[0:00] Let me pray, all that I am, never cease to worship you.
[0:15] Shout to the Lord, all the earth let us sing. Power and majesty, praise to the King. Not just by land and the sea to the roar and the sound of your name.
[0:33] I sing for joy at the west of your hands. Forever I love you, forever I stand. Nothing compares to the promise I am in you.
[0:49] Let's come to prayer together. Give thanks for these gifts and commit to the Lord those great needs of our world.
[1:01] We thank you again, O Lord our God, for the promise that we have in Christ. That promise of life everlasting, life eternal. We thank you again, O Lord our God, that this is all of your grace, your goodness, your gift.
[1:16] Nothing in our hands can we bring. Yet, Lord, we bring these gifts. We bring them, Lord, not in some ways to appease you or to show, Lord, our desire that you should accept us.
[1:31] But, Lord, we come with these gifts as an expression of our thankfulness. Thankfulness for all the blessings you've poured out upon us. That we have the life and that we have the strength, that we have the health even to be here this morning.
[1:43] It's your gift, every breath, a gift from you. Again, we praise you and thank you for pouring out upon us so many blessings. We remember, O Lord, how rich we are in comparison with the majority of our world today.
[1:58] We think of those, Lord, who are hungry. Those, Lord, who are refugees traveling through Europe, seeking to find a place of safety. Seeking to find a place to bring up their families.
[2:09] And we pray again, O Lord, that in your grace and mercy, you would bring an end to the wickedness of the war in Syria. That you would bring to an end the wickedness of ISIS, of Daesh, of those continuing to act and to speak.
[2:28] They say in the name of God, but not you. And, O Lord, we pray that you would push them back and overwhelm them. That they may be dissolved. They may come to nothing, as all your enemies must do at the end.
[2:41] We pray for those in the midst of warfare and turmoil and grief and sorrow. O Lord, our God, we thank you for those who give of their time, their efforts, their money, their help, risking their lives.
[2:52] Lord, watch over them and bless them. Use them, we pray. And raise up others, Lord, we pray, to help and to be emblems and actions of love.
[3:03] We pray for your people who are persecuted around the world. Those imprisoned. Those, Lord, who are tortured. Those who are put to death. Simply for naming the name of Christ. Again, we thank you, O Lord, that you are with them.
[3:16] May they know your presence. May they know your nearness. May they receive that warm and wonderful welcome into heaven, we pray. We ask again for your gospel, your truth.
[3:27] That it may go with power through our land and through the lands of this world. That those who have never heard of Christ may hear of him. That they may know, Lord, the Spirit of God working and moving and bending and shaping them.
[3:41] We pray for our dear brother Roger here and for the ministry you've given him. Proclaim your gospel. Use him mightily in these days, we pray. May you be seen and may you be heard, even speaking through him.
[3:54] We pray for these weeks in London, in our capital city. A den of iniquity. A place of such wickedness. A place of such sorrow and grief. May many be saved and many be turned to you.
[4:06] And may that capital city and our nation be turned back to the living God. Amen. And oh Lord, we cry for that reviving work of your Spirit in our days. So Lord, hear us and work, we pray.
[4:19] Receive these gifts. Take them and use them as tokens of our lives given over to you. May they and us be used in your service. May they and us be used for the extension of your kingdom in these days.
[4:32] For we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. I'd like to ask the children and young people to go to their activities now. And those who will teach them too.
[4:44] Thank you. Thank you.
[5:14] I was wearing that yesterday. Wearing it yesterday. I was. You've got two jackets. So Roger with two jackets. May you have more. I don't know. Thank you. They all seem to follow a similar pattern.
[5:29] I was talking in the vestry beforehand about Brook Taverner. They're made in Yorkshire and sold in Yorkshire. And the great thing is you never pay full price. You just phone up and just say, look, I really like that jacket.
