WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.120 Okay, this morning we're going to look back at the passage that we've read together. 00:00:04.120 --> 00:00:05.960 I'm going to focus on two verses. 00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:11.720 I'm going to focus on verse 25 and 26, so I'm going to read them again. 00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:18.440 It's speaking about Jesus Christ, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:19.859 to be received by faith. 00:00:19.859 --> 00:00:24.800 This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance He'd passed over 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:25.800 former sins. 00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:31.039 It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:34.320 of the one who has faith in Jesus. 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:39.439 Now I'd like to look at these verses for a few moments this morning. 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:47.480 This is Sunday number 17 of 2018, and many of you will just be here and will have come 00:00:47.480 --> 00:00:48.960 today as a matter of routine. 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:53.439 I know we have a lot of visitors today and maybe it's also your routine that's brought 00:00:53.439 --> 00:00:57.439 you out to church and to worship today. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:03.079 But as a Christian in your life and in the life of the congregation, you may be heading 00:01:03.079 --> 00:01:09.719 into a very real, as every week is I guess, a very real week for you. 00:01:09.719 --> 00:01:12.120 Maybe it's a week of exams as I was praying. 00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:16.560 Maybe it's going to be a week of long hours in the workplace. 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:19.079 You may be able to face a grumpy boss. 00:01:19.079 --> 00:01:22.920 You may have marriage issues that you're facing as you go into the week. 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:28.879 You may be struggling with drink, with ill health, or with debt, or with doubt, or sexual 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:32.760 temptation, old age, loneliness. 00:01:32.760 --> 00:01:34.879 It might be a great week for you. 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:39.520 You might be really looking forward to this week and in a sense thinking, well, I'm not 00:01:39.520 --> 00:01:46.439 really going to need God very much this week, and no thought particularly of Him. 00:01:46.439 --> 00:01:51.240 And you possibly, and I don't know what we're all thinking as we come together, but as you 00:01:51.239 --> 00:01:55.479 look at these two verses, you may have read these verses, you may not have concentrated 00:01:55.479 --> 00:02:00.959 as the verses were read, but as you may have thought, what have these verses got to do 00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:03.519 with my week that I'm entering in? 00:02:03.519 --> 00:02:08.840 What is the connection between our worship here, our lives as Christians in worship, 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:13.039 and the week into which we're entering, and the lives that we live? 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:20.199 I'd like to pause it from Scripture and from these verses, everything. 00:02:20.199 --> 00:02:25.959 If you're going from here and the rest of your week is completely unrelated to your 00:02:25.959 --> 00:02:31.879 time of worship and to your life of worship as a Christian, then I would suggest to you 00:02:31.879 --> 00:02:37.319 there's a serious disconnect in your faith between your life of public worship and your 00:02:37.319 --> 00:02:40.799 life as a worshiping believer. 00:02:40.799 --> 00:02:46.519 These verses help us to, they provide for us a lens through which to view everything 00:02:46.519 --> 00:02:47.879 in your life. 00:02:47.879 --> 00:02:50.319 See eventuality that you will see this week. 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:54.719 Think it was Thomas when Thomas Davis was preaching here, he said that our worldview 00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:59.840 affects how we live, and this is the focus, the foundation of our worldview, what we have 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:00.840 in these verses. 00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:07.400 It's going to make sense of the senseless for you in the life that you're living this 00:03:07.400 --> 00:03:12.680 week, and it identifies you with a love that will not let you go. 00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:14.319 I'm speaking to you as a Christian today. 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:19.799 If you're not a Christian, that's a challenge for you to consider. 00:03:19.799 --> 00:03:25.120 These verses identifies you with a love, the love of Christ that will not let you go. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:26.439 Do we get that? 00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:31.599 A love that will not let us go. 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:33.919 Can you for a moment return to your childhood for some of us? 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:35.719 It's longer than for others. 00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:40.439 But can you remember coming home from school from somewhere? 00:03:40.439 --> 00:03:42.359 Maybe it was, oh I said from school. 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:47.680 Yeah, from school, or from playing, or from being out in the street or whatever. 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:53.040 And you come home, and you come home, and you come home to a secure and loving home. 00:03:53.040 --> 00:03:57.280 You come home to mum and dad. 00:03:57.280 --> 00:03:58.880 Maybe you got lost during the day. 00:03:58.880 --> 00:04:03.440 Maybe you got bullied at school or teased, or maybe something frightened you. 00:04:03.440 --> 00:04:10.360 And you come home and immediately you feel safe and free and happy, and you know who 00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:11.760 you are at home. 