WEBVTT

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 We're going to be looking this evening at the topic of the Lord's Day from the Old Testament,

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 but looking at it in the light of New Testament additions to that as well. And one of the things

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 that's mentioned in the passage in Isaiah is how it should be a delight for us, in other words,

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 an exquisite joy to participate in the Lord's Day, in the worship of God particularly. And here is a

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 psalm that sets that out for us, where the people in the Old Testament rejoiced going to the place of

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 worship, the house of God, as it's put there. So let's sing these verses and seek to have that

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 joyful heart as we draw near to God. I joyed when to the house of God.

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 I joyed when to the house of God. Go up, they said to me, Jerusalem, within thy gate.

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 Jerusalem, as a city is, all are we built together,

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 come to the place that I store, the times of God, O'er.

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 Jerusalem, as a city is, all are we built together, and to the house of God.

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 Jerusalem, as a city is, all are we built together, and to the house of God.

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 Jerusalem, as a city is, all are we built together, and to the house of God.

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 Jerusalem, as a city is, all is excellent to the house of sub-レondination.

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 Jerusalem, as a city is, all are we built together, and to the house of God.

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 Jesus is, all should put together, and to the house of God.

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 His opportunity is filled together, and to the house of love.

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 Trina, Jerusalem, they have peace and felicity.

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 Let them not love thee and thy peace,

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 and still prosperity.

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 Therefore I wish that peace may still

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 within thy bones remain,

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 and never may thy policies

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 prosperity retain.

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 Now for my friends and brethren say,

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 peace be in thee and say,

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 and for the hearts of God our Lord,

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 I'll see thy good away.

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 Now let's join together in prayer.

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 We're going to call upon the Lord in prayer.

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 Let's pray.

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 Amen.

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 O Lord, our God, as we come to give thanks,

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 that this is our privilege once again

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 to draw near to you together in prayer

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 and in worship.

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 We give thanks, O Lord, for the opportunity

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 and the promises that meet us

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 as we come together in this way.

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 We thank you for all the experience

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 that we already had of your blessing

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 in this place of worship,

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 and for the way that we can look back over many years

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 when you have been pleased, O Lord,

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 to bless your people here in this place of worship.

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 May it be for us, O Lord, as it was for the people

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 of the psalmist's day to go up to the temple,

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 rejoicing because it was said to him,

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 let us go to the house of the Lord.

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 Lord, Lord, that we know that the people of God are his house

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 in New Testament times onwards.

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 Yet, Lord, we associate this building

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 with our gatherings for worship.

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 And so we come, Lord, today to give thanks

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 that we are able to gather here

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 and that we are able to seek your blessing once again

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 as we come together in this way.

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 Lord, help us, we pray, to worship you

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 in the manner in which we ought,

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 with the reverence, the godly fear,

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 the joy, the expectation

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 that should characterize us

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 as we come together in this way.

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 We thank you that you are the God

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 who lives in the midst of your people,

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 who has promised to be your presence with them

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 down through their journey through this world.

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 We thank you that your presence with them

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 is assured through all that you have done

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 in the Lord Jesus Christ for us.

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 And we give thanks, therefore,

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 that your presence will go with your people

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 on through death itself and resurrection

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 and into eternity,

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 and that God will dwell with his people forevermore,

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 as your word tells us.

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 And we thank you, Lord,

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 that we come around your word tonight.

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 And we thank you for your word once again.

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 Lord, when we are so familiar with your word

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 and so much of its teaching,

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 we pray that we may never be over-familiar with it,

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 that it will always be for us

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 the very voice of God

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 and the manner in which we draw near to you

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 as it associates with your word.

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 Oh, Lord, help us to receive your word with faith.

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 We read of others, Lord, in your word,

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 those who came through many years in the wilderness,

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 who fell in the wilderness,

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 who did not enter the promised land

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 because the word was not mixed with faith in them.

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 And we pray that that word

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 that tonight we receive

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 into our minds and hearts

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 will indeed be mixed with faith,

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 that we will receive it believingly

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 and enable us, Lord,

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 to receive it trustingly,

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 trusting in the God of the Word,

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 trusting in the Holy Spirit,

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 who is himself the author of the Word,

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 as you moved human beings down through the years

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 to put into writing those things

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 we now have benefit from.

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 We thank you, O Lord,

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 for the presence of your Spirit

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 in the life of your church.

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 We thank you for the way

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 that we can say of ourselves

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 that at many times

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 we have seen the moving of your Spirit

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 in our midst as a people.

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 We pray that that will be the case

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 increasingly, Lord,

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 in our day.

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 We recognize our need as a people.

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 We recognize our need even as your people.

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 We recognize the need of those around us

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 who do not come to worship you,

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 who do not care for your day

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 or for your cause.

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 And we give thanks, O Lord,

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 that we pray for them

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 and to a God who is able

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 to change their whole experience

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 and their whole attitude to life

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 as you did our own.

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 We pray tonight for them

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 and ask that you would bless us

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 as a people and as a nation.

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 For we know that one of the characteristics,

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 Lord, of our day

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 as a nation,

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 that we do not keep the Lord's day,

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 that we do not honor the Lord's day,

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 that we do not use

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 the opportunities we have

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 in the Lord's day as we ought.

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 We know that your day

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 is so often trampled on

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 and desecrated.

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 We ask your forgiveness,

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 Lord, for that.

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 We pray that you would be pleased

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 to turn us once again

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 to a proper observance

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 of your ways,

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 not only your day,

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 but the other aspects

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 of your will

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 revealed to us in your word.

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 And we pray for your Holy Spirit

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 to work in our communities

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 and help us, Lord,

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 as a people who worship you

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 to hold forth the word of life

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 and to testify to your goodness

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 to those that are our neighbors

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 and work colleagues and friends.

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 And we ask, Lord, tonight

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 that you would equip us

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 further to do so

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 and grant to us, we pray,

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 that tactful boldness

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 that will set your word

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 before the world of our day.

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 We ask your blessing

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 once again for those

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 who rule over us

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 in our nation.

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 Oh, Lord, we ask that you would

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 bless them

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 and bless your word to them,

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 even if at this time

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 they don't regard it

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 as in any way significant.

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 Yet, Lord, you can enter their mind

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 and give to them

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 that change of heart

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 that will come to realize

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 the importance of your word

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 and of the law

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 and the gospel contained in it.

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 And we pray that you would bless them

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 as they go about

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 the responsibilities

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 and burdens of high office.

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 Help them, Lord,

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 to realize that it is

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 as we all are

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 that we are accountable to you,

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 that it is by you

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 that we have come

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 into whatever position in life

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 we have in your providence

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 and that we are answerable

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 to you for it.

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 And so we pray for them

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 and ask, Lord,

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 that you would prosper us

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 as a people

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 in righteousness

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 and in holiness of life.

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 Forgive us for the many ways

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 in which we have departed

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 from your truth

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 and for the way in which

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 we have taken

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 the wisdom of human beings

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 and replaced your truth with it.

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 We ask, Lord,

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 for your forgiveness,

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 for the spirit of repentance

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 and turning to the Lord

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 that we seek for ourselves too.

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 And we pray, Lord,

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 tonight for all

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 who have difficulties

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 of various kinds

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 to contend with,

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 not only in our own midst

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 as a congregation,

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 but in our communities as well.

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 Remember those

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 who are struggling now

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 through the cost of living increase.

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 We ask, O Lord,

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 that you would be pleased

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 to lift us up

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 out of these conditions.

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 And we pray

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 that you bless the world

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 and all that has affected

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 this process at this time.

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 We pray, O Lord,

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 for renewed prosperity

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 in a proper way

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 to be our portion.

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 And we ask that you would

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 graciously bless those

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 in charge of our nation

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 who are wrestling

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 with these issues

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 at this time.

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 We pray, Lord,

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 for those who have lost work,

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 those who find it difficult

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 to provide for their families.

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 We pray for the food bank

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 and those who administer it.

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 We give thanks for it

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 and we pray that

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 all the food banks

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 throughout our nation,

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 O Lord,

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 will be supported

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 and that use

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 will be made of them.

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 But we pray especially

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 that you would provide

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 days of employment,

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 days of rich provision

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 for us as a people,

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 O Lord,

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 and grant to those

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 who are struggling

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 at this time

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 that you would reveal

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 yourself to them

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 and assure them, Lord,

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 that the riches

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 that are truly important

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 are in yourself.

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 Nevertheless,

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 we pray that you provide

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 for them

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 and the practical needs

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 they have from day to day.

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 We pray today

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 for those who lost loved ones

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 in recent times,

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 those who are anticipating

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 funerals

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 and days to come,

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 those, Lord,

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 who look back upon days

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 when loved ones

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 who are no longer with them

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 spent their time

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 in family life with them

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 and in the enjoyment

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 of those things.

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 And we pray for them

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 in their sense of loss

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 and bereavement

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 and sorrow.

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 And we ask,

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 gracious one,

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 that you would draw them

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 closer to yourself

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 and channel your peace

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 into their hearts,

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 we pray,

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 and your comfort.

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 Remember, Lord,

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 those who have lost loved ones

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 through suicide.

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 When this is,

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 O Lord,

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 on our sheet

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 this evening

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 and when we are being asked

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 to take part

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 in this consultation,

00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:44.759
 we do pray,

00:12:44.899 --> 00:12:45.220
 O Lord,

00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:46.080
 for those who have

00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:47.700
 been through that trauma

00:12:47.700 --> 00:12:49.580
 and are still traumatized

00:12:49.580 --> 00:12:50.120
 from it.