[5:42] Would you let me have it at 50% discount, please? And they always say yes. There we are. Are you sure they're in Yorkshire? They are in Yorkshire, yes. Desperate for any sale.
[5:55] There we are. I'll try and bring another one next year, God willing. All right. In fact, this afternoon, I may even dare to wear a bow tie. I love bow ties. My wife laughs at me for them. But if I can't wear it at the Whitby Gospel Music Convention, Paul, when can I wear a bow tie?
[6:11] So anyway, we'll see. Anyway, it's really lovely to be here. Just before I read the scriptures, could I say, I know some of you are real praying people. And I'm going to mention three prayer requests.
[6:23] And I'd love you to really bear these up in prayer, please. First of all, we had Live Issue sing, didn't we? And they're great. In fact, you don't need, I was thinking you don't need an empty guitar.
[6:34] You could have used my head. It would have had the same empty echo. But anyway, that was great. And Carl, we heard, introduced that song about crying on the Lord's shoulders.
[6:45] Without going into any details. And there's no need to go and ask him. But he and his family are going through the most horrendous difficulties. Unimaginable, really.
[6:56] And I thought when I saw him sing on Friday and Saturday, I thought, Carl, I don't know how you do that. But the Lord gives strength. But do pray for him and his family. I really would urge you to do that. And bless you for coming, Carl.
[7:09] And we appreciate it. Then secondly, I think some of you know that I'm very involved. I'm a trustee of Yorkshire camps. I think the most remarkable answers to prayer that I've seen in, perhaps in my lifetime, have been in relation to Yorkshire camps.
[7:23] They've just, time and again, I've just been in total awe as to what God has done. And it's a very thrilling work so that camps for children and young people, teenagers run all year round, not just in the summer, based at that gorgeous venue near Grassington.
[7:39] They really need for next year, September through to the following summer, gap year students to come and help. They'll teach, they'll give Bible training and teaching, but real activity all week in, week out.
[7:54] Now, people do take gap years. They do all sorts of things, don't they? Go around the world. They twiddle their thumbs. They make a nuisance of themselves. They raise money to pay off the government student loans imposed on them, poor things.
[8:08] But anyway, they do all sorts of things. But some want to do Christian work, and it'd be a wonderful opportunity. If you know of people 18, 19, 20, 21, that sort of age, maybe a little older, maybe slightly younger, who want to give a gap year or a period of year to be involved, please do have a word or get in touch with whatever it is, www.yorkshirecamps.something, and it'll get through.
[8:31] Okay, and then thirdly, thank you about what I have been doing. For the last, yeah, quite a while, I've been down at one church in the centre of London, right at the foot of the Gherkin, and it's a big, thriving sort of church, which really is reaching out.
[8:47] I go back there for Tuesday. But then next weekend, so Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday of next week, a week away, I'll be involved with United Beach Missions and Young Life, and they always go down into Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park for a weekend of outreach there.
[9:04] So there'll be open-air meetings on the concrete, if you know the area, in the park, and then gospel tract work done around the area. It is hard graft, but we meet people from all over the world and from countries that often we could never get into.
[9:21] So please, would you pray that the Lord would use that ministry? So three things, do pray, especially for Carl. Who knows what other needs there are, you know, when people stand up and sing, it doesn't mean everything is going smoothly in their lives.
[9:32] But pray for Carl and his family. Pray, please, for the Yorkshire camps, and then next week in Speaker's Corner. Now, will you turn, please? I'm going to read from the New King James. I know most of you will have NIV, but I'll base my thinking on the words of the New King James.
[9:47] So I'm going to read from it. 1 John, so we're very, very near the end of the New Testament, the end of the Bible. 1 John, beginning to read at verse 7 of chapter 4. 1 John 4, verse 7.
[10:04] Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. 1 John 5, verse 7.
[10:38] If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love has been perfected in us.
[10:51] By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us his spirit. And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son as the Saviour of the world.
[11:05] Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we have known and believed that love, sorry, the love that God has for us.