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:13.399 You have that identity. 00:04:13.399 --> 00:04:18.120 Now some of you may not know that, may not have known that. 00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:20.599 Some of you may have longed for that. 00:04:20.599 --> 00:04:24.159 But here it is in the original. 00:04:24.159 --> 00:04:29.959 Here is the original longing that that is, even that is only a shadow of. 00:04:29.959 --> 00:04:31.439 It's in Christ. 00:04:31.439 --> 00:04:34.599 It's in coming home to our living God through Christ. 00:04:34.599 --> 00:04:40.120 That deepest longing for love, for peace and security is one for us by what Jesus Christ 00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:42.199 has done. 00:04:42.199 --> 00:04:48.079 And that is in our DNA to want that belonging and that security. 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:50.840 Can I say no one else can give it to you? 00:04:50.840 --> 00:04:54.360 No workplace, no relationship. 00:04:54.360 --> 00:05:01.120 Because everyone else will ultimately fail or die to put it bluntly. 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:06.399 In Christ we have this satisfaction and this belonging guaranteed. 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:10.519 Now our default position is to forget that in our sinful nature. 00:05:10.519 --> 00:05:12.799 We choose very often to forget that. 00:05:12.799 --> 00:05:15.479 That's why we're slowing down our study here. 00:05:15.479 --> 00:05:18.359 And we're coming to these verses and spending a little bit longer on them. 00:05:18.359 --> 00:05:23.599 There may be a little bit of repetition and I ask for your forgiveness for that. 00:05:23.599 --> 00:05:24.839 It's important stuff. 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:26.839 These verses absolutely are crucial. 00:05:26.839 --> 00:05:35.039 They take us to the very core of our understanding of God, of ourselves, of love and of death, 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:40.120 and of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus which we are called to remember today 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:45.200 in the sacrament and which we will be remembering in the sacrament shortly. 00:05:45.200 --> 00:05:48.800 What's at stake? 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:54.400 Peace and acceptance with a holy God of love. 00:05:54.400 --> 00:05:56.800 That's what's at stake. 00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:01.160 You know you and I as Christians, we don't believe that life is random. 00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:05.320 We don't believe it's ultimately meaningless. 00:06:05.320 --> 00:06:10.720 We don't make our way among the seven billion citizens of this planet for a few years and 00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:15.000 then die to be forgotten as if that's all there is. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:17.000 Do we? 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:26.120 You know we believe in a holy, loving, just, sovereign Creator God to whom we will all 00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:28.400 give account. 00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:30.120 That's what we believe. 00:06:30.120 --> 00:06:37.560 He's made us to be in a joyful relationship with Him, that belonging, that coming home, 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:44.040 that recognition of Him as the one that we were created to worship in joyful service. 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:50.439 Now we've seen over the last number of weeks that Romans 1-3 tells us something very significant 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:58.240 that we've cheated on Him, that we've betrayed Him, that we've broken His laws of love and 00:06:58.240 --> 00:07:00.120 laws of life. 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:06.879 We've rejected His claim on our lives and we've abandoned home with Him. 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:12.400 We believed a lie and we've ignored God's warning voice. 00:07:12.400 --> 00:07:18.280 Sin and death has entered out experience and ruined everything. 00:07:18.280 --> 00:07:21.759 So we've seen over the last number of weeks the bad news, haven't we? 00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:24.960 We've recognized that. 00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:29.959 This has been a long haul, this bad news that we've faced. 00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:35.199 But I think we're beginning to turn the corner a little bit now, a little bit anyway. 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:39.519 But we have noticed and understood and seen that God's, in the first place, God's just 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:41.799 wrath has been revealed. 00:07:41.799 --> 00:07:42.799 We've recognized that. 00:07:42.799 --> 00:07:45.599 Chapter 1, verse 18, told us that, didn't it? 00:07:45.599 --> 00:07:51.959 That the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. 00:07:51.959 --> 00:07:58.239 And we've recognized that that whole concept is hugely unpopular today. 00:07:58.239 --> 00:08:06.279 And it's denied, even by many theologians, the wrath of God has been a pagan idea that 00:08:06.279 --> 00:08:12.279 it's something that's taken from the pagan gods who were wrathful and capricious and 00:08:12.279 --> 00:08:18.560 needed to be appeased by all kinds of different offerings and gifts. 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:23.680 It's something that's been rejected by so many. 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:27.000 We can't have an angry God. 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:30.319 It's just not cricket. 