00:12:50.779 --> 00:12:51.720
 And we ask, O Lord,

00:12:51.820 --> 00:12:53.120
 even for those tonight too

00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:55.879
 who may have suicidal thoughts

00:12:55.879 --> 00:12:57.159
 at this present time,

00:12:57.980 --> 00:12:58.259
 Lord,

00:12:58.320 --> 00:12:59.220
 we ask that you would

00:12:59.220 --> 00:13:00.200
 draw near to them,

00:13:00.919 --> 00:13:02.360
 that you would assure them

00:13:02.360 --> 00:13:03.279
 of your love

00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:04.840
 for all those

00:13:04.840 --> 00:13:06.279
 who place their trust in you.

00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:08.440
 Give support to them,

00:13:08.500 --> 00:13:08.940
 we pray,

00:13:09.639 --> 00:13:11.180
 and grant that all the means

00:13:11.180 --> 00:13:12.259
 of support available

00:13:12.259 --> 00:13:14.220
 will be used by them.

00:13:14.779 --> 00:13:15.960
 Remember their families,

00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:17.419
 those who are anxious

00:13:17.419 --> 00:13:18.080
 over them

00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:19.580
 from hour to hour

00:13:19.580 --> 00:13:20.600
 and from day to day

00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:22.000
 and the pressure

00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:22.659
 and stress,

00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:23.179
 O Lord,

00:13:23.620 --> 00:13:24.159
 involved.

00:13:24.340 --> 00:13:24.919
 Remember them,

00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:25.379
 we pray.

00:13:26.220 --> 00:13:27.279
 Grant your blessing too,

00:13:27.379 --> 00:13:27.799
 O Lord,

00:13:27.899 --> 00:13:29.419
 for all others

00:13:29.419 --> 00:13:30.120
 that we commend

00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:30.899
 to you tonight.

00:13:31.439 --> 00:13:32.279
 We pray for those

00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:32.860
 reaching out

00:13:32.860 --> 00:13:33.559
 with the gospel

00:13:33.559 --> 00:13:35.179
 and ask that you would

00:13:35.179 --> 00:13:36.840
 provide blessing

00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:38.120
 to accompany your word.

00:13:38.819 --> 00:13:39.679
 Remember Muriel

00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:40.379
 in Cambodia.

00:13:40.379 --> 00:13:41.379
 Again,

00:13:41.419 --> 00:13:42.240
 we pray for her,

00:13:42.299 --> 00:13:42.659
 O Lord,

00:13:42.700 --> 00:13:43.340
 and ask that

00:13:43.340 --> 00:13:44.360
 your blessing

00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:45.139
 will be with her

00:13:45.139 --> 00:13:46.159
 from day to day

00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:47.240
 in her own situation.

00:13:47.939 --> 00:13:48.539
 We commend her

00:13:48.539 --> 00:13:49.580
 once again to you.

00:13:50.379 --> 00:13:50.980
 We ask too

00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:51.439
 your blessing

00:13:51.439 --> 00:13:52.039
 to follow

00:13:52.039 --> 00:13:53.460
 the week that

00:13:53.460 --> 00:13:54.379
 has gone by

00:13:54.379 --> 00:13:56.419
 as so many children

00:13:56.419 --> 00:13:57.740
 attended the club.

00:13:58.399 --> 00:13:58.840
 Lord,

00:13:58.960 --> 00:13:59.620
 we ask that

00:13:59.620 --> 00:14:00.120
 your blessing

00:14:00.120 --> 00:14:01.200
 will follow

00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:02.519
 that teaching

00:14:02.519 --> 00:14:03.460
 that they received

00:14:03.460 --> 00:14:04.179
 of the gospel

00:14:04.179 --> 00:14:05.559
 and of the importance

00:14:05.559 --> 00:14:06.899
 of the Lord Jesus Christ

00:14:06.899 --> 00:14:07.299
 to them.

00:14:07.299 --> 00:14:08.359
 and we pray

00:14:08.359 --> 00:14:08.779
 that they

00:14:08.779 --> 00:14:09.479
 and their families

00:14:09.479 --> 00:14:10.019
 will know

00:14:10.019 --> 00:14:11.259
 that blessing

00:14:11.259 --> 00:14:12.099
 in days to come

00:14:12.099 --> 00:14:12.819
 that would come

00:14:12.819 --> 00:14:13.839
 from your own

00:14:13.839 --> 00:14:14.599
 blessed truth.

00:14:15.379 --> 00:14:15.599
 Now,

00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:15.859
 Lord,

00:14:15.899 --> 00:14:16.699
 we ask your blessing

00:14:16.699 --> 00:14:17.919
 to be with us

00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:18.959
 as we turn to your word

00:14:18.959 --> 00:14:19.559
 and continue

00:14:19.559 --> 00:14:21.039
 to sing your praises.

00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:22.559
 Forgive us our sins,

00:14:22.679 --> 00:14:23.059
 we pray,

00:14:23.500 --> 00:14:24.479
 in Jesus' name.

00:14:24.979 --> 00:14:25.279
 Amen.

00:14:28.099 --> 00:14:28.799
 Let's continue

00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:29.500
 to praise God

00:14:29.500 --> 00:14:30.219
 this time we're singing

00:14:30.219 --> 00:14:31.359
 in Psalm 32.

00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:33.079
 Psalm 32

00:14:33.079 --> 00:14:34.279
 in the Sing Psalms version

00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:37.179
 and that's on page 38,

00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:40.679
 singing verses 7 to 11,

00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:41.399
 from verse 7

00:14:41.399 --> 00:14:42.459
 to the end of the psalm.

00:14:43.559 --> 00:14:45.159
 You are my hiding place,

00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:45.659
 O Lord,

00:14:45.740 --> 00:14:46.919
 my true security.

00:14:47.600 --> 00:14:48.779
 You keep me safe

00:14:48.779 --> 00:14:49.799
 in troubled days.

00:14:50.339 --> 00:14:51.019
 You circle me

00:14:51.019 --> 00:14:52.220
 with joyful praise

00:14:52.220 --> 00:14:54.519
 when you have set me free.

00:14:54.620 --> 00:14:55.360
 Psalm 32,

00:14:55.959 --> 00:14:57.120
 verses 7 to 11.

00:14:57.240 --> 00:14:58.299
 We'll stand again to sing.

00:14:58.299 --> 00:14:58.379
 Amen.

00:14:58.379 --> 00:15:09.340
 You are my hiding place,

00:15:09.340 --> 00:15:11.399
 O Lord,

00:15:11.700 --> 00:15:17.439
 my true security.

00:15:19.500 --> 00:15:24.159
 You keep me safe

00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:28.899
 in troubled days.

00:15:28.899 --> 00:15:33.620
 You circle me

00:15:33.620 --> 00:15:38.519
 with joyful praise

00:15:38.519 --> 00:15:45.439
 when you have set me free.

00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:52.900
 I will instruct you

00:15:52.900 --> 00:15:56.580
 by my word

00:15:56.580 --> 00:16:00.180
 and guide you

00:16:00.180 --> 00:16:04.400
 in my way.

00:16:04.400 --> 00:16:07.400
 My counsel,

00:16:07.400 --> 00:16:14.580
 I will give to you

00:16:14.580 --> 00:16:17.540
 my life

00:16:17.540 --> 00:16:19.639
 will keep

00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:22.400
 your path

00:16:22.400 --> 00:16:24.320
 with you

00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:28.240
 and watch you

00:16:28.240 --> 00:16:32.820
 day by day.

00:16:32.820 --> 00:16:35.180
 Though

00:16:35.180 --> 00:16:37.820
 we like

00:16:38.500 --> 00:16:40.820
 the horse

00:16:40.820 --> 00:16:42.820
 or mule

00:16:42.820 --> 00:16:45.960
 which cannot

00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:49.820
 understand,

00:16:49.820 --> 00:16:54.040
 they must

00:16:54.040 --> 00:16:56.100
 be firm

00:16:56.100 --> 00:16:58.920
 and kept

00:16:58.920 --> 00:17:01.060
 in shape

00:17:01.060 --> 00:17:02.780
 as they

00:17:02.780 --> 00:17:04.640
 and

00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:06.779
 ridden

00:17:06.779 --> 00:17:08.559
 turn

00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:10.559
 their way

00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:12.559
 to go

00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:14.519
 where you

00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:15.519
 to go

00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:15.599
 where you

00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:17.519
 command.

00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:22.099
 The wicked

00:17:22.099 --> 00:17:24.519
 woes

00:17:24.519 --> 00:17:26.839
 will much

00:17:26.839 --> 00:17:27.519
 increase

00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:30.519
 but those

00:17:30.519 --> 00:17:33.519
 who trust

00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:35.519
 the Lord

00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:51.480
 political

00:17:51.480 --> 00:17:55.940
 who teach

00:18:01.019 --> 00:18:01.519
 sal duplicates

00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:02.359
 that I

00:18:02.460 --> 00:18:03.480
 have

00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:03.500
 ever

00:18:03.500 --> 00:18:05.500
 and

00:18:05.500 --> 00:18:13.940
 Let's read from the Scriptures now from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12, the first 14

00:18:13.940 --> 00:18:14.299
 verses.

00:18:15.900 --> 00:18:21.019
 Matthew chapter 12, from the beginning, the first 14 verses.

00:18:29.019 --> 00:18:32.400
 At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath.

00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:38.180
 His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck ears of corn and to eat them.

00:18:39.100 --> 00:18:43.460
 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, Look, your disciples are doing what is

00:18:43.460 --> 00:18:45.040
 not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

00:18:45.940 --> 00:18:51.480
 He said to them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with

00:18:51.480 --> 00:18:57.580
 him, how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which it was not

00:18:57.580 --> 00:19:01.980
 lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests.

