we might also, Lord, in the same exercise of faith, 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:39.379 come to rejoice in your promises and gather for ourselves the many promises 00:04:39.379 --> 00:04:41.399 addressed to your believing people. 00:04:41.399 --> 00:04:47.439 O Lord, we thank you once again that we are gathered here this evening in this place of worship. 00:04:48.379 --> 00:04:52.339 We pray that as we attend to all aspects of your worship, 00:04:52.939 --> 00:04:55.719 that we may do so in reliance upon your Holy Spirit. 00:04:56.599 --> 00:04:59.339 We thank you that your Spirit is the leader of our praise, 00:05:00.159 --> 00:05:01.379 the leader of our prayers, 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:03.319 the leader of our thoughts, 00:05:03.779 --> 00:05:06.279 as we give our mind to the teaching of your word. 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:12.879 Lord, we thank you, Lord, that we can look to you as the disciples long ago looked to you 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:17.000 and as they sought that you would increase their faith. 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:19.679 So we pray the same, Lord, this evening. 00:05:20.379 --> 00:05:24.339 We thank you that you're the one who meets your people in all their need, 00:05:25.139 --> 00:05:31.119 that you provide for us your word that is sufficient to meet all our situations in life. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:36.040 We thank you, Lord, that you took account of all our circumstances, 00:05:36.519 --> 00:05:39.000 even in this very age that we belong to, 00:05:39.620 --> 00:05:42.360 when you caused your word to be written over generations. 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:47.699 We thank you, therefore, that your word is so relevant to our needs today, 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:51.340 as it has always been for every generation of your church. 00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:56.060 We thank you that whatever changes do take place in the world, 00:05:56.060 --> 00:06:02.780 that your word, Lord, is always adequate to meet and instruct us in regard to these changes. 00:06:03.860 --> 00:06:08.620 We ask then, Lord, for your blessing once again on our gathering here this evening. 00:06:09.240 --> 00:06:12.740 We pray that you would work in our minds to focus upon you 00:06:12.740 --> 00:06:15.939 and to have our minds set upon those things 00:06:15.939 --> 00:06:18.840 that are to do with your glory and your praise 00:06:18.840 --> 00:06:21.459 and with our own betterment and good. 00:06:22.379 --> 00:06:23.720 And we give thanks, O Lord, 00:06:23.720 --> 00:06:26.720 that this is how you deal with your people, 00:06:27.520 --> 00:06:28.920 that you work in their lives, 00:06:29.140 --> 00:06:33.400 so that through their experiences and through the leadership of your Spirit, 00:06:34.060 --> 00:06:37.340 you bring them to learn from day to day and week by week 00:06:37.340 --> 00:06:40.080 those things that pertain to your kingdom, 00:06:40.780 --> 00:06:41.960 to their place in it, 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:46.360 to this time that we have in this world and to eternity. 00:06:47.440 --> 00:06:50.060 Bless us once again, we pray, then, as a congregation. 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:53.580 We thank you for all that takes place in our midst. 00:06:53.720 --> 00:06:56.720 For the gospel that we have so precious, 00:06:57.220 --> 00:07:00.540 so foundational, Lord, to our congregational life. 00:07:01.320 --> 00:07:05.140 We thank you for all else that accompanies the worship services here. 00:07:05.640 --> 00:07:09.820 And we do pray that you would bless every type of gathering and activity 00:07:09.820 --> 00:07:13.720 that seeks to bring the message of your truth 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:16.380 into the lives of young and old alike. 00:07:16.379 --> 00:07:19.139 And we pray for your blessing, O Lord, 00:07:19.379 --> 00:07:25.339 in days to come that these further activities and meetings will be blessed. 00:07:26.159 --> 00:07:27.379 Bless our young people. 00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:28.800 Bless our children. 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:31.379 Bless them in our homes and families. 00:07:32.259 --> 00:07:33.939 Bless them as they attend day school. 00:07:34.740 --> 00:07:35.939 We give thanks, O Lord, 00:07:36.019 --> 00:07:38.480 for the provision that you make for us 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:40.699 through the teaching that is received. 00:07:40.699 --> 00:07:46.979 And we pray where teaching is now being brought to our notice 00:07:46.979 --> 00:07:52.659 and being introduced throughout our land that is contrary to your word. 00:07:53.379 --> 00:07:56.379 May your people, Lord, help in their prayers 00:07:56.379 --> 00:07:58.959 and in their instruction of our young people. 00:07:59.800 --> 00:08:01.060 May we find, O Lord, 00:08:01.159 --> 00:08:06.199 that your own word is always adequate to counteract the pressures of the world. 00:08:06.199 --> 00:08:08.439 We pray for our young people. 00:08:08.579 --> 00:08:11.319 We pray that they will be advanced by you 00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:13.420 in the knowledge of your truth, 00:08:13.659 --> 00:08:16.240 in holiness and righteousness of life, 00:08:16.719 --> 00:08:19.399 in conduct that is becoming of your own people. 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:20.939 We ask, O Lord, 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:22.879 that every effort made to teach them, 00:08:23.279 --> 00:08:26.219 both at home and in Sunday school and in church, 00:08:26.719 --> 00:08:28.060 will be blessed by you. 00:08:28.719 --> 00:08:31.199 And we thank you for the opportunities that you give us 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:32.960 to interact with them, 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:36.039 to assure them of our love and of our concern, 00:08:36.820 --> 00:08:41.000 to assure them that they are a valued part of our congregational life, 00:08:41.700 --> 00:08:42.780 and to assure them, Lord, 00:08:42.879 --> 00:08:46.379 that we too pray for them and remember them, 00:08:47.040 --> 00:08:48.900 for we have been where they are 00:08:48.900 --> 00:08:51.200 as we were their age at one time. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:55.520 And we pray that your gospel especially will be blessed to them, 00:08:55.940 --> 00:08:57.540 and that they may come to love you 00:08:57.540 --> 00:08:59.940 and to follow you all their days. 00:09:00.680 --> 00:09:03.100 We ask your blessing to be tonight 00:09:03.100 --> 00:09:04.860 with those who cannot be with us. 00:09:04.860 --> 00:09:07.320 We know that there are many of our number, Lord, 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:09.240 confined to their homes, 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:10.820 confined to care homes, 00:09:11.539 --> 00:09:12.480 who are in hospital, 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:16.659 and who have other reasons for not being able to be here this evening. 00:09:17.379 --> 00:09:18.340 Remember them, Lord, 00:09:18.340 --> 00:09:20.620 especially those with health issues, 00:09:21.180 --> 00:09:23.540 whether physical or mental health issues. 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:24.860 We ask, Lord, 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:25.960 that you would bless them. 00:09:26.540 --> 00:09:28.100 Be pleased to draw near to them. 00:09:28.580 --> 00:09:30.480 Be pleased to lay your own hand upon them. 00:09:31.139 --> 00:09:33.100 Grant to them blessing from your Word 00:09:33.100 --> 00:09:37.600 that we'll be able to meet their situations at this time. 00:09:38.620 --> 00:09:41.160 Remember all who are seriously ill, 00:09:41.280 --> 00:09:42.280 we pray for them, 00:09:42.279 --> 00:09:45.259 and ask again that you would draw near to them, Lord. 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:48.299 And as we find from time to time 00:09:48.299 --> 00:09:50.220 reminders of eternity, 00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:51.839 and of eternity drawing near, 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:52.639 Lord, 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:54.120 help us all to realize 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:55.399 that every day we live, 00:09:55.919 --> 00:09:57.659 we are a day nearer to eternity, 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:00.379 a day nearer to meeting with you, 00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:05.000 a day nearer to give account of our time in this life. 00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:08.000 And so we pray that you would make us all wise 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:09.379 unto salvation. 