00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:33.200 It's wrong to have an angry God. 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:39.720 It's okay to have angry theologians, but we can't have an angry God. 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:44.159 We simply must have a God of love and forgiveness. 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:49.639 But we recognize and see this great thread that runs through Scripture that the God of 00:08:49.639 --> 00:08:59.759 Revelation is not like the crazy pagan gods of history, nor the crazy power, the power 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:03.639 crazed individuals and leaders of today. 00:09:03.639 --> 00:09:07.279 He's not capricious and moody and unpredictable. 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:10.360 He's not like raging like a spoiled child. 00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:17.120 That is not the concept of God's wrath that is revealed biblically. 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:24.200 He's not someone who needs costly and intimidating efforts from us to appease Him in ways that 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:26.039 we can never do. 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:29.879 This is the God that we've seen, a God of perfect love. 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:33.560 We've seen that, haven't we? 00:09:33.560 --> 00:09:39.080 Who therefore has a perfect anger for everything that destroys that love. 00:09:39.080 --> 00:09:48.040 A supreme and without blemish jealousy to protect all that is good in life giving. 00:09:48.040 --> 00:09:50.960 A right protection for what is good that needs guarded. 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:53.400 He hates evil. 00:09:53.400 --> 00:09:56.920 Love hates what destroys it. 00:09:56.920 --> 00:10:00.240 Love hates what destroys it. 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:04.360 And he is his perfect love as well as that perfect wrath. 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:10.320 And along with his perfect love, he's a God of perfect justice which we've also seen that 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:17.000 perfect judgment against all that is unjust and corrupt in our hearts and in the world. 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:21.720 All that spoils, all the trouble that we're in. 00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:28.519 He takes his great and perfect justice against that. 00:10:28.519 --> 00:10:31.800 Now we argue that because we recognize it. 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:36.959 We see the shadows of God's image all around us in the world. 00:10:36.959 --> 00:10:38.679 We do, but we see it in our own hearts. 00:10:38.679 --> 00:10:44.479 We see it in our own responses in the rage against the rich dictators who will use chemical 00:10:44.479 --> 00:10:49.159 weapons against their own citizens. 00:10:49.159 --> 00:10:55.679 We rage at the poverty that lies in the dust right next door to unmeasurable wealth in the 00:10:55.679 --> 00:10:58.079 inequality of that. 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:04.440 We see it when someone would try to abduct our child or hurt our child, our brother, 00:11:04.440 --> 00:11:08.320 our sister, or our mother, or our father, or our friend. 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:12.040 We recognize it when marriage vows are broken. 00:11:12.040 --> 00:11:18.600 When someone we love chooses heroin, we see it in the proper exercise of the courts of 00:11:18.600 --> 00:11:25.720 law and in the rightful authority in a thousand walks of life. 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:34.000 The imperfect, shadowy, broken, but real image of the wrath of God, the justice of God, the 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:36.440 anger of God. 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:40.879 So where there is love and justice, there will be anger and punishment. 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:46.080 How much more when it comes from an infinitely perfect God, the God who is the author of 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:49.399 life and the author of love? 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:55.200 One of our own great theologians, Don McLeod, says, it is the deliberate, measured, judicious, 00:11:55.200 --> 00:12:02.600 responsive God to our collective revolt against His rule of love. 00:12:02.600 --> 00:12:06.200 And God's verdict is, there's no one righteous. 00:12:06.200 --> 00:12:12.040 There's no one righteous, not one. 00:12:12.040 --> 00:12:21.680 Romans 3 verse 10, we are separated from the source of life, the source of love, and death 00:12:21.680 --> 00:12:24.080 is our reality. 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:32.400 And that's kind of the solemn reality of the passage, the passages that we've been looking 00:12:32.400 --> 00:12:40.160 at, the guilt that is ours, not others, but ours for the living God. 00:12:40.160 --> 00:12:42.720 So God's just wrath has been revealed. 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:48.960 We've seen that in these chapters leading up to these verses. 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:55.080 And guess these verses really in the second place, first of two points that we have, in 00:12:55.080 --> 00:13:01.800 the second place, the question that comes from it is, who will turn away God's wrath? 00:13:01.800 --> 00:13:05.759 Who is it that will turn away God's wrath? 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:09.960 And that's the answer we find in the passage that we've read. 00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:18.759 We recognize there is a price to pay for the guilt that we face against a holy God. 