00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:07.560
 Or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath

00:19:07.560 --> 00:19:08.620
 and are guiltless?

00:19:09.360 --> 00:19:12.800
 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.

00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:19.860
 And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have

00:19:19.860 --> 00:19:21.120
 condemned the guiltless.

00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:24.939
 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:28.299
 He went on from there and entered their synagogue.

00:19:29.239 --> 00:19:31.119
 And a man was there with a withered hand.

00:19:31.879 --> 00:19:37.139
 And they asked him, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him?

00:19:37.979 --> 00:19:44.339
 He said to them, Which of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not

00:19:44.339 --> 00:19:45.879
 take hold of it and lift it out?

00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:49.379
 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep?

00:19:50.159 --> 00:19:52.819
 So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

00:19:53.819 --> 00:19:56.559
 Then he said to the man, Stretch out your hand.

00:19:57.240 --> 00:20:01.099
 And the man stretched it out and was restored healthy like the other.

00:20:01.099 --> 00:20:08.059
 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him.

00:20:08.059 --> 00:20:09.059
 Amen.

00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:14.240
 May God add his blessing to a reading of his word.

00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:18.200
 Let's now sing once again in Psalm 119.

00:20:20.279 --> 00:20:22.240
 119, page 163.

00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:25.119
 And the section beginning at verse 105.

00:20:25.940 --> 00:20:27.179
 The tune is eventide.

00:20:29.879 --> 00:20:32.940
 Your word's a lamp that shines before my feet.

00:20:33.559 --> 00:20:35.700
 It is a light that guides me on my way.

00:20:35.700 --> 00:20:41.559
 The oath that I have taken, I have confirmed that all your righteous laws I will obey.

00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:44.740
 O Lord, you know that I have suffered much.

00:20:45.420 --> 00:20:47.519
 Preserve my life according to your word.

00:20:48.220 --> 00:20:50.600
 Accept the willing praises of my mouth.

00:20:51.279 --> 00:20:54.539
 Instruct me in your righteous laws, O Lord.

00:20:55.299 --> 00:21:02.759
 I will not disregard your holy law, though constantly my life is in my hands.

00:21:02.759 --> 00:21:08.180
 Although the wicked set a snare for me, I have not left the path of your commands.

00:21:08.940 --> 00:21:11.319
 Your statutes are my heritage always.

00:21:12.339 --> 00:21:14.700
 And every day they make my heart rejoice.

00:21:15.740 --> 00:21:18.299
 My heart is set on keeping your decrees.

00:21:18.680 --> 00:21:22.200
 And to the very end they are my choice.

00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:24.339
 These verses to the tune eventide.

00:21:24.420 --> 00:21:27.640
 Your word's a lamp that shines before my feet.

00:21:27.640 --> 00:21:27.700
 Amen.

00:21:27.700 --> 00:21:27.779
 Amen.

00:21:27.779 --> 00:21:27.799
 Amen.

00:21:27.799 --> 00:21:27.859
 Amen.

00:21:27.859 --> 00:21:27.879
 Amen.

00:21:27.879 --> 00:21:27.940
 Amen.

00:21:27.940 --> 00:21:27.980
 Amen.

00:21:32.759 --> 00:21:33.680
 Amen.

00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:33.980
 Amen.

00:21:33.980 --> 00:21:34.059
 Bealed.

00:21:34.059 --> 00:21:47.940
 Amen.

00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:50.960
 Amen.

00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:53.759
 Amen.

00:21:54.180 --> 00:21:55.740
 Amen.

00:21:55.740 --> 00:22:06.059
 The oath that I have taken I've confirmed,

00:22:06.059 --> 00:22:16.059
 that all your righteousness I will obey.

00:22:16.059 --> 00:22:29.059
 O Lord, you know that I have suffered much.

00:22:29.059 --> 00:22:41.059
 Please spend my life according to your word.

00:22:41.059 --> 00:22:52.059
 Accept the willing praises of my heart.

00:22:52.059 --> 00:23:04.059
 Insult me in your righteous laws, O Lord.

00:23:04.059 --> 00:23:15.059
 I will not disheart you, O Lord.

00:23:15.059 --> 00:23:26.059
 Though constantly my life is in my hands,

00:23:26.059 --> 00:23:37.059
 O Lord, the wicked set us here for me,

00:23:37.059 --> 00:23:48.059
 I am not left above you, O God.

00:23:48.059 --> 00:24:00.059
 Your statutes are my heritage always.

00:24:00.059 --> 00:24:12.059
 And every day they make my heart rejoice.

00:24:12.059 --> 00:24:22.059
 My heart is set on me in your defeat.

00:24:23.059 --> 00:24:33.059
 And to the very end they are my joy.

00:24:33.059 --> 00:24:40.059
 Let's turn to read God's word again this time in Isaiah, chapter 58.

00:24:40.059 --> 00:24:46.059
 And this is the passage we're going to spend some time on briefly this evening.

00:24:46.059 --> 00:24:58.059
 Isaiah 58 and at verse 13.

00:24:58.059 --> 00:25:03.059
 Isaiah 58 and the last two verses, verse 13.

00:25:03.059 --> 00:25:09.059
 If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day,

00:25:09.059 --> 00:25:13.059
 and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable,

00:25:13.059 --> 00:25:20.059
 if you honor it not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly,

00:25:20.059 --> 00:25:23.059
 then you shall take delight in the Lord.

00:25:23.059 --> 00:25:26.059
 And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth.

00:25:26.059 --> 00:25:30.059
 I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,

00:25:30.059 --> 00:25:37.059
 for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

00:25:37.059 --> 00:25:45.059
 The weekly Lord's Day or Christian Sabbath, as it's now known since New Testament times,

00:25:45.059 --> 00:25:49.059
 is of abiding relevance to human life.

00:25:49.059 --> 00:25:56.059
 Not just to the life of God's people, but to human life in its entirety.

00:25:56.059 --> 00:26:03.059
 Because the Lord's Day, the Sabbath day, is not something that began with the New Testament.

00:26:03.059 --> 00:26:07.059
 It's not something that began even with the Ten Commandments,

00:26:07.059 --> 00:26:11.059
 although it is the fourth commandment in the Ten Commandments.

00:26:11.059 --> 00:26:15.059
 It began at the creation.

00:26:15.059 --> 00:26:18.059
 You read about that in Genesis chapter 2,

00:26:18.059 --> 00:26:22.059
 where God, when He finished His work of creation in six days,

00:26:22.059 --> 00:26:30.059
 rested on the seventh day, and sanctified the seventh day to be a day of rest.

00:26:30.059 --> 00:26:39.059
 And ever since, it has become, for people, a day in which they rest from their usual occupations,

00:26:39.059 --> 00:26:43.059
 apart from work that needs to be done, that's necessary.

00:26:43.059 --> 00:26:52.059
 But it's a day that has been, by the Christian church, observed as a day that is different to the other six.

00:26:52.059 --> 00:26:55.059
 That goes back to God's own specification.

00:26:55.059 --> 00:26:57.059
 He sanctified this day.

00:26:57.059 --> 00:27:03.059
 And although since New Testament times has come to be the first day of the week,

00:27:03.059 --> 00:27:06.059
 due mainly to Christ's resurrection from the dead,

00:27:06.059 --> 00:27:12.059
 it's nevertheless the same pattern of one day sanctified to the Lord to begin the week,

00:27:12.059 --> 00:27:19.059
 and six days following when we're free to do our own activities in terms of our labor.

00:27:19.059 --> 00:27:25.059
 So, in other words, because it began with creation, it's a creation ordinance.

00:27:25.059 --> 00:27:29.059
 That's what theologians have called it down through the years, creation ordinance.

00:27:29.059 --> 00:27:33.059
 Just like the ordinance of labor, tied, of course, to the Lord's Day as well,

00:27:33.059 --> 00:27:39.059
 in terms of absence from labor being one of the characteristics of the Lord's Day.

00:27:39.059 --> 00:27:46.059
 But the ordinances of God, the creation ordinances, include also marriage,

00:27:46.059 --> 00:27:52.059
 because marriage was set by God in the context of creation ordinance.

00:27:52.059 --> 00:27:58.059
 And all the creation ordinances, these three especially, are of abiding relevance to human life.

00:27:58.059 --> 00:28:03.059
 So, you must never think that the Lord's Day or the Sabbath, the Christian Sabbath,

00:28:03.059 --> 00:28:06.059
 is applicable only to Christians.

00:28:06.059 --> 00:28:14.059
 The gospel calls upon all human beings to set this day aside, to be holy to the Lord,

00:28:14.059 --> 00:28:18.059
 to be different to the other days of the week.

00:28:18.059 --> 00:28:23.059
 You probably have heard many times of this saying.

00:28:23.059 --> 00:28:29.059
 Now, it's not really, we're not really sure who wrote it, but it goes as follows.

00:28:29.059 --> 00:28:36.059
 A Sabbath well spent brings a week of content and strength for the toil of tomorrow.

00:28:36.059 --> 00:28:43.059
 But a Sabbath profaned, whatever is gained, is a certain forerunner of sorrow.

00:28:43.059 --> 00:28:51.059
 And that reminds us in itself, in its own pithy way, of how centrally important the observance

00:28:51.059 --> 00:28:54.059
 and the sanctifying of the Lord's Day is.

00:28:54.059 --> 00:28:59.059
 And the Lord's Day, in fact, is itself a unifying ordinance.

00:28:59.059 --> 00:29:06.059
 And by that I mean it's something that actually holds human beings together when it's rightly observed.

00:29:06.059 --> 00:29:15.059
 It binds us together, binds human beings together when they give the place to the Lord's Day that the Lord himself has called for it to be given.