00:10:09.559 --> 00:10:12.580 Help us to use the circumstances of life 00:10:12.580 --> 00:10:15.080 in the providence you have appointed for us, 00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:18.139 so that we may seek you in them and through them, 00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:21.179 and that we may come to deposit our lives 00:10:21.179 --> 00:10:23.720 by believing in you and trusting in you 00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:25.059 into your own hands. 00:10:26.019 --> 00:10:28.980 We ask your blessing now to be without people 00:10:28.980 --> 00:10:30.220 in a wider sense. 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:32.179 Bless us as a church. 00:10:32.580 --> 00:10:34.279 Bless all that is taking place, Lord. 00:10:34.279 --> 00:10:36.199 throughout the denomination. 00:10:36.699 --> 00:10:39.500 Bless every congregation that belongs to us. 00:10:39.639 --> 00:10:40.679 Bless every minister. 00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:42.620 Bless every Kirk session. 00:10:42.939 --> 00:10:46.699 Bless everyone who helps with your cause in our midst. 00:10:47.159 --> 00:10:48.159 And we ask, O Lord, 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:50.259 as we anticipate meetings 00:10:50.259 --> 00:10:53.240 to do with the Healthy Church Project 00:10:53.240 --> 00:10:54.939 and Healthy Church Emphasis, 00:10:55.639 --> 00:10:56.299 gracious Lord, 00:10:56.360 --> 00:10:57.759 we ask that they will be blessed 00:10:57.759 --> 00:10:59.799 as they go from place to place, 00:10:59.860 --> 00:11:02.139 those who will meet with different congregations, 00:11:02.139 --> 00:11:04.480 and we'll meet with ourselves, O Lord, 00:11:04.559 --> 00:11:06.460 by your will later in this month. 00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:09.279 We pray that as we assess these matters 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:11.080 that will be brought before us, 00:11:11.139 --> 00:11:12.139 that you would bless them. 00:11:12.860 --> 00:11:14.080 We pray for all those, Lord, 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:16.439 who are in new church plants 00:11:16.439 --> 00:11:19.319 and church plants that have recently been established. 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:20.439 We pray for them. 00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:22.860 We pray that you would encourage them. 00:11:23.500 --> 00:11:26.300 We pray that you would lead them in your own ways 00:11:26.300 --> 00:11:27.700 and guide them in your truth. 00:11:28.300 --> 00:11:30.720 We pray that they may be encouraged by seeing others, 00:11:31.260 --> 00:11:32.320 drawn to the gospel, 00:11:32.740 --> 00:11:33.880 blessed by the gospel, 00:11:34.680 --> 00:11:36.800 lives sanctified by the gospel. 00:11:37.540 --> 00:11:38.740 And, Lord, we ask that 00:11:38.740 --> 00:11:40.480 you would give to us, 00:11:40.500 --> 00:11:42.120 as we find from time to time, 00:11:42.780 --> 00:11:44.460 things which do discourage us. 00:11:44.920 --> 00:11:46.220 We ask that you'd bless them. 00:11:46.220 --> 00:11:50.040 We pray for ministers and congregations tonight 00:11:50.040 --> 00:11:51.940 that may feel disconsolate, 00:11:52.620 --> 00:11:55.240 may have disappointments to contend with, 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:58.259 that may feel in themselves, O Lord, 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:01.180 that matters are not working as they would desire 00:12:01.180 --> 00:12:02.680 and have prayed for. 00:12:02.920 --> 00:12:04.560 Continue to bless them, we pray, 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:07.680 in all the areas of our land where this is the case. 00:12:08.580 --> 00:12:10.180 And I grant that you would come 00:12:10.180 --> 00:12:12.800 with the breath of your Spirit upon us as a people, 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:15.059 that you would be pleased, Lord, 00:12:15.159 --> 00:12:16.719 to bless our land 00:12:16.719 --> 00:12:19.439 and to bless those who have no church connection, 00:12:19.599 --> 00:12:20.620 no church interest, 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:23.099 whether in our own locality or wider. 00:12:23.899 --> 00:12:24.839 O Lord, our God, 00:12:24.939 --> 00:12:26.399 bless the witness of your people. 00:12:27.079 --> 00:12:29.939 Raise up others who will be faithful witnesses to you 00:12:29.939 --> 00:12:32.439 and grant that the light of your truth 00:12:32.439 --> 00:12:34.839 might once again shine in abundance 00:12:34.839 --> 00:12:36.959 throughout all our communities. 00:12:38.139 --> 00:12:39.919 Bless our parliament. 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:42.620 We pray that you would bless in Edinburgh 00:12:42.620 --> 00:12:43.759 and in Westminster 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:46.000 those, Lord, who rule over us 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:47.659 as you require us to pray for them. 00:12:48.299 --> 00:12:51.419 We do so not out of a mere sense of duty, 00:12:51.899 --> 00:12:52.819 good though that is, 00:12:52.899 --> 00:12:54.179 but, Lord, we pray for them 00:12:54.179 --> 00:12:57.459 out of a sincere desire for your blessing for them 00:12:57.459 --> 00:13:00.959 and for their leadership to be blessed to us as a people. 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:04.079 And so, Lord, we ask as we commend them to you 00:13:04.079 --> 00:13:06.579 that you would come to instruct them 00:13:06.579 --> 00:13:07.919 and lead them in your ways. 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:10.419 And, Lord, we ask that you would help them 00:13:10.419 --> 00:13:13.339 to understand that you have given us your word, 00:13:13.779 --> 00:13:15.919 you have given us your laws and your precepts, 00:13:16.599 --> 00:13:18.319 not only for our individual use, 00:13:18.419 --> 00:13:21.559 but also for our use corporately and even nationally. 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:24.719 And so, bless those, Lord, in our parliaments 00:13:24.719 --> 00:13:26.979 who do witness for you, 00:13:27.500 --> 00:13:31.779 whose testimony, Lord, is one of faithfulness to you. 00:13:31.779 --> 00:13:33.899 And we pray for all of them 00:13:33.899 --> 00:13:36.519 and we ask that you would maintain them, Lord, 00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:38.220 in the integrity of their standing. 00:13:38.899 --> 00:13:41.319 We pray that as they face so many pressures 00:13:41.319 --> 00:13:42.659 in this our day, 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:44.480 that you would be pleased, Lord, 00:13:44.600 --> 00:13:46.519 to surround them with your love 00:13:46.519 --> 00:13:47.500 and with your assurance 00:13:47.500 --> 00:13:49.759 that you know their circumstances, 00:13:49.959 --> 00:13:51.779 that you are able at all times 00:13:51.779 --> 00:13:52.759 to look after them. 00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:56.000 And so, we commend ourselves to you now, 00:13:56.580 --> 00:13:58.700 asking that you would continue to bless us here 00:13:58.700 --> 00:14:00.679 as we continue in your worship. 00:14:01.340 --> 00:14:02.340 Receive our thanks, 00:14:02.620 --> 00:14:04.639 cleanse us from our many sins, 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:06.519 and all for Jesus' sake. 00:14:07.019 --> 00:14:07.379 Amen. 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:11.539 We're going to sing again to God's praise 00:14:11.539 --> 00:14:13.259 in Psalm 123. 00:14:15.439 --> 00:14:17.659 Psalm 123 from the Scottish Psalter, 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:19.299 page 417. 00:14:19.799 --> 00:14:21.220 June, this time, is St. Kilda. 00:14:21.220 --> 00:14:25.480 A very short psalm, 00:14:25.560 --> 00:14:28.639 but one that brings to us 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:31.540 the need to have our eyes 00:14:31.540 --> 00:14:33.060 lifted up towards the Lord. 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:35.240 It's a psalm that acknowledges 00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:35.980 the difficulties, 00:14:36.139 --> 00:14:38.420 the trials of living as believers 00:14:38.420 --> 00:14:39.320 in this world, 00:14:39.960 --> 00:14:42.680 and indeed, a psalm that acknowledges 00:14:42.680 --> 00:14:45.040 that they face persecution 00:14:45.040 --> 00:14:47.160 and the contempt and pride 00:14:47.160 --> 00:14:49.759 of those that stand against them 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:50.820 and God's cause. 00:14:51.779 --> 00:14:53.399 And so, the psalmist is looking 00:14:53.399 --> 00:14:55.240 that he and those with him 00:14:55.240 --> 00:14:56.460 who serve the Lord 00:14:56.460 --> 00:14:58.360 will continue faithfully 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:00.220 and diligently and trustingly 00:15:00.220 --> 00:15:01.940 to look to God. 