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:27.720 Who can placate God's just sentence of death over your life and over mine? 00:13:27.720 --> 00:13:33.759 Who can pluck you from the danger that you are in and I am in if we haven't dealt with 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:37.120 that issue before the living God? 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:44.240 Who can do what it takes to make us right with God and to take away that sentence of 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:45.240 death? 00:13:45.240 --> 00:13:48.240 We try, don't we, in lots of different ways. 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:53.600 We try to please God and we try to reach up to Him, but none of us have yet got to that 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:59.240 stage where we're able to overcome that sentence of death. 00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:01.680 In reality, we have nothing to offer. 00:14:01.680 --> 00:14:06.720 That's the argument of these first three chapters, repetitively and powerfully and in an ongoing 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:07.720 way. 00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:08.960 We have nothing to offer God. 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:11.440 We can't put things right with the living God. 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:18.680 You know that theoretically, theologically and even in our mind and hearts and it's taking 00:14:18.680 --> 00:14:21.480 that knowledge and applying it to who we are. 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:30.600 Our ability to love God and to love others perfectly is irredeemably broken. 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:36.440 We can tiptoe into it now and again, but none of us can do what we are asked to do. 00:14:36.440 --> 00:14:38.680 None of us can offer God anything. 00:14:38.679 --> 00:14:45.439 Now for the older people here, you'll remember this coin, the half penny. 00:14:45.439 --> 00:14:47.919 I don't know how long it's been out of circulation. 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:53.839 The half penny, probably not that long, but wasn't it a rubbish coin? 00:14:53.839 --> 00:14:55.879 It just made holes in your pocket. 00:14:55.879 --> 00:14:56.879 It was rubbish. 00:14:56.879 --> 00:15:01.639 You had 12 pence and then you found another half pence and you couldn't get anything with 00:15:01.639 --> 00:15:02.639 it. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:03.639 You couldn't buy anything with it. 00:15:03.639 --> 00:15:06.639 It was a useless kind of annoying coin. 00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:09.000 I'm glad they got rid of it. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:12.000 It was hopeless, worthless. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:16.240 But you know, it would be like taking that little half penny coin that was small and 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:24.120 light and grubby and smelly and taking it to the bank to offer in repayment for a half 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:28.600 a million pound debt that was needing immediate repayment. 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:30.799 You know, it would be ridiculous to do that. 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:34.879 It's a useless, worthless and now defunct coin. 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:41.279 But it would, whether there was maybe a half penny land somewhere or a half penny city or 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:45.960 a half penny town, whether it was valuable, then maybe that would be different. 00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:49.519 But in the world in which we live and in the bank that you went to, taking a half penny 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:52.679 for a half a million pound debt is ludicrous. 00:15:52.679 --> 00:16:01.679 And so we cannot make repayment to God with our half penny lives because it's nothing. 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:08.439 It might be okay in our own half penny world, but before the living God, it's a ludicrous, 00:16:08.439 --> 00:16:11.719 it's a ludicrous solution to try and bring to Him. 00:16:11.719 --> 00:16:18.319 So we need to listen to what He has done and act on it, just as He has moved to anger and 00:16:18.319 --> 00:16:22.839 sentencing us to the penalty of death, which is His justice. 00:16:22.839 --> 00:16:30.439 So in His mercy, He has moved to forgiveness by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, fully God 00:16:30.440 --> 00:16:32.920 and fully man. 00:16:32.920 --> 00:16:37.160 That is what He has done and that is what we have in these verses. 00:16:37.160 --> 00:16:44.800 God put forward Jesus Christ as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. 00:16:44.800 --> 00:16:51.960 That is God the Son comes, and in His life and death and resurrection, He turns the wrath 00:16:51.960 --> 00:16:55.640 of God away from us. 00:16:55.640 --> 00:16:58.120 That's what He does. 00:16:58.120 --> 00:17:00.840 He becomes the focus of God's wrath on the cross. 00:17:00.840 --> 00:17:04.680 That is the transaction of the cross. 00:17:04.680 --> 00:17:12.539 The death of Jesus Christ on the cross makes God propitious towards us. 00:17:12.539 --> 00:17:15.480 God looks favorably on us. 00:17:15.480 --> 00:17:21.359 God is able to turn towards us because His wrath is turned away. 00:17:21.359 --> 00:17:32.959 That is the only fully understandable expression of His love, as Christ expiates for our guilt 00:17:32.959 --> 00:17:35.039 because we can't. 00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:37.399 He pays the price. 00:17:37.399 --> 00:17:43.000 He receives the wrath of God because He takes our sin. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:47.719 He who knew no sin becomes sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. 