00:29:15.059 --> 00:29:21.059
 And it does that in a way that no other ordinance really can do in that way.

00:29:21.059 --> 00:29:29.059
 If everybody in the country was actually going to be true to the Lord's Day as God himself requires,

00:29:29.059 --> 00:29:37.059
 just imagine the effect that would have on our society to bind human beings together, not in a way that is tyrannous,

00:29:37.059 --> 00:29:48.059
 but in a way that really experiences the true liberty of God's salvation and of the worship of God in relation to him being our creator and our savior.

00:29:48.059 --> 00:29:57.059
 And therefore, the Lord's Day applies not just to individuals, it also applies to nations, it applies to communities.

00:29:57.059 --> 00:30:08.059
 And indeed our attitude to the Lord's Day is itself a very reliable gauge of the spiritual or moral state of any people.

00:30:08.059 --> 00:30:15.059
 And I need not tell you, you know yourselves, that when you apply that as a gauge to our own nation,

00:30:15.059 --> 00:30:21.059
 our own nation fails very badly measured against or by that gauge.

00:30:21.059 --> 00:30:30.059
 Because the Lord's Day, far from being upheld and exalted and honored and sanctified,

00:30:30.059 --> 00:30:33.059
 is treated no differently to any other day.

00:30:33.059 --> 00:30:40.059
 And indeed in many respects is desecrated and secularized and many other words you could use

00:30:40.059 --> 00:30:45.059
 for people's attitude and practice on the Lord's Day.

00:30:45.059 --> 00:30:48.059
 I want us to think of the Lord's Day tonight.

00:30:48.059 --> 00:30:54.059
 It's something probably that we really don't think of frequently enough in the teaching of the pulpit.

00:30:54.059 --> 00:30:59.059
 Because it is of such central importance and so much else revolves around it.

00:30:59.059 --> 00:31:08.059
 And it is connected, as I said, to so many aspects of human life that is vitally important that we actually keep it at the forefront of our minds.

00:31:08.059 --> 00:31:19.059
 What the Lord's Day is for, what the Lord's Day is for a start, where it's come from, what it's for, how it's different to other days of the week,

00:31:19.059 --> 00:31:25.059
 and therefore how we ourselves must in our attitude and practice observe the Lord's Day.

00:31:25.059 --> 00:31:31.059
 Not in a legalistic way, but nevertheless in a way that honors it as the day of God.

00:31:31.059 --> 00:31:38.059
 And that's what we have in these verses in Isaiah chapter 38.

00:31:38.059 --> 00:31:43.059
 There are some differences in terms of things that are connected with the Lord's Day,

00:31:43.059 --> 00:31:49.059
 as you move from the Old Testament to the New Testament, where it becomes the Christian Sabbath,

00:31:49.059 --> 00:31:52.059
 or the Lord's Day as it's called throughout the New Testament.

00:31:52.059 --> 00:32:03.059
 But nevertheless, the principle of it remains exactly the same, that it is a day in contrast to the other days of the week that we are to consecrate to God.

00:32:03.059 --> 00:32:09.059
 That doesn't mean we don't consecrate the other days to Him and seek to be obedient to God on other days of the week.

00:32:09.059 --> 00:32:17.059
 This is a different day in terms of how God Himself has specified it to be sanctified as His special day,

00:32:17.059 --> 00:32:25.059
 as a day in which He is honored in ways that are not possible so much on the other days of the week.

00:32:25.059 --> 00:32:32.059
 Now, you can see in these two verses, as you read through them, that you have the kind of thinking in them,

00:32:32.059 --> 00:32:39.059
 or the kind of argument that begins with, if you do this, then certain things will follow.

00:32:39.059 --> 00:32:44.059
 In other words, what you have here are what you could call conditional blessings.

00:32:44.059 --> 00:32:47.059
 There are a set of conditions, first of all.

00:32:47.059 --> 00:32:51.059
 We're going to look at three of them or summarize it in three.

00:32:51.059 --> 00:32:58.059
 If you do this, if you turn back your fruit from the Sabbath, if you honor the Sabbath,

00:32:58.059 --> 00:33:04.059
 not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure, then you shall take delight in the Lord.

00:33:04.059 --> 00:33:10.059
 In other words, it's saying to us, if we fulfill these conditions, and it's not again in a legalistic way,

00:33:10.059 --> 00:33:14.059
 if we fulfill these conditions, then these promises follow.

00:33:14.059 --> 00:33:18.059
 The consequences are that we will then take delight in the Lord.

00:33:18.059 --> 00:33:20.059
 He will make us ride on the heights of the earth.

00:33:20.059 --> 00:33:23.059
 He will feed us with the heritage of Jacob.

00:33:23.059 --> 00:33:26.059
 And we'll see briefly what all of these mean.

00:33:26.059 --> 00:33:29.059
 So that's the way the verses are set in relation to each other.

00:33:29.059 --> 00:33:35.059
 The conditions specified, and then that leads us to the blessings promised.

00:33:35.059 --> 00:33:37.059
 Let's look at the conditions then.

00:33:37.059 --> 00:33:41.059
 If you turn back your fruit from the Sabbath.

00:33:41.059 --> 00:33:47.059
 Now, what does he mean by turn back your fruit or remove your fruit from the Sabbath?

00:33:47.059 --> 00:33:51.059
 And there are various opinions among commentators as to what that means.

00:33:51.059 --> 00:34:02.059
 Some think it might be a reflection on the Sabbath being regarded as holy ground that we are to regard with carefulness.

00:34:02.059 --> 00:34:08.059
 Just as Moses, when he came to approach the burning bush, was told, take off your shoes from off your feet.

00:34:08.059 --> 00:34:11.059
 The place you're standing on is holy ground.

00:34:11.059 --> 00:34:19.059
 And maybe that's the idea behind turning back your foot from the Sabbath, that it's regarded as holy ground that we have to regard as holy.

00:34:19.059 --> 00:34:20.059
 Sanctifying.

00:34:20.059 --> 00:34:24.059
 And that's what it means to sanctify the Lord's day, to treat it as holy.

00:34:24.059 --> 00:34:29.059
 I think it's probably better, the second way that people think of it as,

00:34:29.059 --> 00:34:32.059
 treading down on the Sabbath day.

00:34:32.059 --> 00:34:34.059
 Treating it disrespectfully.

00:34:34.059 --> 00:34:39.059
 In other words, when it says turn back your fruit from it, it's saying don't trample it down.

00:34:39.059 --> 00:34:43.059
 Instead of elevating it, what you're doing is trampling it down.

00:34:43.059 --> 00:34:44.059
 Standing on it.

00:34:44.059 --> 00:34:45.059
 Treating it with disrespect.

00:34:45.059 --> 00:34:46.059
 Disrespect.

00:34:46.059 --> 00:34:47.059
 That's what he's saying here.

00:34:47.059 --> 00:34:48.059
 Isaiah.

00:34:48.059 --> 00:34:50.059
 God saying through Isaiah to the people of Isaiah's day.

00:34:50.059 --> 00:34:52.059
 In other words, profaning the day.

00:34:52.059 --> 00:34:54.059
 Not treating the day respectfully.

00:34:54.059 --> 00:34:56.059
 Not treating it as a holy day.

00:34:56.059 --> 00:34:57.059
 As a different day.

00:34:57.059 --> 00:35:05.059
 And if you read through Isaiah, you'll find that they were doing certain things on the Lord's day that were formally correct.

00:35:05.059 --> 00:35:09.059
 But the spirit in their heart was absolutely different to what it should have been.

00:35:09.059 --> 00:35:15.059
 And the Lord was saying to them, yes, outwardly you might be observing certain things to do with the Sabbath day.

00:35:15.059 --> 00:35:18.059
 But I despise your heart.

00:35:18.059 --> 00:35:21.059
 I can see in your heart that you're not in love with me at all.

00:35:21.059 --> 00:35:25.059
 You're just doing things by rote or just as a matter of habit.

00:35:25.059 --> 00:35:30.059
 Or even worse than that in an idolatrous way.

00:35:30.059 --> 00:35:33.059
 And so, you see, that's what he's saying here.

00:35:33.059 --> 00:35:43.059
 If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, if you don't tread down or trample the Sabbath or profane my day, then these things that I'm promising you will follow.

00:35:43.059 --> 00:35:58.059
 Now, if you apply that to our society today, you can see today itself right now at this moment, as you look out, just confined to our own nation for one thing, you can actually see how much this is applicable to the world of our day.

00:35:58.059 --> 00:36:10.059
 Because instead of elevating this day, instead of having this day upheld and promoted as God's day, sadly, it's largely trampled down.

00:36:10.059 --> 00:36:12.059
 It's largely secularized.

00:36:12.059 --> 00:36:18.059
 It's largely treated as a day when we can just do as we do on other days.

00:36:18.059 --> 00:36:23.059
 And certainly a day when God doesn't really come into the picture at all.

00:36:23.059 --> 00:36:27.059
 Treading down on the Lord's day.

00:36:27.059 --> 00:36:30.059
 Putting it, stamping it beneath your feet.

00:36:30.059 --> 00:36:40.059
 Instead of actually elevating it and giving it the prominence and the special place that God Himself requires of us to give it.

00:36:40.059 --> 00:36:41.059
 That's the first thing.

00:36:41.059 --> 00:36:45.059
 If you turn your foot from the Sabbath.

00:36:45.059 --> 00:36:48.059
 Then He says, from doing your pleasure on my holy day.

00:36:48.059 --> 00:36:55.059
 Now, as He goes through these various conditions, the one follows on from the other.

00:36:55.059 --> 00:36:56.059
 The one helps to explain the other.