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:04.040 O thou that dwellest in the heavens, 00:15:04.560 --> 00:15:06.340 I lift mine eyes to thee. 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:08.480 Behold, a servant's eyes 00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:11.779 do look their master's hand to see. 00:15:11.779 --> 00:15:13.079 So the whole psalm to the tune, 00:15:13.079 --> 00:15:15.220 St. Kilda, to God's praise. 00:15:15.220 --> 00:15:27.180 O thou that dwellest in the heavens, 00:15:27.179 --> 00:15:32.319 I lift mine eyes to thee. 00:15:32.319 --> 00:15:34.319 I lift mine eyes to thee. 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:35.320 The whole psalm to the tune, 00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:39.320 O thou that dwellest in the heavens, 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:41.320 O thou that dwellest in the heavens, 00:15:41.320 --> 00:15:43.320 I lift mine eyes to thee. 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:49.320 Their master's hand to see. 00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:56.320 The hand of the Lord, O thou that dwellest in the heavens, 00:15:56.320 --> 00:15:57.440 I lift mine eyes to thee. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:01.320 He에게en 그� sends它 for strengthen me 00:16:01.460 --> 00:16:03.320 that dwellest in them, 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:08.000 So do the night says who have loved it. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:18.560 The heaven and shalloth our nextal 00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:43.219 O Lord, be gracious to us, unto us gracious being, 00:16:43.220 --> 00:17:00.620 Because we plenish with content exceedingly are we. 00:17:00.620 --> 00:17:18.619 Our soul is still with scorn of those that have there be some high, 00:17:18.619 --> 00:17:35.939 And with the insolent content of those that dwell in pride. 00:17:39.939 --> 00:17:42.139 Let's turn now to read God's Word again. 00:17:42.239 --> 00:17:45.119 You'll find it reading this evening in the New Testament, 00:17:45.919 --> 00:17:48.479 Paul's second letter to the Corinthians in chapter 11. 00:17:48.619 --> 00:17:56.679 2 Corinthians chapter 11, and we're beginning reading at verse 12. 00:18:05.539 --> 00:18:09.899 So we'll read from verse 12 onwards of 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 00:18:11.819 --> 00:18:16.500 What I do, I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those 00:18:16.500 --> 00:18:22.000 who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:29.380 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 00:18:30.339 --> 00:18:34.859 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 00:18:34.859 --> 00:18:41.500 So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. 00:18:41.919 --> 00:18:45.119 Their end will correspond to their deeds. 00:18:45.919 --> 00:18:51.579 I repeat, let no one think me foolish, but even if you do accept me as a fool, 00:18:51.959 --> 00:18:54.019 so that I too may boast a little. 00:18:54.919 --> 00:19:00.359 What I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not with the Lord's authority, but as a fool. 00:19:00.359 --> 00:19:04.099 Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. 00:19:05.099 --> 00:19:08.359 For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves. 00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:14.859 For you bear it if somebody makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, 00:19:15.099 --> 00:19:17.879 or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face. 00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:22.179 To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that. 00:19:22.180 --> 00:19:29.960 But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I am speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast of that. 00:19:30.900 --> 00:19:31.799 Are they Hebrews? 00:19:32.220 --> 00:19:33.140 So am I. 00:19:33.700 --> 00:19:34.820 Are they Israelites? 00:19:35.420 --> 00:19:36.360 So am I. 00:19:36.940 --> 00:19:38.519 Are they offspring of Abraham? 00:19:39.100 --> 00:19:39.860 So am I. 00:19:40.539 --> 00:19:41.940 Are they servants of Christ? 00:19:42.259 --> 00:19:43.680 I am a better one. 00:19:43.720 --> 00:19:48.400 I am talking like a madman, with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:52.100 with countless beatings, and often near death. 00:19:52.900 --> 00:19:57.660 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes, less one. 00:19:58.540 --> 00:20:00.560 Three times I was beaten with rods. 00:20:01.259 --> 00:20:02.180 Once I was stoned. 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:04.720 Three times I was shipwrecked. 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:07.920 For a night and a day I was adrift at sea, 00:20:08.680 --> 00:20:09.820 on frequent journeys, 00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:12.960 in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, 00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:15.060 danger from my own people, 00:20:15.580 --> 00:20:16.940 danger from Gentiles, 00:20:16.940 --> 00:20:18.500 danger in the city, 00:20:19.100 --> 00:20:20.059 danger in the wilderness, 00:20:20.840 --> 00:20:21.680 danger at sea, 00:20:22.320 --> 00:20:23.700 danger from false brothers, 00:20:24.519 --> 00:20:26.000 in toil and hardship, 00:20:26.519 --> 00:20:28.019 through many a sleepless night, 00:20:28.620 --> 00:20:29.799 in hunger and thirst, 00:20:30.039 --> 00:20:31.019 often without food, 00:20:31.740 --> 00:20:33.740 in cold and exposure. 00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:36.120 And apart from other things, 00:20:36.700 --> 00:20:38.360 there is the daily pressure on me 00:20:38.360 --> 00:20:40.740 of my anxiety for all the churches. 00:20:41.880 --> 00:20:42.700 Who is weak? 00:20:43.320 --> 00:20:44.420 And I am not weak. 00:20:44.420 --> 00:20:46.240 Who is made to fall? 00:20:46.320 --> 00:20:47.519 And I am not indignant. 00:20:48.560 --> 00:20:49.600 If I must boast, 00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:52.060 I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 00:20:52.620 --> 00:20:54.700 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, 00:20:55.240 --> 00:20:56.580 he who is blessed forever, 00:20:57.200 --> 00:20:58.860 knows that I am not lying. 00:20:59.900 --> 00:21:00.660 At Damascus, 00:21:01.580 --> 00:21:03.700 the governor under King Aratas 00:21:03.700 --> 00:21:06.160 was guarding the city of Damascus 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:08.140 in order to seize me. 00:21:08.140 --> 00:21:11.060 But I was let down in a basket 00:21:11.060 --> 00:21:13.300 through a window in the wall 00:21:13.300 --> 00:21:16.440 and escaped his hands. 00:21:16.440 --> 00:21:20.920 And we pray that God will bless to us again 00:21:20.920 --> 00:21:22.759 that reading of his own word. 00:21:24.420 --> 00:21:25.519 We'll sing once more. 00:21:25.600 --> 00:21:27.720 This time we'll sing it from Psalm 37. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:32.420 Psalm 37 on page 255. 00:21:32.539 --> 00:21:33.759 That's in the Scottish Psalter. 00:21:35.220 --> 00:21:37.039 Verses 34 to 40. 00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:43.180 Wait on the Lord and keep his way. 00:21:44.019 --> 00:21:46.339 And thee exalt shall he the earth to inherit. 00:21:46.980 --> 00:21:49.220 When cut off the wicked thou shalt see. 00:21:49.980 --> 00:21:52.440 I saw the wicked, great in power, 00:21:53.059 --> 00:21:54.779 spread like a green bay tree. 00:21:55.460 --> 00:21:57.240 He passed, yea, was not. 00:21:57.799 --> 00:22:00.799 Him I sought, but found he could not be. 00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:02.539 Mark thou the perfect, 00:22:02.659 --> 00:22:04.899 and behold the man of uprightness. 00:22:04.900 --> 00:22:07.400 Because that surely of this man 00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:10.600 the latter end is peace. 00:22:10.680 --> 00:22:12.820 We're singing to the tune Stracathro, 00:22:13.320 --> 00:22:16.860 verses 34 on to verse 40 00:22:16.860 --> 00:22:17.820 at the end of the psalm. 00:22:17.900 --> 00:22:19.480 Wait on the Lord. 00:22:19.480 --> 00:22:19.500 Wait on the Lord. 00:22:34.900 --> 00:22:35.860 Amen. 00:22:35.900 --> 00:22:46.860 Amen. 00:22:46.859 --> 00:22:50.859 When the dawn 00:22:51.439 --> 00:22:54.539 The wicked 00:22:54.539 --> 00:22:58.859 Thou shalt see 00:22:59.559 --> 00:23:02.219 I saw 00:23:02.219 --> 00:23:04.859 The wicked 00:23:05.419 --> 00:23:08.859 Ridden fire 00:23:10.059 --> 00:23:12.859 Spread my 00:23:12.859 --> 00:23:14.859 Thou shalt 00:23:14.859 --> 00:23:16.859 Thou shalt 00:23:16.859 --> 00:23:18.859 The wicked 00:23:18.859 --> 00:23:20.859 The past 00:23:21.179 --> 00:23:22.859 It was 00:23:22.859 --> 00:23:24.859 Not 00:23:24.859 --> 00:23:26.859 Him I 00:23:26.859 --> 00:23:28.859 Sought 00:23:28.859 --> 00:23:30.859 But found 00:23:30.859 --> 00:23:32.859 He could 00:23:33.859 --> 00:23:36.859 Not be 00:23:36.859 --> 00:23:38.859 Mark 00:23:38.859 --> 00:23:40.859 Thou 00:23:40.859 --> 00:23:55.579 The perfect and behold the man of uprightness, 00:23:55.579 --> 00:24:14.579 Because not surely of this man the latter ends his peace. 