[0:00] Good evening, a warm welcome to the service. Those who are in the building, and I guess there's a number watching online tonight as well. We begin this time of worship, we'll sing to God's praise, and we're singing from Psalm 103, and we'll sing the first three stanzas of the psalm.
[0:21] Psalm 103, verses 1 to 3, O thou my soul, bless God the Lord, and all that in me is, be stirred up his holy name to magnify and bless. Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God, and not forgetful be of all his gracious benefits he hath bestowed on thee. All thine iniquities, who doth most graciously forgive, who thy diseases all and pains doth heal and thee relieve. These three stanzas we sing in Gaelic, and after we've sang Calamoletus in our prayer in Gaelic, please.
[0:57] ais it O man O man O man CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS
[2:11] CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS I don't know.
[3:30] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
[5:00] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
[6:30] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji
[7:40] Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Amen.
[9:04] Amen. We sing again now to God's praise. Mission Praise 560. 560. And the words there are on the screen.
[9:17] Praise my soul, the King of heaven. To his feet thy tribute bring. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven. Who like thee his praise should sing. Praise him, the everlasting King.
[9:34] Praise my soul, the King of heaven.
[9:50] To his feet thy tribute bring. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.
[10:31] Praise him, praise him.
[10:44] Praise him, praise him. Glorious in his faithfulness. Father, like he tempts and fears us.
[11:00] Whether free or free he knows. In his hands he gently bears us.
[11:11] Rescues us from all our foes. Praise him, praise him. Praise him, praise him. Praise him, praise him.
[11:21] Widely as his mercy flows. In your steps to adore him.
[11:34] He behold him face to face. Son and good, son and good, Son and good, bound, doubt before him.
[11:45] Weathers all in time and space. Praise him, praise him. Praise him, praise him.
[11:55] Praise the master, Lord of his. If you could turn with me, please, now to Genesis chapter 20.
[12:13] Genesis 20. We've been going through the life of Abraham for the last few weeks, few months probably now actually.
[12:38] And we've reached chapter 20.
[13:08] And we've reached chapter 20.
[13:38] Then God said to him in the dream, Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live.
[13:55] But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die. Early the next morning, Abimelech summoned all his officials. And when he told them all that had happened, they were very much afraid.
[14:08] Then Abimelech called Abraham in and said, What have you done to us? How have I wronged you that you have brought such great guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done.
[14:21] And Abimelech asked Abraham, What was your reason for doing this? Abraham replied, Besides, I said to myself, Surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.
[14:35] Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. And when God had me wander from my father's household, I said to her, This is how you can show your love to me.
[14:49] Everywhere we go, say of me, He is my brother. Then Abimelech brought sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham. And he returned Sarah, his wife, to him.
[15:02] And Abimelech said, My land is before you. Live wherever you like. To Sarah he said, I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver. This is to cover the offense against you before all who are with you.
[15:16] You are completely vindicated. Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his slave girls, so that they could have children again. For the Lord had closed up every womb in Abimelech's household because of Abraham's wife, Sarah.
[15:33] Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah, as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age.
[15:44] At the very time God had promised him, Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him as God commanded him.
[15:58] Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Sarah said, God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.
[16:10] And she added, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born him a son in his old age. Amen.
[16:22] And may God bless that reading of his word to us. We're going to sing now from hymn number 122. Hymn 122, it's a prayer as we come to God's word.
[16:37] Come Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire, let us thine influence prove, source of the old prophetic fire, fountain of life and love. Come Holy Ghost, for moved by thee, the prophets wrote and spoke, unlock the truth, thyself the key, and seal the sacred book, and so on.
[16:56] This is our prayer as we come to study God's word tonight. Amen. Holy Ghost, our hearts inspire, let us thine influence prove, source of the old prophetic fire, fountain of life and love.