00:36:56.059 --> 00:37:01.059
 If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, if you stop trampling on the Sabbath.

00:37:01.059 --> 00:37:05.059
 In other words, He's saying, that's doing your pleasure on my holy day.

00:37:05.059 --> 00:37:14.059
 And you can see immediately that there's a very emphatic comparison here as you take these two words, your and my.

00:37:14.059 --> 00:37:22.059
 And if you emphasize those two, you'll get to the exact meaning of what God is saying through Isaiah to the people of His day.

00:37:22.059 --> 00:37:32.059
 If you actually turn back your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day.

00:37:32.059 --> 00:37:34.059
 See, that's how God is emphasizing it.

00:37:34.059 --> 00:37:37.059
 That's what the people of Isaiah's day were actually doing.

00:37:37.059 --> 00:37:41.059
 They were doing their own pleasure on God's holy day.

00:37:41.059 --> 00:37:44.059
 They were treating the day as their day, not as God's day.

00:37:44.059 --> 00:37:51.059
 They were treating the day as a day for their pleasure to be done, not what God actually required of them.

00:37:51.059 --> 00:37:55.059
 That is the Lord's day for us, friends, today as well.

00:37:55.059 --> 00:38:01.059
 We are here today as worshipers of God to do the Lord's pleasure.

00:38:01.059 --> 00:38:03.059
 That doesn't mean we don't take pleasure in it.

00:38:03.059 --> 00:38:09.059
 And I hope we all do take pleasure in this worship in the Lord's day and in the day itself.

00:38:09.059 --> 00:38:23.059
 And all the opportunities that we have in it to worship the Lord, to enjoy being together as worshipers of God, and being together as families to dedicate this day to God.

00:38:23.059 --> 00:38:27.059
 But it's a day of pleasing God.

00:38:27.059 --> 00:38:35.059
 I say that's something we have to apply to every day, of course, but we're just confining this to the Lord's day specifically.

00:38:35.059 --> 00:38:38.059
 That's what the passage is really doing for us.

00:38:38.059 --> 00:38:42.059
 It requires doing what pleases Him.

00:38:42.059 --> 00:38:46.059
 From doing your pleasure on my holy day.

00:38:46.059 --> 00:39:00.059
 Now again, when you apply that to the world in which we live, you can see how appropriate, how relevant that description from long ago is to the world of our day and the Lord's day in our day.

00:39:00.059 --> 00:39:11.059
 Because that's what you see people there doing their own pleasure instead of the pleasing of God that He requires of us.

00:39:11.059 --> 00:39:21.059
 There are just so many things, too many things involved in that to go into the specification of them.

00:39:21.059 --> 00:39:30.059
 People doing their own pleasure, their own recreational pleasure, as a matter of whether it's sport or any other activity,

00:39:30.059 --> 00:39:37.059
 whether it's things that they themselves think are just not possible on other days of the week.

00:39:37.059 --> 00:39:41.059
 We can actually summarize it this way.

00:39:41.059 --> 00:39:46.059
 Doing our own pleasure, God says, on my holy day.

00:39:46.059 --> 00:39:48.059
 Why are we here tonight?

00:39:48.059 --> 00:39:54.059
 We're here tonight because God is calling us to be pleasing to Him.

00:39:54.059 --> 00:39:58.059
 And to be pleasing to Him ought to be pleasing to us.

00:39:58.059 --> 00:40:07.059
 And to be pleasing to Him ought to be elevated above what we ourselves might say is pleasing to us in terms of our own ordinary way of thinking.

00:40:07.059 --> 00:40:11.059
 Here is what God was saying to the people of Isaiah.

00:40:11.059 --> 00:40:19.059
 If you actually turn back your fruit from the Sabbath, if you cease trampling down my day and misusing it and not treating it as holy,

00:40:19.059 --> 00:40:24.059
 and that means if you stop doing your pleasure on my holy day.

00:40:24.059 --> 00:40:26.059
 You see, that's why it's so difficult.

00:40:26.059 --> 00:40:33.059
 And when you lose sight of the importance of the Lord's Day in any generation, in any society, this is what you come up against.

00:40:33.059 --> 00:40:38.059
 You come up against it today, especially when you try to urge people,

00:40:38.059 --> 00:40:43.059
 well, why don't you treat this day as a day that's different to the other days?

00:40:43.059 --> 00:40:47.059
 Why don't you treat it as a day for worship to come together with God's people?

00:40:47.059 --> 00:40:55.059
 Well, I'm in charge of my own life, and this is the only day I have for playing golf or whatever it is, and that's what I'm going to do.

00:40:55.059 --> 00:40:57.059
 It's for my pleasure.

00:40:57.059 --> 00:41:03.059
 When you lose sight of God and pleasing God and what God has specified, that's what you end up with.

00:41:03.059 --> 00:41:08.059
 That's where the people of Judah in Isaiah's day, that's where they were.

00:41:08.059 --> 00:41:10.059
 That's where they were at.

00:41:10.059 --> 00:41:15.059
 And here is God saying, not only that, but He's saying,

00:41:15.059 --> 00:41:22.059
 and call the Sabbath a delight, not doing your own pleasure on my holy day.

00:41:22.059 --> 00:41:31.059
 If you actually see that as well, it includes, further on in that verse, near the end of the verse, if you honor it,

00:41:31.059 --> 00:41:35.059
 not going your own ways or seeking your own pleasure.

00:41:35.059 --> 00:41:42.059
 He's repeating that, so obviously that's of critical importance in the argument of the prophet.

00:41:42.059 --> 00:41:45.059
 Or talking idly.

00:41:45.059 --> 00:41:48.059
 Now, there's a challenge.

00:41:48.059 --> 00:41:52.059
 What does talking idly mean?

00:41:52.059 --> 00:41:56.059
 Literally, the Hebrew days just say, speaking a word.

00:41:56.059 --> 00:42:00.059
 That obviously means more than just conversation.

00:42:00.059 --> 00:42:08.059
 Talking idly really means something like talking that's not suited to the spirit of the Lord's day.

00:42:08.059 --> 00:42:17.059
 If we're sanctifying the day of God to be a day that's holy to Him, then we actually have to ask ourselves,

00:42:17.059 --> 00:42:23.059
 is my conversation today, is it something that fits in with sanctifying this day to the Lord?

00:42:23.059 --> 00:42:29.059
 It's not going to be conversation about what the latest football results are.

00:42:29.059 --> 00:42:36.059
 Conversation about what this or that activity is in the world as you see it.

00:42:36.059 --> 00:42:41.059
 So many examples you could give of that as well, but the principle of it is the same.

00:42:41.059 --> 00:42:49.059
 Now, it doesn't mean that we have a minute specification of what is and isn't acceptable to do on the Lord's day.

00:42:49.059 --> 00:42:56.059
 It would be quite wrong to actually say, well, if you're going to be coming to church on the Lord's day, you have to be dressed in black.

00:42:56.059 --> 00:42:58.059
 Men have to wear their suits.

00:42:58.059 --> 00:42:59.059
 You have to wear a tie.

00:42:59.059 --> 00:43:00.059
 All of that thing.

00:43:00.059 --> 00:43:08.059
 These are specifics like the Pharisees actually were doing with the Lord's day where they had actually applied to the Sabbath their own regulations,

00:43:08.059 --> 00:43:12.059
 where there was no background to that in terms of God's specification.

00:43:12.059 --> 00:43:17.059
 But the principle of it is there and it's the principle that we adhere to.

00:43:17.059 --> 00:43:32.059
 And we have to ask ourselves, when we're spending the Lord's day at home or in church, are we actually engaging in conversation that contributes to the overall spirit of the Lord's day, what it's about?

00:43:32.059 --> 00:43:38.059
 Is my conversation sanctified in relation to the Lord's day as well?

00:43:38.059 --> 00:43:40.059
 Am I talking about God?

00:43:40.059 --> 00:43:43.059
 Am I thinking about His redemption?

00:43:43.059 --> 00:43:46.059
 Am I thinking about His worship?

00:43:46.059 --> 00:43:54.059
 Am I giving thought to the things that glorify Him in terms of that worship or this day being separate from the others?

00:43:54.059 --> 00:43:59.059
 Those are the sort of things that He means, I think, by talking idly.

00:43:59.059 --> 00:44:03.059
 And as I said, that is really a huge challenge.

00:44:03.059 --> 00:44:09.059
 A big challenge, because I find myself very much caught up in this.

00:44:09.059 --> 00:44:18.059
 Throughout the day, in between services or before or after services, what do we talk about?

00:44:18.059 --> 00:44:28.059
 When we go out there tonight, after the service, are we immediately going into the kind of worldly conversation that has to do with, well, various things?

00:44:28.059 --> 00:44:35.059
 Soap operas, latest films, latest fashions, whatever.

00:44:35.059 --> 00:44:39.059
 Not talking idly.

00:44:39.059 --> 00:44:40.059
 Not talking idly.

00:44:40.059 --> 00:44:41.059
 It's a great challenge.

00:44:41.059 --> 00:44:50.059
 But it's so important because it belongs to what's specified in terms of the Lord's day, the Sabbath day, the Christian Sabbath.

00:44:50.059 --> 00:44:56.059
 So, it's if you turn back your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day.

00:44:56.059 --> 00:45:04.059
 And then thirdly, it says, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable and honor it.

00:45:04.059 --> 00:45:06.059
 Call the Sabbath a delight.

00:45:06.059 --> 00:45:10.059
 And the word in Hebrew there really means an exquisite delight.

00:45:10.059 --> 00:45:14.059
 A delight that's unusually vibrant, if you like.

00:45:14.059 --> 00:45:17.059
 That's exactly what the word means.