00:17:47.720 --> 00:17:56.400 We receive His life which was free from any entanglement of sin, where God was pleased 00:17:56.400 --> 00:18:04.360 with Him, not vengeful towards Him, where He perfectly lived out this law of love both 00:18:04.360 --> 00:18:06.640 to God and to His neighbor. 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:11.360 And yet He is the propitiation for our sins. 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:20.719 He is the one who turns away the wrath of God and we are to come to Jesus by faith. 00:18:20.719 --> 00:18:23.039 He covers God's anger. 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:30.479 So, this is the answer to your human condition and to mine. 00:18:30.479 --> 00:18:39.119 It is motivated by His unparalleled justice and love fused together on the work that He 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:41.159 did on the cross. 00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:48.600 And we recognize that and it is the most important truth that we repeat again and again in our 00:18:48.600 --> 00:18:50.360 lives. 00:18:50.360 --> 00:18:57.240 And as we recognize that great act of love, we do recognize that judgment, the Bible tells 00:18:57.240 --> 00:19:01.000 us, is His strange work. 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:09.279 And it speaks about Him here in His forbearance, passing over former sins, because we recognize 00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:15.519 that He seeks to deal with our sins and then move on from that work of judgment. 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:21.039 And when He returns in judgment on the last great day, that will be the end of His work 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:22.039 of judgment. 00:19:22.039 --> 00:19:29.039 In response to evil, one day it will be entirely destroyed. 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:34.079 But currently, He is patient not wanting anyone to perish. 00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:42.039 Love is the currency of the new creation that we will inhabit as Christians. 00:19:42.039 --> 00:19:48.679 And we are to receive this turning away of God's wrath and this receiving of His love 00:19:48.679 --> 00:19:51.159 as a gift. 00:19:51.159 --> 00:19:55.039 It was to show His righteousness at present time so that He might be just and the justifier 00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:57.960 of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. 00:19:57.960 --> 00:20:05.039 We are simply to accept what He has done as a gift and accept it by faith. 00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:08.660 He, His wrath has been turned away. 00:20:08.660 --> 00:20:14.840 We have been asked to turn to Him, to turn back to Him and are enabled so to do through 00:20:14.840 --> 00:20:19.759 Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. 00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:21.480 And it's a hugely significant thing. 00:20:21.480 --> 00:20:31.559 I'm going to finish at this point what I started, because I think it's important. 00:20:31.559 --> 00:20:41.319 Do you see that what Jesus has done, this magnificent work, God the Father, God the 00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:47.519 Son and God the Holy Spirit, breaking into history 2,000 years ago in this remarkable 00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:55.279 way, practical, real, loving, just is the lens through which you must view everything 00:20:55.279 --> 00:20:56.879 in your life. 00:20:56.879 --> 00:21:04.680 All the battles, all the struggles, all the joys, all the incapacity, all the mystery 00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:08.879 of what lies ahead for us, we need to look at it all. 00:21:08.879 --> 00:21:16.440 Our worldview needs to take in this sovereign, powerful, unique God of incommunicable and 00:21:16.440 --> 00:21:22.960 communicable attributes who is nailed to a cross, who turns away the wrath of the Father 00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:30.759 and who takes our sin and our death and removes its sting. 00:21:30.759 --> 00:21:34.120 It makes sense therefore, as He said at the beginning, of the senseless. 00:21:34.120 --> 00:21:36.039 That's where we find sense. 00:21:36.039 --> 00:21:43.600 That's where we find meaning and it identifies you with a love that will not let you go. 00:21:43.600 --> 00:21:45.799 Do you understand that truth? 00:21:45.799 --> 00:21:47.960 Do I understand that truth? 00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:54.240 Jesus Christ, when we come to Him by faith, gives us a love for Him and enables us to 00:21:54.240 --> 00:22:00.200 be held by Him and He will not let us go through the valley of the shadow of death, whatever 00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:01.799 that happens to be. 00:22:01.799 --> 00:22:04.319 Everyone else's grip will loosen. 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:06.159 Our own grip will loosen in life. 00:22:06.159 --> 00:22:13.279 Jesus Christ will never let us go in His love and that is a lens we must recognize. 00:22:13.279 --> 00:22:17.039 And now as Christians, we will remember. 00:22:17.039 --> 00:22:21.680 So I want you to spend some time when we celebrate the Lord's table and I'll explain how we do 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:26.279 things here, especially for those who are visiting with us. 00:22:26.279 --> 00:22:31.359 Spend some time just considering that, just meditating on that and remembering that's 00:22:31.359 --> 00:22:39.480 what the Lord's Supper is there for us to do, is to make us and to help us to remember 00:22:39.480 --> 00:22:40.480 what he is doing. 00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:45.240 Now if you're not a Christian particularly, I would ask you to consider that. 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:48.680 What is the lens through which you're looking at life? 00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:57.559 What is it that makes sense of all the senselessness for you and are you chasing a love that will 00:22:57.559 --> 00:22:58.559 let you go? 