[17:42] come Holy Ghost, stormed by thee, the prophets wrote and spoke, but not the truth, thyself the key, A sail the sacred bird And upon thy wings celestial dawn Good Lord our nature's night On earth is heart and spirit's moon And let there no be light God through himself we send shall know
[18:44] If the wind within us shine On time with all my sins below The depths of love divine I mentioned this morning that this wee book is at the front vestibule there So be encouraged to take it It's the world watch list And it gives us a bit of a window into different countries Where people can't meet as we meet to worship the Lord And number one on the list of the most persecuted Christians Is North Korea We're going to hear a bit about North Korea On Wednesday evening at the prayer meeting
[19:44] So be encouraged to come along to that And I'm just going to read this short section on North Korea And we're given guidance on how to pray So let's do that As we come in freedom to study God's word Let's remember those who'd love to have the chance Whether it's in person or whether it's online They don't have the chance Either in person or online To come together publicly to worship the Lord Jesus But let's pray for them Population of North Korea 26 million It says here 400,000 Christians Although these Christians would be very much underground North Korea it says remains a brutally hostile place for Christians If discovered they are either sent to atrocious labour camps or executed And their families will share a similar fate Christians have no freedom
[20:44] And it's almost impossible for believers to gather The reason for such extreme persecution Is that Christianity is seen as a particular threat To the dictatorial ideology and governance of the country's regime Christians are viewed as enemies of both the leadership and society Open Doors, the charity that published this little book Are working Open Doors secret workers are keeping 80,000 North Korean believers alive With vital food and aid through secret networks in China As well as providing shelter and discipleship training For North Korean refugees at safe houses in China And the prayers that we're asked to join in Please pray It says that the Holy Spirit will pour supernatural peace and strength Into believers held in labour camps Please pray that Christians who bravely gather in secret will not be discovered And please pray that the authorities will allow the country to be helped by the wider world
[21:50] So let's be encouraged in the week to be praying for North Korea And believers in North Korea And let's pray just now as we turn back to God's word Let's pray for those in that country Our Heavenly Father we again thank you for the freedom that we have in this place to worship you We thank you that we are able to meet this evening And lift up the name of Jesus without fear of violence or legal repercussions We recognise and we so often pray asking that you would touch our country We recognise that we have freedom here We have liberty We know that once we were the country recognised as those who were the land of the book Those who were not ashamed to own Jesus as Lord And we know that we are far from that today And we pray that you would have mercy upon us
[22:51] That you would draw us back to yourself And yet we do thank you for the many privileges that we do have And we pray that they would continue We pray for our leaders Those whom you have allowed to be in positions of power And we ask Lord that we may be able to continue worshipping as we do now As we think about things going forward We pray for those who don't have these privileges And we pray tonight especially for North Korea We pray Lord for 400,000 Christians We have a guide of a number there You are the God who knows exactly how many Christians there are in that place You know the situations they are in You know the suffering that so many of them have to endure You see what goes on in labour camps You see when a Christian falls When they lose their life in this world
[23:55] Many others may not see There may be cover-ups at a national level But there is not even a sparrow that falls Without you seeing Lord And so we know that every one of your children in that place You see and you are with And so we pray for them And we pray for those who will Who will risk everything To gather together Perhaps just in small numbers In secret places today And we ask that you would bless them And that as they open your word That they would know The blessing of the gospel Coming to them We pray that they would know The power of the Holy Spirit with them And Lord we pray That you would As we are directed here You would pour supernatural peace And strength into believers Who are held in labour camps Help them we pray