[11:17] God is love. And he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.
[11:34] There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
[11:44] We love him, because he first loved us. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he does not love his brother whom he has seen.
[11:57] How can he love God whom he has not seen? This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also. Amen.
[12:14] Before Roger comes and explains God's words to us, we're going to sing over on the back of our order of service, number two. Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified.
[12:29] We'll stand and sing this, and then I'll invite Roger to come and speak to us. Thank you. Thank you.
[13:14] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[13:46] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[14:16] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[14:47] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[15:16] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. and liberty and glory.
[15:41] That's a great hymn, isn't it? Some of these golden oldies are lovely. Though it's not that old. I think some of you were alive and kicky when that was written, but still, it's...
[15:51] When I was a student, and I was a student from 19... University from 69 to 72, revolution was in the air.
[16:04] I remember there were tracks and booklets written, and they all used the word revolution to try and capture people's imagination. And, of course, in Paris, if you remember, there was revolution regularly on the streets there.
[16:18] I think the most revolutionary words that have ever been penned, in whatever language they've been translated, are the words we read that came twice in this passage. But the trouble is, those of us brought up in Christian homes, or certainly a Christian culture when we were growing up, we're so familiar with these words, they lose some of their power and authority.
[16:39] We've become too accustomed to the three simple words, God is love. But if we could just stop and muse and meditate, and think what that means, it's totally stunning.
[16:56] And millions in the world today live with no knowledge of that. They live with the idea that God is vindictive, He's capricious, He's unpredictable, He's nasty, He's vengeful, and spiteful, and yet God is love.
[17:11] Here is John, sort of underlining this great theme. Of course, it came out so strongly in his gospel, now he's driving it home in his epistle on John. And over and over, you get this, this repeated themes demonstrating the love of God.
[17:25] So God is love. The one who is before time and beyond time, the one who knows all things and can do all things, the one who's everywhere, the one who's a spirit, the one who never changes, the one who's triune, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the one who is just and holy, is love.
[17:48] And it's love that doesn't vary, it's everlasting, it doesn't fade, it doesn't diminish. We can never fear that God might, as it were, get out the wrong side of the bed one morning and just not be loving that day.
[18:00] We have to wait till the next day, till things have calmed down. There's nothing like that at all in God. He's absolutely loving. And it goes all the way through scripture.
[18:12] He lovingly makes a world. He lovingly broods over the world that he's created. He lovingly puts Adam and Eve into a gorgeous garden. And when they dare to defy him, immediately, hot on the heel of their sin and rebellion, he comes to promise that eventually, in the fullness of time, one is going to come who's going to bruise the head of the serpent.
[18:38] And as scripture unfolds, of course, clearer and clearer come the prophecies about the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in this passage, not only do we read this phrase, God is love, a couple of times, but then the whole passage really is demonstrating that we can rely on the fact that God is love because he has demonstrated to us that he is loving.
[19:02] He's done it in three ways that, as it were, leads on to a fourth which we're going to look at as well. So what are the three ways in which God has clearly demonstrated that he is love?
[19:14] We could just say, well, he doesn't need any of these. He's written it and therefore his word is reliable. As Peter said, we can rely on what God has said and clearly it says, God is love, therefore that's sufficient.
[19:25] But God has gone further than just giving us his word. Three direct ways in which God has demonstrated to us that he is the God of love. Look at verse nine.
[19:35] In this, the love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. The first way in which he showed it is the incarnation.
[19:47] I'm deliberately going to use three words and I want you to try and get hold of them. Incarnation. What it's meaning is that God has become, like us, his creation.
[19:59] God has clothed himself, as I so often say, in humanity. God has become a man and made his dwelling among us. Now again, we're very familiar with this.
[20:10] We love the Christmas season, don't we? And it's just glorious. There's an atmosphere, there's a build-up, there's an excitement and little children love it. But I can tell you as well, people aged 66 love it.