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:02.000 Let's bear our heads briefly in prayer. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:09.759 Father God, we ask and pray that you would bless today and bless this truth to us more 00:23:09.759 --> 00:23:15.879 and more and help us to understand it and bless our time together at the Lord's table 00:23:15.879 --> 00:23:21.440 and help us to know your presence and know your nearness to us as we remember who you 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:29.480 are and what you've done for us and as we take the elements of bread and wine by faith. 00:23:29.480 --> 00:23:30.480 We thank you for them. 00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:33.000 We thank you for the sacrament you've given. 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:37.680 We thank you that it is meaningful to us and that you've asked us to remember who you are 00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:44.920 and what you have done and we pray that you would go before us during this time and it 00:23:44.920 --> 00:23:51.880 would be a special, meaningful and powerful expression of our unity and of our faith in 00:23:51.880 --> 00:23:52.880 Jesus Christ. 00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:55.720 We ask it in His name. 00:23:55.720 --> 00:23:57.880 Amen. 00:23:57.880 --> 00:24:06.200 Now, just to explain a couple of things what I'm going to do now before we serve at Lord's 00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:08.200 Supper. 00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:12.400 A number of times a year we welcome new members into the congregation and today we're welcoming 00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:14.400 eight new members into the congregation. 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:20.440 And what I'd like to do briefly is to introduce them and give a very short summary of their 00:24:20.440 --> 00:24:22.720 store, their testimony. 00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:28.559 And then I'm going to ask them, we have one or two questions that we ask new members to 00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:39.960 take or to answer and then we will pray together and thank God for them and then participate 00:24:39.960 --> 00:24:40.960 in the Lord's Supper. 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:45.039 And the Lord's Supper itself, for those of you who are sitting upstairs, the elements 00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:49.039 will be brought to you and if you're a Christian you'll take part. 00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:56.159 If you're not, then please pass the elements of bread and wine on but do consider what is 00:24:56.159 --> 00:24:57.159 happening. 00:24:57.160 --> 00:25:02.040 And for those downstairs, it will be during the singing of a psalm, the ushers will make 00:25:02.040 --> 00:25:06.600 sure that you know where to come, you will come forward, take the bread and the wine, 00:25:06.600 --> 00:25:10.640 return to your seats and then we will eat and drink together. 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:14.440 So we will wait and eat and drink together. 00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:15.440 So I hope that helps. 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:19.680 I'll say a little bit more just before we do that. 00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:28.600 But I want to welcome and just because I think I've summarized their testimony that they've 00:25:28.600 --> 00:25:32.080 given to us and I'm going to share that with you all. 00:25:32.080 --> 00:25:34.960 I think it's very important that we share testimony. 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:40.960 I think it's encouraging and the size of the congregation we are now, it helps you to get 00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:47.560 to know people and also I hope you will welcome them and speak to them if you haven't already 00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:50.839 and make that effort so to do. 00:25:50.839 --> 00:25:55.639 So we also have photographs of them just to make it a little bit easier to know who it 00:25:55.639 --> 00:26:01.119 is because sometimes if you're sitting in one place, you never see someone who's sitting 00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:02.240 in another place. 00:26:02.240 --> 00:26:06.839 So Luke and Caroline Campbell, it's an alphabetical order. 00:26:06.839 --> 00:26:12.319 So Luke was brought up in a Christian home in Northern Ireland, came to faith at 14. 00:26:12.319 --> 00:26:16.159 But like many others struggled with whether his faith was conditioned by his upbringing 00:26:16.160 --> 00:26:18.320 or was genuinely his own. 00:26:18.320 --> 00:26:23.080 In time, he came to recognize God's grace is very real in his life and continues to learn 00:26:23.080 --> 00:26:26.040 more of Christ's love daily. 00:26:26.040 --> 00:26:31.600 He's a PE teacher at St. George's and is also involved in Christians in sport. 00:26:31.600 --> 00:26:38.480 And Caroline wasn't brought up in a Christian home but was brought up on an island, another 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:40.080 island of Lewis. 00:26:40.080 --> 00:26:44.480 But through Sunday School and the church youth group, she came to a growing realization 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:49.200 that Jesus has done everything for her in salvation and she just needed to put her life 00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:50.799 and trust in him. 00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:57.839 She knows that our happiness and peace in God is in God not in her circumstances. 00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:01.680 Caroline and Luke were married and since he's last summer, Caroline is studying history 00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:05.360 and religion at Sterling University. 