00:24:14.579 --> 00:24:24.579 But those named the transgressors are, 00:24:24.579 --> 00:24:33.579 Shall be destroyed together. 00:24:33.579 --> 00:24:43.579 The larger end of wicked men 00:24:43.579 --> 00:24:52.579 Shall be cut off forever. 00:24:52.579 --> 00:25:02.579 But the salvation of the just 00:25:02.579 --> 00:25:10.579 Is from the Lord above. 00:25:10.579 --> 00:25:19.579 He in the tide of their distress, 00:25:19.579 --> 00:25:29.579 Their sting and strength of fruit. 00:25:29.579 --> 00:25:38.579 The Lord shall help and then deliver, 00:25:38.579 --> 00:25:47.579 He shall them free and save. 00:25:47.579 --> 00:25:53.579 From wicked men, because in him, 00:25:53.579 --> 00:26:06.579 Because in him, their confidence they have. 00:26:06.579 --> 00:26:11.579 I'd like you to turn now to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 00:26:11.579 --> 00:26:15.579 The first letter of Paul to the Corinthians chapter 15. 00:26:15.579 --> 00:26:19.579 And we'll read at verse 29. 00:26:19.579 --> 00:26:24.579 As we've been going through chapter 15, 00:26:24.579 --> 00:26:28.579 Last time we looked at the passage up to verse 28, 00:26:28.579 --> 00:26:36.579 Which dealt with the way in which Christ returns at the end of the age. 00:26:36.579 --> 00:26:40.579 And all things then are put in subjection under God. 00:26:40.579 --> 00:26:43.579 And we pick that up at verse 29. 00:26:43.579 --> 00:26:49.579 Now, otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? 00:26:49.579 --> 00:26:55.579 If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? 00:26:55.579 --> 00:26:58.579 Why am I in danger every hour? 00:26:58.579 --> 00:27:05.579 I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day. 00:27:05.579 --> 00:27:11.579 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? 00:27:11.579 --> 00:27:15.579 If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. 00:27:15.579 --> 00:27:17.579 Do not be deceived. 00:27:17.579 --> 00:27:20.579 Bad company ruins good morals. 00:27:20.579 --> 00:27:26.579 Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. 00:27:26.579 --> 00:27:29.579 For some have no knowledge of God. 00:27:29.579 --> 00:27:33.579 I say this to your shame. 00:27:33.579 --> 00:27:42.579 Well, one of the benefits of doing a series of studies, whether it's going through a whole book, 00:27:42.579 --> 00:27:46.579 or like we're doing here, just going through 1 Corinthians 15, 00:27:46.579 --> 00:27:51.579 one of the benefits is that you need to deal with passages that are challenging and difficult. 00:27:51.579 --> 00:28:00.579 And even tonight, as we'll see in this passage, you come across things that we don't just quite fully understand what exactly Paul meant. 00:28:00.579 --> 00:28:03.579 But that is part of the study of the Bible. 00:28:03.579 --> 00:28:15.579 You come across passages in the Bible that are either very difficult, or sometimes even, as this one, parts of it impossible to understand exactly what Paul was getting at, 00:28:15.579 --> 00:28:19.579 what he meant by some of the terms and descriptions there. 00:28:19.579 --> 00:28:28.579 So, I have to confess that the thought did strike me as I was preparing earlier in the week for this particular study. 00:28:28.579 --> 00:28:30.579 The thought did strike me. 00:28:30.579 --> 00:28:33.579 Well, can't you just skip this bit and go on to the next one? 00:28:33.579 --> 00:28:36.579 Because it's a lot clearer from verse 35 onwards. 00:28:36.579 --> 00:28:48.579 But then that would really defeat the purpose of doing a study in any case of this kind, where you're taking the difficult parts as well as the easier ones, if you like. 00:28:48.579 --> 00:29:02.579 So, when you come to a passage like this, it's in many ways, you know, a test of our faith when you read the Bible and you come across things which are very difficult to understand, or even sometimes difficult even to accept. 00:29:02.579 --> 00:29:07.579 It's a test of our faith whether we're prepared to say, well, let God be God. 00:29:07.579 --> 00:29:09.579 He knows what is meant. 00:29:09.579 --> 00:29:19.579 He knows that this is not a mistake on his part in giving us this part of his word, this aspect of his word, this particular element of truth. 00:29:19.579 --> 00:29:22.579 And so, we commit ourselves to God. 00:29:22.579 --> 00:29:34.579 And let's pray that the Holy Spirit tonight will actually bring this challenging passage to us in a way that would help us to understand at least the main points of what Paul is getting at. 00:29:34.579 --> 00:29:53.579 Because Paul is here resuming, as we've seen previously in a chapter, he's been dealing with up to, really, in verses 12 to 19, he's been dealing with the consequences of not believing in the resurrection. 00:29:53.579 --> 00:30:01.579 Both the resurrection of Christ and the final resurrection that takes place at the coming of Christ at the end of the age. 00:30:01.579 --> 00:30:11.579 Now, he should be dealing with a series of points, consequences, implications if that's the case, if there is no such thing as a resurrection, then these things follow. 00:30:11.579 --> 00:30:26.579 And then he took a theological, he took a kind of theological detour in verses 20 to 28, where we saw a reference particularly to Jesus himself and his exaltation and so on. 00:30:26.579 --> 00:30:36.579 Now he's coming back here at verse 29, having taken the detour, he's coming back onto the same track he had before, dealing with the implications or the consequences of not believing, 00:30:36.579 --> 00:30:44.579 as some obviously in Corinth were not believing in the reality of the truth of the resurrection. 00:30:44.579 --> 00:30:51.579 And so, he comes back onto that same track here, but gives us things which are rather difficult to follow. 00:30:51.579 --> 00:31:05.579 But it's still the same emphasis, here are the consequences of not believing or not accepting the reality of resurrection as a fact, 00:31:05.579 --> 00:31:11.579 as something that is important and foundational in the Christian faith. 00:31:11.579 --> 00:31:20.579 First of all, he says in verse 29, if that's the case, he says, otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? 00:31:20.579 --> 00:31:25.579 The dead are not raised at all, why are people being baptized on their behalf? 00:31:25.579 --> 00:31:28.579 And that's the first point we need to reckon with. 00:31:28.579 --> 00:31:33.579 It won't take us long because it's really difficult to know what exactly Paul was dealing with. 00:31:33.579 --> 00:31:39.579 The Corinthians obviously understood this was something that was happening or had happened in the Corinthian church, 00:31:39.579 --> 00:31:52.579 but which over the course of the centuries we've actually lost track of what exactly in detail Paul meant by people being baptized for the dead or on behalf of the dead. 00:31:52.579 --> 00:32:02.579 There are many, many views, there are probably over 40 or 50 views, actually, in total, of what Paul could have meant by this. 00:32:02.579 --> 00:32:09.579 And some of them you can discount quite easily, others it's difficult to choose between them. 00:32:09.579 --> 00:32:20.579 But one of the views, and it's one I think that's very acceptable to us to go along with, one of the views is that for people who had died without being baptized, 00:32:20.579 --> 00:32:33.579 some Christians in Corinth were being baptized on their behalf, as if in some way it was trying to make sure that they had some part in the coming of Christ again when he came, 00:32:33.579 --> 00:32:38.579 or in the kingdom or whatever at the end of the age. 00:32:38.579 --> 00:32:40.579 So, what do people mean by being baptized? 00:32:40.579 --> 00:32:47.579 What are they doing, literally is what it says, by being baptized on behalf of the dead? 00:32:47.579 --> 00:32:52.579 So, we're not sure exactly what Paul meant by that, what was the practice? 00:32:52.579 --> 00:33:04.579 But there was something to do with being baptized on behalf of those who had died with a view to what would be the case at the end of the course of history. 00:33:04.579 --> 00:33:13.579 And in actual fact, it doesn't really matter that we don't know exactly what Paul meant on this specific point. 00:33:13.579 --> 00:33:23.579 It's not foundationally important that we would be actually able to understand or appreciate or know what exactly this point was that Paul was making, 00:33:23.579 --> 00:33:27.579 because the general thrust of his argument is still intact. 