[20:23] And, well, I know, I haven't had Christmas at 66. People at 65 love it as well because I loved it last year. And, but you've got to, we love Christmas but the trouble is we can lose the wonder and the glory of what is happening.
[20:36] This is the one whom the Bible says, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him coming into our world. This infinitesimally minute fetus implanted in a virgin mother's womb nine months earlier in Nazareth is God.
[20:53] He's come for us. God made his dwelling among us. Now, that was prophesied, of course. Isaiah, writing, what, 700 years before Jesus was born, says, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government there'll be no end.
[21:20] There's one coming into the world who is the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. God, stepping foot in the arena of human history. So, yes, we read the prophets and I love reading the prophets.
[21:33] We read what the New Testament writers wrote and I love reading what they wrote, but God himself has come and lived and spoken.
[21:48] Jesus made it very clear that he is God. He made it clear by the things that he said. Muslim mullahs will be very quick to tell you and of course they're very quick to tell their young children, oh, Jesus never claimed to be God.
[22:03] They know that is not true because Jesus repeatedly took on himself the very name of God. Centuries earlier, God had spoken to Moses and said, you want to know what you should call me?
[22:17] My name is I Am. Call them, tell the people I Am has sent you. And here we have the Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly saying, I Am.
[22:28] I Am the way. I Am the truth. I Am the life. I Am the door. I Am the vine. I Am the good shepherd. He said, before Abraham was, I Am.
[22:40] Now Abraham lived centuries before and when the crowd listening heard that, they picked up stones to stone him to death because they said, that's blasphemy. But it wasn't blasphemy.
[22:52] He was speaking the truth. Interestingly, the beginning of John's Gospel, we have John the Baptist being asked, oh, are you the one that we're looking for? You know, we were anticipating a Messiah.
[23:03] Are you the one? What does he say? In fact, he says it twice. I am not. And at the end of John's Gospel, we get the same idea.
[23:14] This time, Peter is warming himself by a brazier as Jesus has been taken off to be crucified and the disciples have scattered like sheep and a little girl, first of all, then another comes and says, oh, you're one of his followers, aren't you?
[23:28] And he turns and says, I am not. But Jesus said, I am. But it wasn't only what he said, it was what he did.
[23:38] He takes a few loaves and fish and breaks them and feeds the thousands. He makes the blind see and the deaf hear and the mute speak and the lame walk and the paralyzed receive their strength. He speaks to the dead and they come back to life.
[23:50] He walks on water. He calms the storm at sea. More than that, he lives a spotless, pure life. Nobody can find fault with Jesus. His friends testified along those lines, didn't they?
[24:06] John, who was very close to Jesus, said, in him is no sin. Peter, who was a sort of action man, he said, he did no sin. Paul, the great intellectual, said he knew no sin.
[24:18] The book of Hebrews, all to do with the Old and the New Covenant, says he's without sin. He said, oh, well, they're all friends of his. What about his enemies? Judas, who sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, though he didn't have 30 days in which to spend it, said, I have betrayed innocent blood.
[24:35] Pontius Pilate, who sentenced Jesus to crucifixion, he said, to the crowds, all baying for his blood, why? What evil has he done? I find no fault in him.
[24:46] And the Roman centurion, who was responsible for ensuring that Jesus was really dead, said, surely this man was the son of God. He was without sin. Only God can live without sin.
[24:58] And then he went to death. And he died for our sins. And he was buried. And then he rose from the dead. Only God can conquer death. the incarnation, God coming into our world to reach and to rescue him is a demonstration of God's great love toward us.
[25:24] Years ago, something happened that sort of once in a while haunted me ever since. I was living in Horsford where I live and I was preaching in Ripon that day and I'd gone in the morning and driving back I saw something I thought, well that's weird in Ripon.
[25:41] And eventually I got back home and said to my wife, you'll never guess what I saw. I saw elephants and camels just outside Ripon. And of course it was a circus but they were just wandering in the field and I was a bit stunned by it.