00:27:05.360 --> 00:27:12.599 And you'll find that a lot of these testimonies reflect and share and back up the word and 00:27:12.599 --> 00:27:16.480 the preaching and the reality of our own experiences. 00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:18.480 And then Jen Cooper. 00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:23.679 Jen also grew up in a Christian home but her early trust and security in Jesus was rocked 00:27:23.679 --> 00:27:25.959 with the death of her father when she was 15. 00:27:25.959 --> 00:27:31.039 Now such a trauma always has a huge effect on her faith and Jen was no different. 00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:37.240 Anger, frustration, turning away, turning back, all molded her Christian character. 00:27:37.240 --> 00:27:41.599 She experienced a period of anxiety and depression, various career moves and a change in family 00:27:41.599 --> 00:27:46.539 dynamics but found a Christian community and friends and folk are who really supported 00:27:46.539 --> 00:27:48.379 and loved her. 00:27:48.379 --> 00:27:52.159 Jen works as a speech and language therapist and has been attending since he's for a couple 00:27:52.159 --> 00:27:53.159 of years. 00:27:53.159 --> 00:27:56.839 She's a great blessing to us and knows the reality of a Christ in whom she trusts with 00:27:56.839 --> 00:28:03.759 such a mature faith and peace even in the struggle she along with us all face in life. 00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:09.039 Miriam, Miriam Cowey on the left there, just in case you're worried. 00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:14.759 Jen was brought up in a Christian home, a man's in fact and we all know what a struggle 00:28:14.759 --> 00:28:15.759 that can be. 00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:22.000 I grew up in a man's just for those of you who don't know and my kids have grown up in 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:24.039 a man's. 00:28:24.039 --> 00:28:27.519 She went to church out of respect for her parents and believed in God but simply didn't 00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:31.159 love him or live for him in any meaningful way. 00:28:31.159 --> 00:28:35.559 But when Miriam moved to Edinburgh three years ago she stopped going to church altogether 00:28:35.559 --> 00:28:39.159 but never lost her sense of God and her need for him deep down. 00:28:39.159 --> 00:28:44.079 Now a broken relationship and a chance and I had that in inverted commas, a chance conversation 00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:48.759 with a Christian on a tram who was an American and who came to St. Columbus but I can't work 00:28:48.759 --> 00:28:49.759 out who it was. 00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:51.319 I don't know who it was. 00:28:51.319 --> 00:28:53.679 We'll find out one of these days. 00:28:53.679 --> 00:28:57.919 Prompted Miriam to come to St. Seas and over these last few months God has spoken to her 00:28:57.919 --> 00:29:02.000 powerfully through the preaching and fellowship and she committed her heart and life to Jesus 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:04.799 who she knows died to set her free. 00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:09.319 Miriam works as a manager with New Look in the Waverly Market. 00:29:09.319 --> 00:29:11.799 Sarah Hamilton. 00:29:11.799 --> 00:29:14.440 Sarah is another child of the man's. 00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:17.359 All the rebels are coming home. 00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:21.919 She came to faith at 14 and is so grateful for the love and example of her Christian 00:29:21.919 --> 00:29:22.919 parents. 00:29:22.919 --> 00:29:27.000 As she has grown in her Christian faith she can testify to Christ in the tough times and 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:31.519 the assurance of his love even in difficult situations which for us all seems to be a 00:29:31.519 --> 00:29:33.319 recurring theme doesn't it? 00:29:33.319 --> 00:29:37.279 Sarah attended boot camp last year and it triggered a deeper and fuller understanding 00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:41.319 for her regarding her Christian walk and witness which is really exciting. 00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:45.879 Sarah has recently moved to Edinburgh and works at an opticians here helping folks to 00:29:45.879 --> 00:29:46.879 see better. 00:29:46.879 --> 00:29:49.839 It's a great job. 00:29:49.839 --> 00:29:52.399 Bob and Chris Anna King. 00:29:52.399 --> 00:29:58.000 Bob is a native of Musselburgh but moved to North Yorkshire as a child where he had what 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:03.440 he describes as a nominal church connections and experienced various church traditions. 00:30:03.440 --> 00:30:08.359 Over the years whether in Scotland or Australia or New Zealand Bob attended church with Chris 00:30:08.359 --> 00:30:13.160 Anna, his wife, without fully accepting the gospel for himself struggling with being unable 00:30:13.160 --> 00:30:16.480 to prove the truth of its claims. 00:30:16.480 --> 00:30:21.440 But recently Bob has come to a personal faith and realizes like us all that he will always 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:25.920 be learning and growing as he leans on Christ his Savior. 00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:30.000 He's found the support and help of city group, a real encouragement. 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.960 Bob worked as an archery all over the world until he retired in 2006. 00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:40.200 And Chris Anna is a Highlander, brought up in a Christian home, went to church in Dingwall. 00:30:40.200 --> 00:30:44.720 Her mum was particularly influential to her as her father died when she was young. 