00:33:27.579 --> 00:33:36.579 Whatever he says they were doing on behalf of those who are dead, if the dead are not raised at all, why are people being baptized on their behalf? 00:33:36.579 --> 00:33:43.579 What he's really saying is, why go through with this practice whatever exactly it was that Corinthians themselves knew, 00:33:43.579 --> 00:33:47.579 but what's the point of it if there's no resurrection? 00:33:47.579 --> 00:33:50.579 If the dead are not raised, it's a waste of time. 00:33:50.579 --> 00:33:53.579 If the dead are not raised, it's not relevant. 00:33:53.579 --> 00:33:58.579 It doesn't have any meaning, it doesn't have any place, it doesn't have any value to go through with such actions, 00:33:58.579 --> 00:34:06.579 if indeed the case is that there is no such thing as the resurrection of the dead. 00:34:06.579 --> 00:34:12.579 So, he's really presenting the same point to us as in the previous part of the chapter, 00:34:12.579 --> 00:34:17.579 if there's no resurrection, why is this being done is what he's saying here. 00:34:17.579 --> 00:34:29.579 Now, it reminds us that to deny the resurrection or to think of it not being real or something that's going to be factually carried out, carried through, 00:34:29.579 --> 00:34:35.579 that's always got implications on our present way of thinking, on our present life indeed. 00:34:35.579 --> 00:34:40.579 And that's bringing us to our next point, which is to do with Christian suffering. 00:34:40.579 --> 00:34:46.579 And what he's really saying in effect in verses 30 to 33 is, 00:34:46.579 --> 00:34:51.579 if there is no resurrection, if there is no such thing as resurrection, 00:34:51.579 --> 00:34:57.579 why do Christians willingly go through such sufferings? 00:34:57.579 --> 00:35:04.579 Why do they accept from the hand of God in providence the things which God has designed for them 00:35:04.579 --> 00:35:11.579 when they are bitter and difficult and challenging and when they are even the deepest adversities? 00:35:11.579 --> 00:35:14.579 Let's look at what he's saying there. 00:35:14.579 --> 00:35:21.579 If the dead are not raised at all, then why, in verse 30, why am I in danger every hour? 00:35:21.579 --> 00:35:29.579 I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day. 00:35:29.579 --> 00:35:34.579 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? 00:35:34.579 --> 00:35:38.579 If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. 00:35:38.579 --> 00:35:41.579 And then he goes on, do not be deceived. 00:35:41.579 --> 00:35:48.579 So verses 30 to 33, let me cast your mind back to what we read there in 2 Corinthians 11. 00:35:48.579 --> 00:35:55.579 Remember there that passage that dealt with a whole list of adversities and difficulties that Paul says 00:35:55.579 --> 00:35:59.579 he himself had experienced and was experiencing. 00:35:59.579 --> 00:36:07.579 He talks there about receiving forty lashes less one, beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked, adrift at sea, 00:36:07.579 --> 00:36:12.579 frequently in danger on his journeys from rivers, from robbers, and so on. 00:36:12.579 --> 00:36:18.579 All the way through that list as you go through it, along with all that, he says that the anxiety of the churches, 00:36:18.579 --> 00:36:25.579 the pressure of caring for all the churches with whom I've had some foundational connection, 00:36:25.579 --> 00:36:33.579 all of that pressing in upon me, he says, if there's no resurrection, why go through with it? 00:36:33.579 --> 00:36:39.579 There's no meaningful sense to it all. 00:36:39.579 --> 00:36:48.579 And that's why he says here in verses 30 to 31, why am I putting my life in danger? 00:36:48.579 --> 00:36:50.579 Why am I willing to do this? 00:36:50.579 --> 00:36:53.579 Why am I willing to go through with this? 00:36:53.579 --> 00:36:58.579 Why do people actually subject themselves willingly or accept this at the hand of God? 00:36:58.579 --> 00:37:04.579 If there is no resurrection at the end of it all, if there's nothing like that, if it's just this world 00:37:04.579 --> 00:37:07.579 and then everything is gone, what is the point to this? 00:37:07.579 --> 00:37:10.579 What is the meaning to this? Is there any value to this? 00:37:10.579 --> 00:37:15.579 And of course, you know very well that all the way through the Bible, 00:37:15.579 --> 00:37:19.579 you have an emphasis on the value of Christian sufferings, 00:37:19.579 --> 00:37:24.579 that they have a very significant value in the experience of God's people, 00:37:24.579 --> 00:37:32.579 not just with a view to the present, but also with a view to the future and eternity in heaven. 00:37:32.579 --> 00:37:43.579 And when he speaks here about fighting with beasts, having said he's in danger every hour, 00:37:43.579 --> 00:37:49.579 he dies daily. In other words, he's putting his life at risk as he continues to serve the Lord 00:37:49.579 --> 00:37:54.579 in such dangerous circumstances as he goes into virtually every day. 00:37:54.579 --> 00:37:59.579 And again, he says, if humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus. 00:37:59.579 --> 00:38:03.579 Again, it's difficult to be absolutely dogmatic about what that meant, 00:38:03.579 --> 00:38:10.579 but when you go back to Acts chapter 19 and verse 16 and the verses from 23 onwards, 00:38:10.579 --> 00:38:18.579 you'll find the situation in Ephesus then was complete upheaval through evil powers. 00:38:18.579 --> 00:38:24.579 And the gospel was challenging these evil powers through Paul and others who were preaching the gospel. 00:38:24.579 --> 00:38:29.579 The kingdom of darkness was being assaulted and it was hitting back. 00:38:29.579 --> 00:38:32.579 And I think that's what Paul meant here with, 00:38:32.579 --> 00:38:38.579 why did I, humanly speaking, why I fought with beasts at Ephesus, 00:38:38.579 --> 00:38:43.579 I think he's talking there about occult forces, the forces of darkness, 00:38:43.579 --> 00:38:51.579 that had come to invade people's lives and take over people's lives so that they were virtually the same as beasts. 00:38:51.579 --> 00:38:54.579 And that's what Paul faced. 00:38:54.579 --> 00:38:59.579 Many of them going to lose their way of life because they served the powers of darkness. 00:38:59.579 --> 00:39:03.579 And if the gospel was going to be blessed and take over people's lives, 00:39:03.579 --> 00:39:09.579 then those people who actually made artifacts for the great shrine that was in Ephesus, 00:39:09.579 --> 00:39:15.579 well, they were going to lose their vocation, they were going to lose their work, 00:39:15.579 --> 00:39:17.579 they were going to have to look for something else to do. 00:39:17.579 --> 00:39:21.579 If they were converted, they couldn't go back to serving idols. 00:39:21.579 --> 00:39:30.579 And so they fought against the gospel and Satan stirred up the minds and the activities of the people there in Ephesus 00:39:30.579 --> 00:39:37.579 at the time of Paul's time there so that he could describe them really here as acting like beasts, 00:39:37.579 --> 00:39:43.579 just depraved and led by the powers of darkness. 00:39:43.579 --> 00:39:46.579 Why, he said, why would I put myself through that? 00:39:46.579 --> 00:39:52.579 Why would I willingly say, well, this is part of my task as an apostle and as a preacher of the gospel. 00:39:52.579 --> 00:39:55.579 If there's no resurrection, what is the point to it? 00:39:55.579 --> 00:40:00.579 I would have been better just turning my back on that and living a comfortable life. 00:40:00.579 --> 00:40:06.579 If there's no resurrection, there's no meaning to such sufferings as we go through in this life for the sake of Christ. 00:40:08.579 --> 00:40:16.579 And you know, the Bible, as you know, emphasizes, as we said, the benefits of suffering very frequently. 00:40:16.579 --> 00:40:26.579 You only have to go to the book of Psalms and, you know, the book of Psalms, as we keep saying, is such a great source, such a great book for our Christian experience, 00:40:26.579 --> 00:40:29.579 both in the heights and in the depths of Christian experience. 00:40:29.579 --> 00:40:38.579 And the teaching it gives on the suffering of the Christian believing life is really without parallel, I think you could say, even throughout the Bible. 00:40:38.579 --> 00:40:44.579 Because again and again, you come across the likes of Psalm 34, for example, verses 19. 00:40:44.579 --> 00:40:50.579 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. 00:40:50.579 --> 00:40:53.579 He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken. 00:40:53.579 --> 00:40:58.579 Affliction will slay the wicked, and all those who hate the righteous will be condemned. 00:40:58.579 --> 00:41:01.579 The Lord redeems the life of his servants. 00:41:01.579 --> 00:41:04.579 None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. 00:41:04.579 --> 00:41:10.579 And all the way through other Psalms, you find Psalm 119, for example, verse 67. 00:41:10.579 --> 00:41:16.579 It has been good for me, the Psalmist saying, that I was afflicted. 