[24:56] As they suffer And as they labour To do so Knowing that you are with them We pray that they may know The same upholding And the same Even paradoxical joy That Paul and Silas and others felt When they were imprisoned In Philippi And we ask Lord That as they suffer For Jesus' sake That those who ill-treat them And those who keep them captive Would see Christ in them And so we pray For these brothers and sisters That we do not see But that you see And we ask Lord That you would help them And that you would Hold them up We pray That those who do Gather in small numbers In secret places That they wouldn't be discovered But that you would Make them invisible And that they would Continue to be able To meet together
[25:57] That their numbers would grow That the gospel message Would grow more and more In that country And we ask Lord That the authorities Would allow help To come in from the wider world And we pray for more than that Even We pray that these authorities That seem so Determined To wipe out the gospel And to silence the name of Jesus We pray that these authorities Would be confronted With the risen Christ We remember the Apostle Paul In his former role As a Pharisee Saul As he sought out Christians To kill As he tried to look for Gatherings to close down And then he was met With the majestic presence Of Jesus We ask Lord That you may Break through Into that country
[26:58] That you may confront Those who are Persecuting you And we ask Lord That you would Grant repentance That you would open the door To the gospel message We pray that the light Would shine Into the darkness Of that land And that it would not Be overcome But the light of Christ Would overcome The darkness And bring light And liberty And joy And peace And grace So we pray for That country And we ask Lord That you would bless them And we pray now That as we turn Back to your word That you would open Our eyes That we would see Jesus That you would open our ears That we would hear The word of God And that we would Have hearts that are opened That we may receive All that you have for us in it And we pray this in Jesus name And for his sake Amen Genesis chapter 20 If you can turn back there please
[28:00] Our girls discovered Some old cameras I think it was last week They were in the study cupboard And they were rifling through Old digital cameras And so Over the last few days There have been old Photographs and videos That have emerged That haven't been seen For many years And some of the memories That are associated With these old pictures And videos Are warm And familiar And happy memories But every time Every now and again As you're flicking through An old album Or as you're flicking Through old videos You come across a photo That takes you back To a memory That makes you cringe You remember a day
[29:00] And a situation And You remember the difficulty And the The sort of Cringe-worthiness Of the place Or the The situation And Genesis 20 I think Was one of these Kind of memories For Abraham As Abraham As he perhaps Thought back through His life And his experience His mind Would go to many places And as Abraham Thought about Girar His mind Would Inevitably Have gone back To His own Lack of faith And his own Ill-advised plans His own Bad engineering And the damage That that brought Both In his life And in his family's life And in the lives Of those That he He was connected With at that time As Genesis 20 Begins And we see The whole Familiar
[30:01] Situation Of Abraham Telling The ruler The leader There That his wife Was actually His sister We We see That Abraham Was a slow To learn Believer And so we're Continuing really On where we Left off From Genesis 20 A couple of weeks Ago The first thing We see there In verses 1 And 2 Is that Abraham Was a slow To learn Believer He's Made a mess Like this In the past As he went To Egypt He told Pharaoh That his wife Was his sister And there was a Whole lot of mess Because of that He We thought Learned a lesson That deception Is not the right Thing to Do It's a sin To repent of We thought He learned a lesson That God is sovereign And God can be trusted And yet Just a little Down the line As we fast forward Through Abraham's life We see in a different Location Some years down The line He's doing exactly
[31:02] The same thing He's a slow To learn Believer So as Genesis 20 Begins That's the dark Background Abraham He has a bad Day And yet There's encouragement In that Because all of us Have bad days Sometimes And God's word Is honest God's word Paints a picture Of the disciples In the New Testament And the church Fathers in the Old Testament As real people With real failures And real flaws And real sin They were slow To learn Believers Warren Weerspe As he As he looks In Abraham Weerspe Says Believers Do sin The Bible Tells us The truth About all people And that Includes God's people It does not Hide the fact That Noah Got drunk And exposed Himself Genesis 9
[32:02] Or that Moses Lost his temper Numbers 20 Or that David Committed adultery And plotted The death Of a valiant Soldier To Samuel 11 Peter denied The Lord Three times Matthew 26 And Barnabas Lapsed into False doctrine Galatians 2 These things Are recorded Says Weerspe Not to encourage Us to sin But to warn Us to beware Of sin After all If these Great men Of faith Disobey The Lord Then we Ordinary Saints Had better Be very Careful Therefore As it says In 1 Corinthians 10 Let him Who thinks He stands Take heed Lest He fall And that's The first Point that We're kind of Going back Over but It's important That we We take it Back on board Abraham Was a slow To learn Believer And yet We see As we look At this That God Is the Sovereign God If you