00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:48.200 She has loved the Lord for a long time and has learned in the good times and the struggles 00:30:48.200 --> 00:30:50.880 that he is faithful and true. 00:30:50.880 --> 00:30:55.720 Chris Anna really values the centrality of prayer and fellowship with other Christians. 00:30:55.720 --> 00:31:01.360 Chris Anna was a nurse, specialized in ophthalmics, which provided an opening to volunteer in 00:31:01.360 --> 00:31:02.360 Africa. 00:31:02.360 --> 00:31:07.880 Chris Anna first worshiped in St. Columbus as a student when another D-alarment was 00:31:07.880 --> 00:31:09.240 the minister. 00:31:09.240 --> 00:31:13.960 So she has a long association with this congregation. 00:31:13.960 --> 00:31:19.200 And lastly, certainly not least and definitely tallest is Jake Michelle. 00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:25.960 Jake comes from California and in the States and is studying across the road ETS. 00:31:25.960 --> 00:31:29.319 He didn't have a Christian upbringing, but he was challenged when one of his best friends 00:31:29.319 --> 00:31:33.319 came to faith and also started to read the Bible because he wanted to argue with his 00:31:33.319 --> 00:31:37.480 girlfriend at the time who was a Jehovah's Witness. 00:31:37.480 --> 00:31:39.279 Noble. 00:31:39.279 --> 00:31:43.720 After failing to find satisfaction and meaning in sport or relationships, he turned to the 00:31:43.720 --> 00:31:46.400 Bible again and through its truths met with Christ. 00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:50.759 At college and beyond, he has valued the importance of being discipled well and being part of 00:31:50.759 --> 00:31:52.200 a gospel community. 00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:56.480 Jake has made himself very much part of the church community here and wants to return 00:31:56.480 --> 00:32:03.600 to the States when he's finished to plant a church and provide support and help for 00:32:03.600 --> 00:32:05.759 those of the deaf community. 00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:11.880 Jake's own parents are profoundly deaf, giving him a real and meaningful insight into the 00:32:11.880 --> 00:32:14.519 needs of that community. 00:32:14.519 --> 00:32:17.480 So we're really thankful to God for all of you. 00:32:17.480 --> 00:32:21.119 We're thankful to God for the ways working in your lives. 00:32:21.119 --> 00:32:25.279 And for ourselves as a congregation, you know that once a month on a Sunday evening we 00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:31.440 have a spotlight and on, well, we have every week, but once a month it's just the testimony 00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:33.440 and story of someone in the congregation. 00:32:33.440 --> 00:32:36.079 And that's a great and encouraging thing. 00:32:36.079 --> 00:32:41.799 And we love to hear God, we need to be reminded of God working in our lives and in the lives 00:32:41.799 --> 00:32:44.160 of those around us. 00:32:44.160 --> 00:32:49.840 So I'm going to ask those who are professing just to stand up and answer four questions 00:32:49.840 --> 00:32:55.200 and then I'll pray for you all and remember we'll move into the Lord's Supper. 00:32:55.200 --> 00:32:58.560 So if you'll all stand up at this point, those of you who are coming. 00:32:58.560 --> 00:32:59.560 And you can just all answer together. 00:32:59.560 --> 00:33:01.160 You don't need to answer separately. 00:33:01.160 --> 00:33:04.279 Just have a chorus of, I hope, yeses. 00:33:04.279 --> 00:33:08.880 Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the only Savior of sinners, in whom you 00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:16.000 put your personal hope and trust as a sinner needing forgiveness, grace and spiritual life? 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:19.560 Do you resolve in prayerful reliance on the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit 00:33:19.560 --> 00:33:23.120 to live as a disciple of Christ? 00:33:23.120 --> 00:33:27.600 Do you promise to support this church family and its worship and work with your gifts and 00:33:27.600 --> 00:33:31.360 graces to the best of your ability? 00:33:31.360 --> 00:33:35.360 And do you submit yourself to the pastoral care, teaching and discipline of the spiritual 00:33:35.359 --> 00:33:40.199 leaders of the church and seek its peace and prosperity as we promise to love and care 00:33:40.199 --> 00:33:41.199 for you? 00:33:41.199 --> 00:33:42.199 Thank you. 00:33:42.199 --> 00:33:45.199 I'll just pray. 00:33:45.199 --> 00:33:47.279 Lord God, we thank you for this day. 00:33:47.279 --> 00:33:51.759 We thank you for our friends and we thank you for the encouragement that they are to us 00:33:51.759 --> 00:34:00.839 and for the joy of hearing practically the great work of Jesus Christ in the lives of 00:34:00.839 --> 00:34:05.279 our neighbors, our friends, those around us, those whom we love, part of the family. 00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:09.880 And we pray that they would know, as they have known, a welcome here and would continue 00:34:09.880 --> 00:34:14.840 to know that and serve you and honor you in all that they do. 00:34:14.840 --> 00:34:21.679 We pray that you would be with Luke and Caroline, with Jen, with Miriam, with Sarah, with Chrysanna 00:34:21.679 --> 00:34:23.679 and Bob and with Jake. 00:34:23.679 --> 00:34:28.759 We rejoice in the diversity of their lives and the diversity of their circumstances, but 00:34:28.759 --> 00:34:33.079 yet in the unique and individual way you have drawn them to yourself to share that same 00:34:33.079 --> 00:34:38.319 salvation and that same testimony of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. 00:34:38.319 --> 00:34:42.360 And as we celebrate the Lord's Supper and give thanks for Jesus Christ, that is the 00:34:42.360 --> 00:34:43.920 testimony we all share. 00:34:43.920 --> 00:34:49.000 And there's that great unity and yet that great individuality. 00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:54.880 Remind us of that we pray as we celebrate and remember your death on the cross. 00:34:54.880 --> 00:35:04.200 For Jesus' sake, amen.