00:41:16.579 --> 00:41:20.579 Why on earth would he say, it's good for me that I was afflicted? 00:41:20.579 --> 00:41:22.579 How can that be a good thing? 00:41:22.579 --> 00:41:27.579 Well, he said, so that I might learn through it your precepts. 00:41:27.579 --> 00:41:35.579 That I might gain knowledge of the ways of God, of the handlings of God of my life is what he meant. 00:41:35.579 --> 00:41:45.579 You see, there's the meaning and the purpose to suffering in the lives of God's people, when God himself blesses that and blesses them under it. 00:41:45.579 --> 00:41:48.579 You go to 2 Corinthians 12. 00:41:48.579 --> 00:41:56.579 Remember that great passage where Paul is dealing with him going on in weakness and yet trusting in the Lord. 00:41:56.579 --> 00:42:03.579 As he puts it there, verses 7 to 10 of chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians. 00:42:03.579 --> 00:42:17.579 So, to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. 00:42:17.579 --> 00:42:22.579 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 00:42:22.579 --> 00:42:30.579 But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 00:42:30.579 --> 00:42:39.579 So, Paul says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 00:42:39.579 --> 00:42:48.579 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. 00:42:48.579 --> 00:42:53.579 He says, for when I am weak, then I am strong. 00:42:53.579 --> 00:43:06.579 He was convinced that the weakness that he had was a weakness that God gave grace to actually match and to meet and to overcome. 00:43:06.579 --> 00:43:09.579 My grace is sufficient for you. 00:43:09.579 --> 00:43:17.579 So, for Paul, suffering as a Christian, suffering as an apostle, suffering as a preacher of the gospel, was meaningful suffering. 00:43:17.579 --> 00:43:19.579 God was in it. 00:43:19.579 --> 00:43:20.579 God was in it. 00:43:20.579 --> 00:43:22.579 His relationship with God was in it. 00:43:22.579 --> 00:43:26.579 His future was connected with it, as was his past. 00:43:26.579 --> 00:43:31.579 And so, he comes here, and you can find the same. 00:43:31.579 --> 00:43:35.579 You could carry on through to 1 Peter, for example. 00:43:35.579 --> 00:43:43.579 Virtually the whole of that book, 1 Peter, is to do with writing to people who are suffering as believers in the world, 00:43:43.579 --> 00:43:45.579 and the meaningfulness of that suffering. 00:43:45.579 --> 00:43:53.579 It's not something that they should see as without meaning or without purpose in their lives, Peter is saying to them, similar to Paul. 00:43:53.579 --> 00:44:01.579 That is there deliberately as a meaningful thing on the part of God to actually arrange this for them. 00:44:01.579 --> 00:44:07.579 And that's why you've got here in verse 32 of our passage tonight, 00:44:07.579 --> 00:44:12.579 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? 00:44:12.579 --> 00:44:18.579 If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. 00:44:18.579 --> 00:44:20.579 What's he saying? 00:44:20.579 --> 00:44:23.579 He's saying the same thing as I said out in that world tonight. 00:44:23.579 --> 00:44:35.579 He's saying the same thing as many, many thousands and millions of people are saying, who don't believe in the gospel, who don't believe in God, who don't believe in the resurrection, who don't believe any of these precious things that belong to a Christian faith. 00:44:35.579 --> 00:44:38.579 What they're saying is, never mind all that stuff. 00:44:38.579 --> 00:44:41.579 Let me just live the way I want to live. 00:44:41.579 --> 00:44:44.579 Don't dictate to me, even if you say, this is what the Bible is saying. 00:44:44.579 --> 00:44:45.579 I don't want to hear that. 00:44:45.579 --> 00:44:47.579 Let's just eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. 00:44:47.579 --> 00:44:48.579 That's an end of it. 00:44:48.579 --> 00:44:58.579 What Paul is saying, if there is no resurrection, if you discount that, if you put it aside, if you say there's no such thing, then you can do what you like. 00:44:58.579 --> 00:45:03.579 You can please yourself, because when there's no resurrection, then there's no judgment. 00:45:03.579 --> 00:45:05.579 There's nothing but this life. 00:45:05.579 --> 00:45:12.579 Let us eat and drink, or tomorrow we die. 00:45:12.579 --> 00:45:17.579 It's the way of the world, isn't it? 00:45:17.579 --> 00:45:20.579 Let's have a good time. 00:45:20.579 --> 00:45:25.579 Let's pack our lives with entertainment. 00:45:25.579 --> 00:45:31.579 That will take care of all the worries, of all the difficulties and the challenges and the trials. 00:45:31.579 --> 00:45:36.579 Let's just lose ourselves in living the best we can. 00:45:36.579 --> 00:45:39.579 And let's just eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. 00:45:39.579 --> 00:45:40.579 And that's it. 00:45:40.579 --> 00:45:45.579 The fatalism of worldliness. 00:45:45.579 --> 00:46:00.579 And what Paul is saying to them, those of you in Corinth who've come not to believe in resurrection, who now dismiss resurrection, what's the point of living as Christians or trying to live a holy life? 00:46:00.579 --> 00:46:03.579 Let's just go the way of the world. 00:46:03.579 --> 00:46:05.579 Let's just go the way of the world. 00:46:05.579 --> 00:46:13.579 Well, of course, you and I know, as Paul very well knew, and as many people in Corinth knew, that's not the Christian life. 00:46:13.579 --> 00:46:15.579 That's not why Christ died. 00:46:15.579 --> 00:46:18.579 That's not why he rose from the dead. 00:46:18.579 --> 00:46:21.579 That's not why we have the gospel. 00:46:21.579 --> 00:46:27.579 But so that we will live lives that are pleasing to God. 00:46:27.579 --> 00:46:28.579 Lives that look forward. 00:46:28.579 --> 00:46:35.579 Then you've got verse 33 as well, which just follows on and makes the point really again. 00:46:35.579 --> 00:46:37.579 Powerfully do not be deceived. 00:46:37.579 --> 00:46:41.579 Bad company ruins good morals. 00:46:41.579 --> 00:46:48.579 Now, Paul is borrowing language there from one of the Greek playwrights or poets. 00:46:48.579 --> 00:46:56.579 It's a statement that was well known from this poet, a man called Menander, apparently. 00:46:56.579 --> 00:46:58.579 This was something Paul borrowed. 00:46:58.579 --> 00:47:06.579 He did that sometimes, sayings or statements that were well known in the world of his day. 00:47:06.579 --> 00:47:12.579 He didn't necessarily put his own mark of approval on them, but he borrowed them just to make the point. 00:47:12.579 --> 00:47:14.579 And he's making the point here. 00:47:14.579 --> 00:47:16.579 Do not be deceived. 00:47:16.579 --> 00:47:20.579 Bad company ruins good morals. 00:47:20.579 --> 00:47:27.579 In other words, falling in with those who deny the resurrection leads inevitably to lax morals. 00:47:27.579 --> 00:47:32.579 Take away the foundational truths of the gospel, and what do you put in its place? 00:47:32.579 --> 00:47:33.579 You put your own thinking in its place. 00:47:33.579 --> 00:47:35.579 You put human wisdom in its place. 00:47:35.579 --> 00:47:37.579 You put something else in its place. 00:47:37.579 --> 00:47:38.579 You put another religion in its place. 00:47:38.579 --> 00:47:49.579 It doesn't matter what you put in its place, but it's going to take you outside of that life that lives in obedience to Christ and pleasing to God. 00:47:49.579 --> 00:47:54.579 And it applies widely, doesn't it? 00:47:54.579 --> 00:47:55.579 Do not be deceived. 00:47:55.579 --> 00:48:02.579 He's using a word there that actually means to be seduced. 00:48:02.579 --> 00:48:10.579 Because there were some people in Corinth, imagine having come under the teaching of an apostle, of such as the apostle Paul, 00:48:10.579 --> 00:48:22.579 and yet still there are some, he says, who don't believe in the resurrection, who don't accept such a thing as the resurrection or the resurrection of Christ, and who are dismissing that. 00:48:22.579 --> 00:48:29.579 They're actually now being seduced, they're being deceived, so that they're just falling into the ways of paganism again. 00:48:29.579 --> 00:48:41.579 They're just taking steps aside bit by bit into the ways of sin, the ways of paganism, the ways of immoral lifestyles. 00:48:41.579 --> 00:48:48.579 And the bad company, he says, ruins good morals. 00:48:48.579 --> 00:48:49.579 That's the statement. 00:48:49.579 --> 00:48:52.579 And he's using it in this context. 00:48:52.579 --> 00:48:54.579 And it's still relevant. 00:48:54.579 --> 00:48:57.579 And it's still relevant to you and to me as well. 00:48:57.579 --> 00:49:06.579 Remember James in his letter, chapter 4 and verse 4, where again he's very strongly saying to those he's writing to, 00:49:06.579 --> 00:49:11.579 the friendship of the world is enmity with God. 00:49:11.579 --> 00:49:13.579 Now, you can misuse that text. 00:49:13.579 --> 00:49:18.579 It doesn't mean that if you're a Christian, you must have nothing to do with people who are not Christians. 