[25:56] Anyway, that evening I went back to the church and I preached there and then coming back there'd been the most horrendous accident and one of the circus lorries coming out just onto a narrow road obviously without lights on its side was coming out to turn around and a motorbike had gone straight into it and not seen the lorry and I've always been very regretful about myself.
[26:22] I'm no good with anything medical I can't cope with blood if you start talking to me about injections I get a pain in my left arm as if I do don't as if I'm having one it's awful and there we are but and I was just so horrified and I just stood there okay we phoned for help but it's my wife said Roger couldn't you've just gone and at least spoken to the motorcyclists I said I was just so repulsed by everything and but Jesus wasn't like that was he?
[26:53] repulsed yes the wickedness of the world and yet he came into this world he didn't wash his hands of it it's a great demonstration of God's love so incarnation but there's a second way in which God has demonstrated his love toward us and I know it's a difficult word but I really think it's important that you get it it's the word propitiation look at verse 10 in this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins and if you go back to chapter 2 verse 2 he says exactly the same and he himself is the propitiation there's the word for our sins and not for ours only but also for the whole world propitiation well what does that mean?
[27:43] let me ask you this do you think that God has the right to be angry at what is going on on planet earth?
[27:55] Peter's already prayed about some of the disaster zones that there are in the world but of course they're not all far away nearly six and a half million unborn babies have been aborted in Britain since David Steele introduced that I think genocidal law in 1967 the least safe place to be in Britain today is in a mother's womb there are more laws in Britain protecting eggs in birds nests than there are unborn babies in mothers wombs does God have the right to be angry and then you think of all that the media is pumping at us it's blasphemy it's immorality in fact the funniest thing I think I've read this year was just earlier this week when the BBC said they are too
[28:57] Christian and I thought I just cannot believe the word Christian and BBC just do not go together if they're too Christian I'm an Irishman excuse me sorry and I'm not but how does God how does God see what's been pumped at us whether it's from the government or the media or in the educational system how does God see this how does God feel respond when he sees people as it were putting their fingers in their ears saying we do not want to hear his word we'll go our own way we'll ignore the God who created us does God have the right to be angry now again don't get the impression that God is sitting in his head I want to get my own back sometimes God is portrayed like that but that is not the God of the scripture and we know that because he is the propitiation for our sins you say just what does this mean propitiation was down in
[30:07] Somerset I was there for a wedding and then a day or two early I was there and grandchildren etc were all there and you look for things to do with them we went to the Fleet Arm Museum just outside Taunton whether you've ever been and fascinating and they have the prototype Concorde there so I have been on Concorde we didn't go very far but anyway I climbed up the steps went along came down and that was that and then you know because grandchildren are round about you try to make yourself look intelligent so you read all these boring inscriptions about this wheel is round and you know this sort of thing but I'll tell you what I learned amazingly can you picture Concorde and the nozzle the conical nozzle at the front which of course could tilt down or up and think about it as it went through the atmosphere faster than the speed of sound imagine the friction that the nozzle was taking and the heat as a result of that friction that was coming onto the nozzle to protect the rest of the plane that nozzle that conical nozzle is called the propitiator it must have been a
[31:22] Christian who designed it that's all I can think but it's called the propitiator it takes the heat so that the rest of the plane is protected now the Lord Jesus Christ yes he came into the world what a demonstration of God's love but he came with the express mission of going to the cross and on the cross he's going to take as it were the heat of God's anger God's wrath against our sin on himself that we might be forgiven protected now it's not that Jesus is sort of turning to God the father oh God don't get too cross with them I'll step it no no no this was a plan between the father the son and the holy spirit throughout the eons of eternity past that in the fullness of time Jesus would come and satisfy not appease an angry nasty God but satisfy the justice and the holiness of God by demonstrating his love by carrying our sin on himself he is the propitiator for our sins and not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world says John when Jesus died on the cross your sin and mine was laid on him and he bore it he paid for it
[32:47] I don't know whether he's in his infinite mind he was aware that he was paying for the sin of Roger Carswell on such and such a date you did such and such a thing and I don't know but the son of God loved me and gave himself for me and you can put your name there as well sin laid on Jesus and he took it all and in the midst of that darkness as he took this crushing load which didn't contaminate him but he carried it he cries out my God my God why have you forsaken me and somehow mysteriously beyond our understanding Jesus was cut off from his father and the spirit as he carried our sin and God turned away from his son as he took our sin he was forsaken by God so that we could be forgiven and never forsaken by God how do we know that God is love well the incarnation oh but more than that propitiation he's died for us and been buried and risen but there's a third reason look at verse 14 and we have seen and testify that the father has sent the son as savior of the world this is a favorite text on United