00:45:17.059 --> 00:45:23.059
 If you call the Sabbath, call the Lord's day an exquisite delight.

00:45:23.059 --> 00:45:31.059
 You see, a lot of people will say to us, well, you know, the Lord's day is all about don't do this and don't do that and don't do this other thing.

00:45:31.059 --> 00:45:36.059
 And if that's the impression we give, then it's our fault if we're giving that impression.

00:45:36.059 --> 00:45:40.059
 Maybe some of us associate in our own background.

00:45:40.059 --> 00:45:45.059
 Maybe that's how we were actually taught that the Sabbath day was really about things you don't do.

00:45:45.059 --> 00:45:52.059
 But you see, Isaiah is saying the main thing about the Lord's day and the Sabbath day is to delight in it.

00:45:52.059 --> 00:45:54.059
 To call it a delight.

00:45:54.059 --> 00:45:56.059
 To have an exquisite delight about it.

00:45:56.059 --> 00:46:07.059
 I mean, when we came to prepare for church tonight, was it something in our minds, my own in terms of leading the worship, yours in terms of being worshipers of God?

00:46:07.059 --> 00:46:18.059
 Was it in my mind as I left the house this evening or this morning, was it in my mind saying, I am going to do something of the most exquisite delight to my soul?

00:46:18.059 --> 00:46:20.059
 It should have been.

00:46:20.059 --> 00:46:22.059
 It should have been.

00:46:22.059 --> 00:46:24.059
 Because that's what the Lord's day is about.

00:46:24.059 --> 00:46:27.059
 That's what the character of the Lord's day is.

00:46:27.059 --> 00:46:30.059
 That's what our thinking of the Lord's day should be about.

00:46:30.059 --> 00:46:34.059
 To delight in the day and its opportunities.

00:46:34.059 --> 00:46:37.059
 To revel in this day and its opportunities.

00:46:37.059 --> 00:46:39.059
 And you can see how different that is.

00:46:39.059 --> 00:46:52.059
 How different that's going to make you from that world out there that wants to just treat the Lord's day as any other day and just trample it down and make it secularize it, get rid of all this religious stuff.

00:46:52.059 --> 00:46:59.059
 For you and for me, friends, call the Sabbath a delight.

00:46:59.059 --> 00:47:06.059
 Make God's day something that's truly exquisitely delightful for you.

00:47:06.059 --> 00:47:14.059
 That you regard it as something that has such a connection with so many important foundational things in your life.

00:47:14.059 --> 00:47:17.059
 After all, it's a creation ordinance, we said.

00:47:17.059 --> 00:47:26.059
 It's delightful to us because God himself found delight in resting on the seventh day from the work that he had done on the other six.

00:47:26.059 --> 00:47:30.059
 It gave him great pleasure looking out over his finished creation and saying,

00:47:30.059 --> 00:47:32.059
 It is all very good.

00:47:32.059 --> 00:47:33.059
 Now I'm going to rest.

00:47:33.059 --> 00:47:36.059
 And I'm going to make this day a day for my people to rest.

00:47:36.059 --> 00:47:38.059
 For human beings to rest.

00:47:38.059 --> 00:47:42.059
 To enjoy this day as a day different to others.

00:47:42.059 --> 00:47:43.059
 A day of worship.

00:47:43.059 --> 00:47:46.059
 A day of consecration to God.

00:47:46.059 --> 00:47:50.059
 A day of high joy.

00:47:50.059 --> 00:47:57.059
 And think of it in terms of it united to Christ's resurrection as well.

00:47:57.059 --> 00:48:03.059
 Because redemption is very much part of what characterizes the Lord's day and should characterize our thinking.

00:48:03.059 --> 00:48:08.059
 It's interesting when you actually compare the Ten Commandments in Exodus and in Deuteronomy.

00:48:08.059 --> 00:48:15.059
 But you'll find in the Deuteronomy version a specific reference to the Lord saving his people from Egypt.

00:48:15.059 --> 00:48:20.059
 In other words, it's not just a creation ordinance as you find in Genesis 2.

00:48:20.059 --> 00:48:24.059
 It's also an ordinance connected with redemption, with salvation.

00:48:24.059 --> 00:48:33.059
 That's what makes it, as well as being tied with God's own delight in it as something that ended his week of creation.

00:48:33.059 --> 00:48:36.059
 It's something in which he says to us,

00:48:36.059 --> 00:48:42.059
 Look, where should your greatest delight be but in redemption and the salvation that you have in Jesus?

00:48:42.059 --> 00:48:52.059
 Call this Sabbath an exquisite delight.

00:48:52.059 --> 00:48:57.059
 Am I tonight delighting in Christ?

00:48:57.059 --> 00:49:07.059
 Is my highest pleasure that Jesus has risen from the dead and given me to be united to him in that victory over sin and over death?

00:49:07.059 --> 00:49:09.059
 Do I have anything in my life?

00:49:09.059 --> 00:49:15.059
 Do you have anything in your life that gives you greater pleasure than to know the Lord has risen from the dead?

00:49:15.059 --> 00:49:27.059
 That gives you greater pleasure than to worship that God in a way that delights in him and delights in his day and delights in the opportunity of elevating the day as you elevate himself?

00:49:27.059 --> 00:49:31.059
 It's a redemption joy, you see.

00:49:31.059 --> 00:49:36.059
 There's nothing here that suggests the Sabbath should be regarded as burdensome.

00:49:36.059 --> 00:49:43.059
 That it should be a great burden to us that we just simply regard as in a negative way as saying,

00:49:43.059 --> 00:49:45.059
 Well, I'll be glad when the Sabbath is over.

00:49:45.059 --> 00:49:49.059
 That's what some of the prophets were actually saying in later times as well.

00:49:49.059 --> 00:50:00.059
 And saying to the people that they should look at themselves because what they were doing was looking at the Lord's day or the Sabbath day as it was then and saying,

00:50:00.059 --> 00:50:02.059
 Well, we'll be glad when this is over.

00:50:02.059 --> 00:50:07.059
 And go back to selling and going back to the various activities that we miss on the Sabbath day.

00:50:07.059 --> 00:50:14.059
 Sabbath day, friends, should be for us the height of the week.

00:50:14.059 --> 00:50:19.059
 The height of our experience.

00:50:19.059 --> 00:50:21.059
 A high day.

00:50:21.059 --> 00:50:27.059
 A day when we delight in God and delight in his day as his day.

00:50:27.059 --> 00:50:31.059
 And that's what Isaiah is putting to the people.

00:50:31.059 --> 00:50:37.059
 He's saying it's a holy day, the holy day of the Lord, honorable.

00:50:37.059 --> 00:50:42.059
 And if you honor, when he says honorable there, it really means worthy of being honored.

00:50:42.059 --> 00:50:50.059
 If you actually treat the Lord's day, the Sabbath day, he says, as worthy of being honored, honorable, and you do honor it.

00:50:50.059 --> 00:50:53.059
 Then these other things follow us will see in a moment.

00:50:53.059 --> 00:50:57.059
 Deserving of honor.

00:50:57.059 --> 00:51:10.059
 And you see, it tells us one thing that's important to actually display, if you like, before the world that's watching us as we observe the Lord's day and worship the Lord.

00:51:10.059 --> 00:51:11.059
 It's this.

00:51:11.059 --> 00:51:16.059
 You're the holy day of the Lord, honorable.

00:51:16.059 --> 00:51:21.059
 Because people will say to you, holiness is a really negative thing, isn't it?

00:51:21.059 --> 00:51:24.059
 Holiness, that really limits your choices.

00:51:24.059 --> 00:51:26.059
 And that really spoils your pleasure.

00:51:26.059 --> 00:51:31.059
 All this idea about holiness and being holy and treating the Lord's day as holy.

00:51:31.059 --> 00:51:35.059
 Is that not just the most desperate negative view of life?

00:51:35.059 --> 00:51:38.059
 And you see, Isaiah is turning that on its head.

00:51:38.059 --> 00:51:43.059
 And he's saying, no, you've got the negative view of life if God is not in place in your life.

00:51:43.059 --> 00:51:46.059
 If God is not foundational to your life.

00:51:46.059 --> 00:51:51.059
 If you've never known the pleasures of redemption, of salvation, of having Christ as your Savior,

00:51:51.059 --> 00:51:53.059
 you're the one that's in the negative camp.

00:51:53.059 --> 00:51:57.059
 You've never experienced the positive life that Jesus gives.

00:51:57.059 --> 00:52:02.059
 And the positive nature of his day as a holy day.

00:52:02.059 --> 00:52:07.059
 You see, holiness is not an enemy of joy.

00:52:07.059 --> 00:52:10.059
 Don't ever think of them as in conflict.

00:52:10.059 --> 00:52:18.059
 Don't ever think that to be holy and to follow holiness of life, you need to just get rid of all your joy.

00:52:18.059 --> 00:52:23.059
 The highest joy belongs to the holiest people.

00:52:23.059 --> 00:52:27.059
 They are the people who are near God.

00:52:27.059 --> 00:52:31.059
 They are the people who do not trample on the Lord's day.

00:52:31.059 --> 00:52:36.059
 They are the people who don't do their own pleasure on the Lord's holy day.

00:52:36.059 --> 00:52:39.059
 Who seek to honor the day of the Lord.

00:52:39.059 --> 00:52:42.059
 Because it is the day of the Lord.

00:52:42.059 --> 00:52:44.059
 As his.

00:52:44.059 --> 00:52:46.059
 And that's the way we want to be, friends, isn't it?

00:52:46.059 --> 00:52:50.059
 That's where we want to maintain and keep before the world of our day.