00:49:18.579 --> 00:49:25.579 It doesn't mean you cannot have a friend who is unconverted, even if you are a confessing Christian. 00:49:25.579 --> 00:49:26.579 It doesn't mean that at all. 00:49:26.579 --> 00:49:33.579 What James is on about is actually coming to be fully embracive of the world and the values of the world, 00:49:33.579 --> 00:49:40.579 the friendship of the world in the sense that you live a worldly life, that that is what you put first. 00:49:40.579 --> 00:49:45.579 That, he says, is enmity with God. 00:49:45.579 --> 00:49:51.579 And to be at enmity with God is a serious issue. 00:49:51.579 --> 00:49:56.579 And Paul is saying, don't be deceived. 00:49:56.579 --> 00:50:00.579 Bad company ruins good models. 00:50:00.579 --> 00:50:12.579 Not only does it put you in a wrong relationship with God, but it actually also leads others astray as well if they're looking to you for advice or example. 00:50:12.579 --> 00:50:16.579 And this applies to all ages, but I want to say this to our young folks especially. 00:50:16.579 --> 00:50:27.579 You're meeting so many things in the world of our day that we as young people, when we were young, didn't actually have to contend with, at least not to the same extent as you have. 00:50:27.579 --> 00:50:30.579 And for you young people, it's so important. 00:50:30.579 --> 00:50:32.579 The company you keep in this world. 00:50:32.579 --> 00:50:34.579 That's why the church is so important. 00:50:34.579 --> 00:50:37.579 That's why the company of other Christians is so important. 00:50:37.579 --> 00:50:40.579 The company of other younger Christians is so important. 00:50:40.579 --> 00:50:54.579 Because to go outside of that and to start actually neglecting the things you learn in the Bible or in your Sunday school or in the church, it's going to lead you away from being true to Jesus and being true to God. 00:50:54.579 --> 00:50:59.579 Remember, the company you keep as an impact on your life. 00:50:59.579 --> 00:51:05.579 If the main people in our lives are the people of the world, then we've got a problem. 00:51:05.579 --> 00:51:17.579 If we're Christians and we have to look at ourselves and say, well, my favorite companionship is not other Christians, then I've got a problem. 00:51:17.579 --> 00:51:24.579 If it's to do with the world and the ways of the world, it doesn't belong in the Christian life. 00:51:24.579 --> 00:51:31.579 And it will not be long before that makes itself known in our lifestyle as well. 00:51:31.579 --> 00:51:35.579 Bad company ruins good morals. 00:51:35.579 --> 00:51:43.579 It's a wonderful privilege to have parenthood that seeks to bring up children in the ways of the Lord. 00:51:43.579 --> 00:51:54.579 And to teach them that the company they're going to keep as they're growing up through the years and as they become adults, it's going to be so important for them. 00:51:54.579 --> 00:52:04.579 But none of us must leave it until our young folks then have gone out into the world before we start teaching them what kind of company they should keep. 00:52:04.579 --> 00:52:07.579 It begins at the earliest stage. 00:52:07.579 --> 00:52:17.579 And bad company corrupts good manners, ruins good morals. 00:52:17.579 --> 00:52:19.579 You see what he's saying? 00:52:19.579 --> 00:52:29.579 Wherever we actually discount any foundational truths of the gospel, it has an impact one way or the other on our manner of life. 00:52:29.579 --> 00:52:38.579 Even this one that denies the reality of the resurrection, that falls in with those who are of similar views. 00:52:38.579 --> 00:52:43.579 Well, it has an impact practically upon our lives from day to day. 00:52:43.579 --> 00:52:49.579 And that's why he's saying here, bad company ruins good morals. 00:52:49.579 --> 00:52:55.579 So, if we discount a resurrection, well, there's that first point, why baptism's for the dead? 00:52:55.579 --> 00:52:57.579 And we said, can't go into that too much. 00:52:57.579 --> 00:53:00.579 We really don't know too much about what Paul meant. 00:53:00.579 --> 00:53:06.579 But the main point is still the case, then why are we doing this if there's no resurrection? 00:53:06.579 --> 00:53:11.579 Second one is, why willingly take on adversity? 00:53:11.579 --> 00:53:25.579 And you know, when you find even today, those who go to other parts of the world with the gospel as missionaries, some of them end up in very difficult, dangerous situations. 00:53:25.579 --> 00:53:29.579 We just said farewell to Muriel last week. 00:53:29.579 --> 00:53:31.579 She's gone back to Cambodia. 00:53:31.579 --> 00:53:33.579 Her prayers and love have gone with her. 00:53:33.579 --> 00:53:38.579 I'm not saying that she's in the most dangerous place by any means for a missionary, but she's gone there. 00:53:38.579 --> 00:53:40.579 She's left her own native place here. 00:53:40.579 --> 00:53:41.579 She's gone there. 00:53:41.579 --> 00:53:42.579 What has brought her there? 00:53:42.579 --> 00:53:49.579 What has actually made her think, well, even if I do face adversity and difficulty, that's part of what my life is about. 00:53:49.579 --> 00:53:53.579 But if you said to her, well, if there's no resurrection, why go through it? 00:53:53.579 --> 00:53:55.579 And she would say, but of course there's a resurrection. 00:53:55.579 --> 00:54:01.579 That's what gives meaning in many ways to the life that I live, the work that I'm doing. 00:54:01.579 --> 00:54:04.579 Because I'm going to be finally meeting with God. 00:54:04.579 --> 00:54:08.579 And I hope to spend eternity with him. 00:54:08.579 --> 00:54:13.579 And all of what I'm doing has a relation with that. 00:54:13.579 --> 00:54:19.579 But then, finally, thirdly, here's a wake-up call in verse 34. 00:54:19.579 --> 00:54:24.579 Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. 00:54:24.579 --> 00:54:27.579 For some have no knowledge of God. 00:54:27.579 --> 00:54:32.579 I say this to your shame." 00:54:32.579 --> 00:54:38.579 Well, sometimes we do have to be blunt with people. 00:54:38.579 --> 00:54:41.579 And Paul wasn't averse to being blunt with people. 00:54:41.579 --> 00:54:50.579 And sometimes, as he is here, being blunt with the Corinthians is an evidence, not that he doesn't like them, it's an evidence of his love for them. 00:54:50.579 --> 00:54:59.579 Because if they're going astray, he wants to bring them back into the way of obedience to Christ and understanding of the gospel. 00:54:59.579 --> 00:55:02.579 And this is something we have to remember ourselves. 00:55:02.579 --> 00:55:11.579 But you see, he's saying here, the knowledge of God that he speaks of here, some do not have the knowledge of God or some have no knowledge of God. 00:55:11.579 --> 00:55:19.579 In many ways, that's the key to appreciating what resurrection is about and why it's there and why it's meaningful and why it's foundational. 00:55:19.579 --> 00:55:22.579 It's tied in with the knowledge of God. 00:55:22.579 --> 00:55:24.579 Knowledge on our part of God. 00:55:24.579 --> 00:55:30.579 And he means by that God's grace, God's transforming power, God's ultimate aim. 00:55:30.579 --> 00:55:33.579 Some of the Corinthians had been seduced, they'd been deceived. 00:55:33.579 --> 00:55:37.579 And now what he's saying to them is, stop being like that. 00:55:37.579 --> 00:55:40.579 Put the brakes on. 00:55:40.579 --> 00:55:43.579 Look at yourselves, he's saying. 00:55:43.579 --> 00:55:46.579 Stop being deceived. 00:55:46.579 --> 00:55:50.579 Stop going on in your sinning against God. 00:55:50.579 --> 00:56:05.579 And very often, the concept of sin, the reality of sin in the Bible is more to do with the mindset than the actions. 00:56:05.579 --> 00:56:09.579 It's to do with the mind that leads to the actions. 00:56:09.579 --> 00:56:17.579 And that's the case with this emphasis that he's giving here to waking up from their drunken stupor, as is right. 00:56:17.579 --> 00:56:25.579 He's really saying, in a spiritual sense, you're just like people who've had a really heavy night of it. 00:56:25.579 --> 00:56:27.579 Who've gotten drunk. 00:56:27.579 --> 00:56:31.579 And who are lying on their beds trying to recover. 00:56:31.579 --> 00:56:35.579 But it's the morning after the night before, he's saying in a spiritual sense. 00:56:35.579 --> 00:56:38.579 And he says, you've got to wake up from that. 00:56:38.579 --> 00:56:41.579 You've got to get your minds back in order. 00:56:41.579 --> 00:56:44.579 You've got to clear your minds. 00:56:44.579 --> 00:56:49.579 And you've got to get back to what you should be with before God. 00:56:49.579 --> 00:56:51.579 Clear your mind. 00:56:51.579 --> 00:56:53.579 Come to your senses. 00:56:53.579 --> 00:56:58.579 And he finishes by saying, I say this to your shame. 00:56:58.579 --> 00:57:03.579 I say this to your shame. 00:57:03.579 --> 00:57:06.579 They had been taught the things of the gospel. 00:57:06.579 --> 00:57:10.579 They had been taught by the likes of the apostle himself. 