[34:05] Beach Missions because trying to teach children bible verses it just works very very well the father sent the son to be the savior of the world 1 John chapter 4 verse 14 it's a great verse to learn like that but the third word is salvation Jesus has come that we might be saved that we might receive salvation and salvation in the bible is always equated with forgiveness that you and I could be forgiven for sin now some of us look back and our sins are very dark others look back and think well I don't know that I've done anything that would ever land me in prison but I'm not the person I ought to be and none of us are and our sins are serious interestingly in Jesus' parable in Luke chapter 14 about the great banquet we have the master angry there and what is his anger just those who refuse his invitation to come and enjoy the feast but we can be forgiven
[35:07] I want to say on the authority of this book whoever you are whatever you've done however you've lived wherever you've been whatever you've been involved in no matter how many sins you've forgotten or how many sins you wish you could forget the Lord Jesus Christ is willing to forgive them all and over and over the Bible pictures this wonderful thrill of being forgiven our sins separated from us as far as the east is from the west what a great truth that is our sins cast into the deepest ocean our sins cast behind God's back our sins washed away our sins cleansed our sins blotted out you may be forgiven because the God who is just and holy has satisfied his own demands of justice by carrying our sin on the cross and offering to us forgiveness if we will repent that means turn from that which is wrong and trust him salvation to know that our sins are forgiven to know that we know him to know that
[36:14] I have his word and I can read and he can speak and teach me and instruct me and guard me and guide me that I can pray people say prayer works prayer doesn't work the God who hears our prayer works in response to our prayer I will never understand that but he does to know that we've got a promise of heaven salvation somebody once said happy people all have three characteristics they have someone to love something to do and something to hope for you think of that in terms of spiritual life we have someone to love but he loves us something to do well he sets us serving something to hope for heaven one day salvation you may be saved it's not just believing that there is a God believing certain things about the Bible it's knowing God and having him within us now there's one other thing those words are absolutely crucial we know that God is love because of the incarnation because of propitiation because of salvation but then
[37:21] John drives home the fact that the world around needs to know this and our brothers and sisters need to know this and how do we as it were convince them that God is love by being loving toward them to our brothers and sisters to fellow Christians church can be a bit of a collection of oddballs have you ever noticed oh yeah the pastor's nodding so I'm alright saying that but we are a peculiar people aren't we we have our winds and our ways and yet we're to love one another even when I don't know baldness bad breath and bifocals have taken over we're still we're still to love whatever irritations to love I'd like to write a booklet sometime on just kindness there isn't much kindness in the world once in a while you see it but the
[38:25] Christian church should be characterized by kindness just loving those around and loving each other and just being kind and gentle and kindness but also not only shown towards our brothers and sisters but shown to a lost world out there the greatest act of friendship that we can show to anybody is to introduce them to the Lord Jesus and the greatest act of tyranny is to know the gospel and not share it and I don't mean anything political but when our government is silencing NHS workers education workers social service workers civil service workers and not allowing them to speak about the Lord they are committing a terrible act of treachery against the Lord and we must not obey men we're to obey God we're to show love and kindness and the greatest act of love and kindness is to introduce them to
[39:27] Jesus so let's learn to love and if we're going to learn to love we're going to spend time with him and we're going to sort of relish these wonderful truths God loves us and has come into our world and gone to a cross and carried our sin yes the risen Jesus gives salvation forgiveness newness of life eternal life to those who repent and believe and those who do want to show it to those who haven't yet come to know him as well as those who have may I just say as I close and we're going to sing a final hymn if you're here this morning you've never come to that moment in your life where you've asked Jesus Christ to forgive you and live within you to bring you to know God not just for time but for all eternity heaven and hell depend on what we do with Jesus I would urge you this very morning to pray and ask the Lord
[40:28] Jesus to save you and thank him for coming for you and ask him to be your Lord and saviour after this hymn I'm going to pray a prayer that you could pray with me if you wanted to trust Christ this very morning and then we'll pray and commit the rest of our day and our week to him but let's stand and sing shall we I know not why God's wondrous grace to me has been made known nor why unworthy as I am he claimed me for his own but I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed to him against that day he who's ünd Amen.