00:52:50.059 --> 00:52:59.059
 Because, as we said at the beginning, our society, our people have lost sight long ago of what the Lord's day is about.

00:52:59.059 --> 00:53:03.059
 And sadly, many elements in the visible church itself.

00:53:03.059 --> 00:53:11.059
 Some denominations have, in fact, mainstream denominations throughout the world have devalued the Lord's day.

00:53:11.059 --> 00:53:16.059
 And really just taken it back from the place that scripture gives it.

00:53:16.059 --> 00:53:18.059
 And it's no longer central.

00:53:18.059 --> 00:53:20.059
 It's no longer a unifying ordinance.

00:53:20.059 --> 00:53:25.059
 It's just something that's there and you just decide yourself how you use it.

00:53:25.059 --> 00:53:29.059
 Let it never be that way for you or for me.

00:53:29.059 --> 00:53:34.059
 Always make it God's day and your special day.

00:53:34.059 --> 00:53:41.059
 Always make it your delight to know the Lord's day and the Lord of the day.

00:53:41.059 --> 00:53:42.059
 And delight in him.

00:53:42.059 --> 00:53:44.059
 Because that's what it's going on to say.

00:53:44.059 --> 00:53:50.059
 And we just first of all came across a quotation there from Reverend David Strain.

00:53:50.059 --> 00:53:55.059
 It's actually available on the Lagonia website as an article.

00:53:55.059 --> 00:53:59.059
 David Strain was brought up in Glasgow.

00:53:59.059 --> 00:54:03.059
 And he went through the Free Church College as it was then.

00:54:03.059 --> 00:54:06.059
 Or Edinburgh Theological Seminary it is now.

00:54:06.059 --> 00:54:10.059
 And then he took up a ministry in London, the Free Church in London.

00:54:10.059 --> 00:54:13.059
 Colabby Presbyterian Church it was then.

00:54:13.059 --> 00:54:15.059
 And then he went from there to America.

00:54:15.059 --> 00:54:20.059
 He's now the minister of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi.

00:54:20.059 --> 00:54:22.059
 This is what he says.

00:54:22.059 --> 00:54:23.059
 Years later he says,

00:54:23.059 --> 00:54:32.059
 I came to faith, but I saw the Lord's day as nothing more than a needless imposition upon my Christian freedom.

00:54:32.059 --> 00:54:39.059
 More reflective of old covenant convictions than new covenant joys.

00:54:39.059 --> 00:54:44.059
 But when I went to college, however, that all changed.

00:54:44.059 --> 00:54:50.059
 After worship every Sunday, church families would bring students and visitors into their homes for lunch.

00:54:50.059 --> 00:54:55.059
 There we'd be invited to spend the afternoon enjoying a veritable banquet,

00:54:55.059 --> 00:54:58.059
 returning to evening worship with them at the day's end.

00:54:58.059 --> 00:55:01.059
 After lunch, the TV remained silent.

00:55:01.059 --> 00:55:04.059
 Some dozed contentedly in a chair taking rest.

00:55:04.059 --> 00:55:06.059
 Others went for a walk.

00:55:06.059 --> 00:55:09.059
 Some brought a Christian book to read.

00:55:09.059 --> 00:55:14.059
 Often lively discussion would spill over from the lunch table to fill the afternoon.

00:55:14.059 --> 00:55:17.059
 Sometimes we'd gather round the piano and sing hymns together.

00:55:17.059 --> 00:55:20.059
 Conversation ebbed and flowed.

00:55:20.059 --> 00:55:21.059
 Then he says this.

00:55:21.059 --> 00:55:36.059
 Well before I ever could articulate a clear theology of the Lord's day, I contracted the happy contagion of joyful Sabbath observance.

00:55:36.059 --> 00:55:39.059
 That's a very, very good way of putting it.

00:55:39.059 --> 00:55:40.059
 It's a holy contagion.

00:55:40.059 --> 00:55:42.059
 It's a holy contagion.

00:55:42.059 --> 00:56:00.059
 He says, long before I could ever articulate a clear theology of the Lord's day, I contracted the happy contagion of joyful happy, of joyful Sabbath observance.

00:56:00.059 --> 00:56:06.059
 If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, then all the things that follow are then coming into place.

00:56:06.059 --> 00:56:11.059
 Then you shall first of all take delight in the Lord himself.

00:56:11.059 --> 00:56:14.059
 Well Psalm 37 reminds us of that.

00:56:14.059 --> 00:56:19.059
 Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

00:56:19.059 --> 00:56:24.059
 Desires that are focused or centered upon him, of course that means.

00:56:24.059 --> 00:56:27.059
 And he says here, then you shall take delight in the Lord.

00:56:27.059 --> 00:56:29.059
 And of course it works both ways.

00:56:29.059 --> 00:56:36.059
 If we take delight in the Lord, then it follows logically that we will take delight in his day.

00:56:36.059 --> 00:56:41.059
 And if we're taking delight in his day, it's because we're taking delight in the Lord himself.

00:56:41.059 --> 00:56:52.059
 And if we're not taking delight in the Lord's day, if people are not saying of themselves, well I'm taking delight in the Lord's day, I don't like the Lord's day at all, then it's because they're not delighting in the Lord.

00:56:52.059 --> 00:56:59.059
 It is impossible, I tell you, if you delight in the Lord, not to delight in his day.

00:56:59.059 --> 00:57:14.059
 Because when you have an active delight in the Lord, something that's active at that moment in your heart, you want to be for the Lord on that day, making it a day of delight and finding your delight in him.

00:57:14.059 --> 00:57:15.059
 Hence, that's what we were created for.

00:57:15.059 --> 00:57:17.059
 Hence, that's what we were created for.

00:57:17.059 --> 00:57:29.059
 And I'm sure that's why God specified this at the end of the creation, that there would be a day that would be set apart as a holy day.

00:57:29.059 --> 00:57:36.059
 We were made to enjoy God.

00:57:36.059 --> 00:57:44.059
 We were made not to be gloomy or negative in relation to this day.

00:57:44.059 --> 00:57:49.059
 And if our delight is in the Lord, our delight will be in his day.

00:57:49.059 --> 00:57:53.059
 And let's pray more and more that that will be the case.

00:57:53.059 --> 00:58:06.059
 Let's pray that whoever it is that's watching us come to church, whoever it is that's watching us leaving church, or even looking at us from day to day throughout the week, will not be able to say of us, these are very gloomy people.

00:58:06.059 --> 00:58:09.059
 And if they do say that, then they're lying.

00:58:09.059 --> 00:58:12.059
 If we are indeed delighting in the Lord and showing it.

00:58:12.059 --> 00:58:22.059
 Let it be for us as a congregation that one thing we absolutely are committed to is delighting in the Lord and therefore delighting in his day.

00:58:22.059 --> 00:58:27.059
 We're making it what God himself intends.

00:58:27.059 --> 00:58:32.059
 Then he says, I will make you ride on the heights of the earth or the high places of the earth.

00:58:32.059 --> 00:58:37.059
 In other words, that really means victorious or a lifted up people.

00:58:37.059 --> 00:58:46.059
 Remember elsewhere in the Bible, it says that righteousness alone exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

00:58:46.059 --> 00:58:48.059
 I'm not just talking about individuals.

00:58:48.059 --> 00:58:49.059
 He's talking about a people.

00:58:49.059 --> 00:58:51.059
 He's talking about a nation.

00:58:51.059 --> 00:59:05.059
 And if you look at the state of our nation, it doesn't take you long as a Christian, as somebody who is enlightened by the Bible, to realize that there's a lot of sin about.

00:59:05.059 --> 00:59:09.059
 There's a lot of dishonoring of God about.

00:59:09.059 --> 00:59:16.059
 Far from being elevated, we're actually down in the gutter spiritually and morally.

00:59:16.059 --> 00:59:27.059
 And here is God saying, well, if you take delight in my day, if you honor my day, there's more than that involved in it, of course, because so many other things are connected with that.

00:59:27.059 --> 00:59:30.059
 But then I will make you ride on the heights of the earth.

00:59:30.059 --> 00:59:33.059
 How can we be uplifted as a nation?

00:59:33.059 --> 00:59:36.059
 How can we rise above our ungodliness?

00:59:36.059 --> 00:59:41.059
 Well, of course, all sorts of things come into that, like repentance and turning to the Lord.

00:59:41.059 --> 00:59:48.059
 But don't leave out delighting in the Lord's day and in the Lord, because that's what will elevate us.

00:59:48.059 --> 00:59:59.059
 That's what will actually cause us to be lifted up by God himself, to be a righteous people.

00:59:59.059 --> 01:00:11.059
 Scotland largely doesn't see its need to be lifted up because it doesn't think it's fallen down.

01:00:11.059 --> 01:00:13.059
 You and I know that.

01:00:13.059 --> 01:00:15.059
 You and I know it's true.

01:00:15.059 --> 01:00:18.059
 And so we pray for our nation.

01:00:18.059 --> 01:00:20.059
 We pray for our leaders.

01:00:20.059 --> 01:00:23.059
 We pray that we will be elevated and exalted.

01:00:23.059 --> 01:00:34.059
 And we pray that the Lord's day will again be central to that process, that we ourselves will be committed and promote that day to our neighbors and our friends.

01:00:34.059 --> 01:00:41.059
 We need to finish with the third thing, which is, I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father.

01:00:41.059 --> 01:00:46.059
 Now, what is the heritage of Jacob, their father in the days of Isaiah?

01:00:46.059 --> 01:00:49.059
 Well, that goes back to Genesis again, to Jacob's life.

01:00:49.059 --> 01:00:53.059
 Jacob, the man that gave his name to Israel, the people.