00:57:10.579 --> 00:57:23.579 It was a shameful thing for them to have departed from that teaching and to have the very problems that this whole epistle sets out for us that were current in Corinth in Paul's day. 00:57:23.579 --> 00:57:28.579 I speak, he says this, to your shame. 00:57:28.579 --> 00:57:30.579 The word shame. 00:57:30.579 --> 00:57:33.579 Not a popular one, is it, today? 00:57:35.579 --> 00:57:45.579 And people would react to that, really, and say, you have no business saying things to people that might lead to them feeling ashamed of themselves. 00:57:45.579 --> 00:57:48.579 Pride is the thing. 00:57:48.579 --> 00:57:50.579 Be proud of what you are. 00:57:50.579 --> 00:57:52.579 Be proud of what you want to be. 00:57:52.579 --> 00:57:55.579 Be proud of what you think is best for you. 00:57:55.579 --> 00:57:58.579 Be proud of living the life you want to live. 00:57:58.579 --> 00:58:04.579 Don't be ashamed of it, even if the gospel and these Christian preachers say that sin is a shame. 00:58:04.579 --> 00:58:11.579 And even if there's such a thing in the Bible, as Christian preachers will tell you, the reaction of that is, shame? 00:58:11.579 --> 00:58:12.579 Why should I feel ashamed? 00:58:12.579 --> 00:58:14.579 I'm proud of what I am. 00:58:17.579 --> 00:58:19.579 Ah, this is the problem, isn't it? 00:58:19.579 --> 00:58:25.579 When God comes into a person's life, truly. 00:58:25.579 --> 00:58:40.579 When God brings up the sin that's in our hearts, when God shows us that cesspit that is in us, in every one of us as sinners, we feel ashamed. 00:58:40.579 --> 00:58:50.579 And if we've never felt a glimmer of shame in the presence of God, we don't know what it is to be a Christian. 00:58:50.579 --> 00:59:01.579 Because coming to repent of sin, coming to seek God's forgiveness, includes, to some extent at least, the confession before God, 00:59:01.579 --> 00:59:04.579 Lord, I am ashamed of what I am. 00:59:04.579 --> 00:59:08.579 I am ashamed to do this to your great name. 00:59:10.579 --> 00:59:12.579 Change me. 00:59:12.579 --> 00:59:14.579 Cleanse me. 00:59:14.579 --> 00:59:15.579 Save me. 00:59:15.579 --> 00:59:20.579 Don't be afraid of the word shame, friends. 00:59:20.579 --> 00:59:28.579 Because it is a friend to us when God blesses the gospel. 00:59:28.579 --> 00:59:37.579 We're not in the business as preachers of the gospel to go out deliberately and seeking to make people feel ashamed of themselves. 00:59:37.579 --> 00:59:39.579 That's the work of God. 00:59:39.579 --> 00:59:41.579 What we do is present the gospel. 00:59:41.579 --> 00:59:44.579 But when we present the gospel, it's a gospel that says, 00:59:44.579 --> 00:59:46.579 Here is what you are as a sinner. 00:59:46.579 --> 00:59:48.579 Here is how God sees you. 00:59:48.579 --> 00:59:51.579 Here is what you are in relation to what you should be. 00:59:54.579 --> 00:59:56.579 And God says, are you not ashamed of that? 00:59:57.579 --> 01:00:03.579 When you're not yet cleansed, washed, and made clean through the blood of Christ. 01:00:03.579 --> 01:00:08.579 I say this, he says, to your shame. 01:00:08.579 --> 01:00:20.579 Well, whenever we feel that sense of shame at our own sinfulness, let it not be something that we're sorry for. 01:00:20.579 --> 01:00:25.579 Let it not be something that we then hear the world's voice about and say, 01:00:25.579 --> 01:00:27.579 Well, never mind that. 01:00:27.579 --> 01:00:31.579 That's just an element of your upbringing or whatever. 01:00:31.579 --> 01:00:34.579 And the best thing for you is just to try and get rid of that. 01:00:34.579 --> 01:00:42.579 Well, God is saying, you have a sense of shame when I bring home your sinfulness to you. 01:00:42.579 --> 01:00:48.579 Not so that you'll think it's something that you can get rid of or would be better without. 01:00:48.579 --> 01:00:51.579 It's so that you'll let me deal with it. 01:00:51.579 --> 01:00:56.579 It's so that you'll let me deal with it. 01:00:56.579 --> 01:01:01.579 And that's what Christ came into the world for. 01:01:01.579 --> 01:01:05.579 That's why he died the death that he died. 01:01:05.579 --> 01:01:12.579 So that we would be delivered from the shame of our sin. 01:01:12.579 --> 01:01:19.579 That we would come to know shame as something that really itself brings us to God. 01:01:19.579 --> 01:01:24.579 That we would not take pride in our sinfulness. 01:01:24.579 --> 01:01:29.579 But that we would come to boast instead in Christ. 01:01:29.579 --> 01:01:31.579 In his perfection. 01:01:31.579 --> 01:01:33.579 In his holiness. 01:01:33.579 --> 01:01:35.579 In his power. 01:01:35.579 --> 01:01:37.579 In his greatness. 01:01:37.579 --> 01:01:42.579 The resurrection of the dead. 01:01:42.579 --> 01:01:44.579 So important. 01:01:44.579 --> 01:01:47.579 So crucial to believe in. 01:01:47.579 --> 01:01:53.579 So much of a business with us in the present day. 01:01:53.579 --> 01:01:56.579 As to how we live our life. 01:01:56.579 --> 01:01:59.579 You know this resurrection. 01:01:59.579 --> 01:02:02.579 You know that that awaits you. 01:02:02.579 --> 01:02:04.579 And you know that accordingly. 01:02:04.579 --> 01:02:11.579 And I must live a life that is obedient. 01:02:11.579 --> 01:02:13.579 Lovingly to Christ. 01:02:13.579 --> 01:02:17.579 May God bless these thoughts on that passage for us. 01:02:17.579 --> 01:02:18.579 Let's conclude now. 01:02:18.579 --> 01:02:21.579 Our worship this evening. 01:02:21.579 --> 01:02:23.579 Singing in Psalm 124. 01:02:23.579 --> 01:02:31.579 Paul was taking us to times of his own trials and afflictions. 01:02:31.579 --> 01:02:33.579 And the sufferings that he had as a Christian. 01:02:33.579 --> 01:02:34.579 As an apostle. 01:02:34.579 --> 01:02:37.579 And here is a psalm of praise to God. 01:02:37.579 --> 01:02:42.579 A psalm very frequently associated with the Covenanters in Scotland. 01:02:42.579 --> 01:02:44.579 Many, many years ago. 01:02:44.579 --> 01:02:45.579 Many generations ago. 01:02:45.579 --> 01:02:50.579 But there is plenty of evidence that this was a precious, precious psalm to them. 01:02:50.579 --> 01:02:56.579 When they were forced even out into the moors to worship God in the open fields. 01:02:56.579 --> 01:03:02.579 And came to God with the likes of this psalm to praise him for his protective care. 01:03:02.579 --> 01:03:05.579 If God the Lord had not been on our side. 01:03:05.579 --> 01:03:07.579 Let Israel say. 01:03:07.579 --> 01:03:10.579 Had not the Lord been near when foes attacked us. 01:03:10.579 --> 01:03:11.579 Filling us with fear. 01:03:11.579 --> 01:03:14.579 And when their wrath against us reached its height. 01:03:14.579 --> 01:03:19.579 Alive we had been swallowed in their spite. 01:03:19.579 --> 01:03:23.579 Sing to tune old 124 to God's praise. 01:03:23.579 --> 01:03:29.579 And when foes attacked us. 01:03:29.579 --> 01:03:34.579 If God the Lord had not been on our side. 01:03:34.579 --> 01:03:37.579 If God the Lord had not been on his side. 01:03:38.579 --> 01:03:42.579 Let Israel say! 01:03:42.579 --> 01:03:45.579 Have not the Lord be near. 01:03:45.579 --> 01:03:49.219 The Lord be here. 01:03:49.860 --> 01:03:54.119 When homes are down 01:03:54.119 --> 01:03:59.980 us, filling us with fear, 01:04:00.699 --> 01:04:05.179 and when their wrath 01:04:05.179 --> 01:04:11.480 against us reached its height, 01:04:11.480 --> 01:04:17.480 a life we have been swallowed 01:04:17.480 --> 01:04:23.079 in their spine. 01:04:24.019 --> 01:04:28.619 We would have been 01:04:28.619 --> 01:04:34.840 enveloped by the blood 01:04:34.840 --> 01:04:39.960 over our heads 01:04:39.960 --> 01:04:45.980 the torrents would have won, 01:04:46.660 --> 01:04:50.620 the waters would 01:04:50.620 --> 01:04:55.840 have had in us alone. 01:04:55.840 --> 01:05:01.780 But praise the Lord, 01:05:02.019 --> 01:05:07.840 for he has sent us free, 01:05:08.740 --> 01:05:13.200 and has all led us 01:05:13.200 --> 01:05:17.940 to their cruelty. 01:05:17.940 --> 01:05:24.940 We have escaped 01:05:24.940 --> 01:05:31.780 just as an absolute birth, 01:05:32.179 --> 01:05:36.880 and of the power 01:05:36.880 --> 01:05:41.940 let us be set free. 01:05:41.940 --> 01:05:47.059 Thus, may it stop, 01:05:47.320 --> 01:05:51.760 we have had liberty. 01:05:53.559 --> 01:06:00.159 Our help is in the name 01:06:00.159 --> 01:06:04.200 of God the Lord, 01:06:04.199 --> 01:06:08.219 who may the air 01:06:08.219 --> 01:06:09.899 and heaven 01:06:09.899 --> 01:06:15.819 die his word. 01:06:16.699 --> 01:06:18.019 After a benediction tonight, 01:06:18.079 --> 01:06:18.659 I'll go to the door 01:06:18.659 --> 01:06:19.559 to my left here. 01:06:21.739 --> 01:06:22.799 Now may the grace 01:06:22.799 --> 01:06:24.099 of the Lord Jesus Christ, 01:06:24.199 --> 01:06:25.460 the love of God the Father, 01:06:26.039 --> 01:06:26.699 and the communion 01:06:26.699 --> 01:06:27.679 of the Holy Spirit 01:06:27.679 --> 01:06:28.699 be with you now 01:06:28.699 --> 01:06:29.639 and evermore. 01:06:30.279 --> 01:06:30.679 Amen.