[41:46] But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep the which I permitted, unto him I haste have paid.
[42:07] I know that thou have his saving faith to me, he did impart, for now believing in his word, for peace within my heart.
[42:29] But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep the which I permitted, unto him I haste have paid.
[42:50] I know that thou have the spirit put from mixing men of sin, with me, Jesus, through the word, creating faith in him.
[43:13] But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep the which I permitted, unto him I haste have paid.
[43:35] I know that God of good or hell may be reserved for me, of weary place or golden days before his face I see.
[43:55] I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep the which I permitted, unto him I haste have paid.
[44:17] I know, when my mind, my Lord may come, I know not how long shall he, I shall pass the veil of death for me to live in the end.
[44:40] But I know who I am believing and am persuaded that he is able to keep the truth I'm committed unto him against the king.
[45:04] Please be seated. If you want to read something that's absolutely fascinating, you Google in that hymn or the name of the author, Daniel Whittle, and see how he was converted and why he wrote that hymn.
[45:18] It's an amazing story. But let's pray. A prayer, first of all, for anyone here who's never truly trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
[45:28] Will you pray this prayer with me, not out loud, but in your mind and heart, to God who hears and promises to answer. And make May the 22nd, 2016, the moment you were born for, when you turn from your sins and trust Christ.
[45:46] You echo these words, personalize them, if you will. Dear God, you know all that there is to know about me. So I do want to thank you for your love toward me. Thank you that Jesus came into the world for me and bore my sin on the cross.
[46:06] And is willing by his risen power to save me. Please forgive me. Come and live in my life. Become my Lord and Savior.
[46:21] And help me to follow you. For I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And Father, we do thank you for our time together this morning. And we thank you for these wonderful truths that you love us.
[46:36] We thank you for the incarnation, for the act of propitiation, for salvation. And we do ask, dear God, that you'd help us to go and love one another. And a lost world out there.
[46:48] We pray, dear God, for Carl. And we ask that you'd minister and strengthen him and his family at this really tough time. We pray, Lord, too, for the work in Speaker's Corner next weekend.
[47:02] That you'd use it to reach many people with the gospel. We pray for Yorkshire Camps, Lord. And pray you'd supply these gap year people for the coming year. Thank you for Paul Wheater and the tremendous amount of work that he does every year for this gospel music convention.
[47:18] Give him great strength for today and this coming Bible Week as well. Help him, Lord, and provide all that is needed financially and in every way for this wonderful means of reaching out and encouraging ourselves with Christian music that focuses on Jesus.
[47:37] Lord, we go into a new week. We don't know all that it holds. But we commit ourselves to you. And we ask you to go before us. Bless us. And make us a blessing, we pray in Jesus' name.
[47:48] Amen. Amen.