01:00:53.059 --> 01:00:56.059
 And in chapter 28, verses 10 to 15.

01:00:56.059 --> 01:00:57.059
 Let me just read.

01:00:57.059 --> 01:01:04.059
 It's worth reading these few verses because it describes for us the heritage of Jacob that God promised him.

01:01:04.059 --> 01:01:07.059
 Jacob left Beersheba, went on towards Haran.

01:01:07.059 --> 01:01:10.059
 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night.

01:01:10.059 --> 01:01:17.059
 Because the sun had set, taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.

01:01:17.059 --> 01:01:22.059
 But he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven.

01:01:22.059 --> 01:01:25.059
 And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

01:01:25.059 --> 01:01:32.059
 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac.

01:01:32.059 --> 01:01:37.059
 The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your offspring.

01:01:37.059 --> 01:01:40.059
 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth.

01:01:40.059 --> 01:01:44.059
 And you shall spread abroad to the west, to the east, to the north, to the south.

01:01:44.059 --> 01:01:49.059
 And in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

01:01:49.059 --> 01:01:56.059
 Behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land.

01:01:56.059 --> 01:02:02.059
 For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

01:02:02.059 --> 01:02:16.059
 Now that inheritance of Jacob, the land of Canaan, was something that was itself a type, a representation of the inheritance spiritually that God gives to his people.

01:02:16.059 --> 01:02:26.059
 And what God is saying to us through this, if this is how we treat the Sabbath, if this is how we are with God, then this follows on.

01:02:26.059 --> 01:02:28.059
 You will take delight in the Lord.

01:02:28.059 --> 01:02:29.059
 I will exalt you.

01:02:29.059 --> 01:02:30.059
 I will lift you.

01:02:30.059 --> 01:02:34.059
 I will bring you to ride on the heights of the earth.

01:02:34.059 --> 01:02:36.059
 And I will feed you.

01:02:36.059 --> 01:02:40.059
 Your nourishment will be the promises of my covenant.

01:02:40.059 --> 01:02:44.059
 The fulfillment of my promises, God is saying.

01:02:44.059 --> 01:02:49.059
 The heritage that I have promised to my people will be yours.

01:02:49.059 --> 01:02:51.059
 You can feed on it.

01:02:51.059 --> 01:02:59.059
 You can actually have nourishment sustenance from it because it's full of spiritual vitality.

01:02:59.059 --> 01:03:05.059
 And the Lord's Day is right at the heart of that promise.

01:03:05.059 --> 01:03:14.059
 And it's right at the heart of God, God's promise to us regarding the heritage that we will come to enjoy.

01:03:14.059 --> 01:03:16.059
 The heritage of blessing.

01:03:16.059 --> 01:03:19.059
 The heritage of covenant blessing.

01:03:19.059 --> 01:03:24.059
 The heritage that God has promised to his people.

01:03:24.059 --> 01:03:31.059
 And that itself reaches forward right through to the end of time and even beyond.

01:03:31.059 --> 01:03:42.059
 Because it's fulfilled ultimately in what Revelation, the book of Revelation calls, the marriage supper of the Lamb.

01:03:42.059 --> 01:03:47.059
 The reception in heaven that awaits God's people.

01:03:47.059 --> 01:03:52.059
 And remember, Sabbath means rest.

01:03:52.059 --> 01:03:54.059
 The Sabbath day means a day of rest.

01:03:54.059 --> 01:03:57.059
 Not inactivity, but spiritual rest.

01:03:57.059 --> 01:04:01.059
 The rest that you have in Christ and his salvation.

01:04:01.059 --> 01:04:04.059
 Rest in peace with God.

01:04:04.059 --> 01:04:07.059
 And that culminates and ends.

01:04:07.059 --> 01:04:08.059
 And that culminates and ends.

01:04:08.059 --> 01:04:09.059
 In the rest of heaven.

01:04:09.059 --> 01:04:12.059
 The rest of being forevermore.

01:04:12.059 --> 01:04:15.059
 At the marriage supper of the Lamb.

01:04:15.059 --> 01:04:18.059
 Will we see each other there?

01:04:18.059 --> 01:04:22.059
 Will that be your portion?

01:04:22.059 --> 01:04:25.059
 Will you be present?

01:04:25.059 --> 01:04:28.059
 With all of God's redeemed people.

01:04:28.059 --> 01:04:31.059
 To celebrate throughout eternity.

01:04:31.059 --> 01:04:36.059
 What the Lord Jesus Christ has done.

01:04:36.059 --> 01:04:39.059
 Well, if you will, and if that's your hope.

01:04:39.059 --> 01:04:44.059
 Then your delight also will be in the Lord's day.

01:04:44.059 --> 01:04:47.059
 As a type of that rest.

01:04:47.059 --> 01:04:49.059
 Let's pray.

01:04:50.059 --> 01:04:53.059
 Lord our God, we do thank you for this day.

01:04:54.059 --> 01:04:58.059
 And forgive us, we pray, for the misuse we make of it.

01:04:58.059 --> 01:05:00.059
 In our own lives privately.

01:05:00.059 --> 01:05:03.059
 For our failure to commend it to those around us.

01:05:03.059 --> 01:05:04.059
 The way we should.

01:05:04.059 --> 01:05:08.059
 But Lord, let us not dwell on all our failures.

01:05:08.059 --> 01:05:10.059
 Though we do confess them.

01:05:10.059 --> 01:05:12.059
 Help us to rejoice in you.

01:05:12.059 --> 01:05:13.059
 To rejoice in your provision.

01:05:14.059 --> 01:05:16.059
 To rejoice in your forgiveness and your love.

01:05:17.059 --> 01:05:19.059
 To rejoice in your salvation.

01:05:19.059 --> 01:05:23.059
 And Lord, we ask that the rest of which this day is typical.

01:05:23.059 --> 01:05:26.059
 Will be our portion in our experience.

01:05:26.059 --> 01:05:30.059
 Help us, we pray, as we come from week to week.

01:05:30.059 --> 01:05:32.059
 To regard the Sabbath as our delight.

01:05:32.059 --> 01:05:34.059
 And to take delight in you.

01:05:34.059 --> 01:05:37.059
 In all you have provided for us.

01:05:37.059 --> 01:05:40.059
 Be with us then through this week, we pray.

01:05:40.059 --> 01:05:42.059
 And all we ask is in Jesus' name.

01:05:42.059 --> 01:05:43.059
 And for his sake.

01:05:43.059 --> 01:05:44.059
 Amen.

01:05:44.059 --> 01:05:45.059
 Amen.

01:05:45.059 --> 01:05:49.059
 Now, our final singing of praise is in Psalm 92.

01:05:49.059 --> 01:05:53.059
 Psalm 92, we're singing in the Scottish Psalter.

01:05:53.059 --> 01:05:55.059
 Page 353.

01:05:55.059 --> 01:06:05.059
 The title of this psalm in the book of Psalms is a psalm for the Lord's Day or the Sabbath day.

01:06:07.059 --> 01:06:10.059
 And so we're singing verses 12 to 15.

01:06:10.059 --> 01:06:11.059
 The tune is Effingham.

01:06:11.059 --> 01:06:24.059
 And the great promise there is that those who are true to the Lord will come to flourish like the palm tree and grow like the cedar.

01:06:24.059 --> 01:06:26.059
 Let's sing these verses from verse 12.

01:06:26.059 --> 01:06:30.059
 But like the palm tree flourishing shall be the righteous one.

01:06:30.059 --> 01:06:32.059
 He shall like to the cedar grow.

01:06:32.059 --> 01:06:34.059
 That is in Lebanon.

01:06:34.059 --> 01:06:36.059
 These words to the end of the psalm.

01:06:36.059 --> 01:06:38.059
 The cedar grow.

01:06:38.059 --> 01:06:41.059
 That is in the name of the psalm.

01:06:41.059 --> 01:06:44.059
 And the great promise there is,

01:06:44.059 --> 01:06:46.059
 we will be the righteous one.

01:06:46.059 --> 01:06:49.059
 But like the palm tree flourishing

01:06:49.059 --> 01:06:56.059
 Shall be the righteous one.

01:06:56.059 --> 01:07:05.059
 He shall like to the cedar.

01:07:05.059 --> 01:07:13.799
 The eternal that is in Lebanon.

01:07:16.400 --> 01:07:26.079
 Those that within the house of God

01:07:26.079 --> 01:07:33.960
 are planted by His grace.

01:07:33.960 --> 01:07:43.960
 They shall grow up and flourish all

01:07:44.480 --> 01:07:51.960
 in our holy place.

01:07:53.960 --> 01:08:02.960
 And in all days when others say

01:08:02.960 --> 01:08:10.960
 they who still forth shall bring.

01:08:10.960 --> 01:08:20.960
 They shall be fat and full of star

01:08:20.960 --> 01:08:28.960
 and give me fire in shame.

01:08:28.960 --> 01:08:40.960
 To show that upright is the Lord,

01:08:40.960 --> 01:08:48.960
 He is our God to be.

01:08:48.960 --> 01:09:18.960


01:09:18.960 --> 01:09:20.960
 The Holy Spirit be with you now and evermore.

01:09:20.960 --> 01:09:22.960
 Amen.

01:09:22.960 --> 01:09:24.960
 Amen.

01:09:24.960 --> 01:09:26.960
 Amen.

01:09:26.960 --> 01:09:28.960
 Amen.

01:09:28.960 --> 01:09:30.960
 Amen.

01:09:30.960 --> 01:09:32.960
 Amen.

01:09:32.960 --> 01:09:34.960
 Amen.

01:09:34.960 --> 01:09:36.960
 Amen.

01:09:36.960 --> 01:09:38.960
 Amen.