[33:02] Glance Down Through Verses Three to Six We can See that God Is working Out his Purposes Even on The bad Days Abraham Has a Bad Day And yet God Is not Inactive God Is not Disabled On these Bad Days When His Children Make a Mess of Things God Is still Working He's still Active And God Is never The cause Of evil He's never The one Who causes Sin But he's Able to Work Sovereignly And God Is able To use Even what The devil Would design For evil To bring Good to His people And glory To his Name So there's The encouragement There's a Double encouragement There That Abraham Like us Is a Slow to Learn Believer And yet God Was And God
[34:03] Is The sovereign Always Working God So as we Continue on Now Through this Section What more Do we see Of the Character Of God He's the Sovereign God But the Next thing That we See As we Pick back Up at Verse 6 Is that He's the Saving God And picking Up the Story at Verse 6 We can See that Abimelech Is not Having a Good night's Sleep Because of Abraham's Sin Abimelech Has ended Up taking Abraham's Wife And Into that Situation Into Abimelech's Subconscious Dreamy State The Lord Speaks to him And the Lord speaks In verse 6 To Abimelech And he Says You're as Good as Dead Because of The woman You have Taken She's a Married Woman So that's
[35:04] An alarming Message to Receive In the Dead of Night That's The dark Bad news That first Hits Abimelech But immediately After that There's this Message of Hope The bad News is Followed by Good news There are Seven Now return The man's Wife says The Lord For he is A prophet And he Will pray For you And you Will live But if You do Not return Her You may Be sure That you And all Yours Will Die So that's The message That comes To Abimelech And if Abimelech Listens To this Message And if He believes It And if He responds To it He has God's Word That he Will Live You know And that's The gospel When we Think back On it And we Stand back From this That's The way That God Did work
[36:04] And that's The way That God Continues To work And we May look At Abimelech All that That time Ago And all That way Away And think What's this Got to do With us But there's A principle Here that we Can see In our Own lives Abimelech Is in This Difficult Situation He finds Himself Actually in Sin Through Abraham's Fall And when we Think about Our condition We're in Sin We're born Into sin Because of Adam's fault Genesis 3 And God Tells us Very clearly In his word That to Persevere In sin Leads to Death It's Romans 6 23 But then In the Gospel Message God Tells us There is A way To live You need To listen You need
[37:06] To believe You need To act On my Word Says the Lord And there Will be Life We're born Into death Because of Adam's sin But there Is the The Opportunity That is the Word of Life that Comes to us Through the Gospel And that's What Abimelech Hears He's in This dark Dangerous Difficult Situation He's He's Just He's He's He's He's He hears This Further Word There's A Way To Live Listen Believe Respond And Abraham Not Abraham But Abimelech He does Listen And he Does Believe And he Does Respond Verse Eight Early The Next Morning Abimelech Summoned All his Officials And when He told Them All That Had Happened They Were Very Much Afraid then Abimelech called Abraham in and said what have you done to us verse 9 you'll find it easier to to follow the text than look at me Abimelech then called Abraham in and said what have you done to us how have I wronged you that you have brought such great guilt upon me and my kingdom you have done things to me that should not have been done and Abimelech asked Abraham what was your reason for doing this Abraham replied I said to myself there is surely no fear in of God in this place and they will kill me because of my wife besides she is really my sister the daughter of my father though not of my mother and she became my wife and when God had me wander from my father's household I said to her this is how you can show your love to me everywhere we go save me he is my brother it's a kind of awkward passage to read we have we have this that this high opinion of Abraham as a great man of God and he was but in this snapshot he's he looks kind of pathetic he's caught in this this bad situation he doesn't respond well to this he is confronted with his guilt by Abimelech and and rather than just coming clean he he tries to deflect the blame he tries to justify what what he did this is this is a bad day for Abraham and yet we all have them so let's not point the finger and let's not pick up rocks to the the the throw at him because we all have these kind of days we all find ourselves at at times in in these kind of situations and we're given a a very true picture of of Abraham on a on a bad day in this in this situation but for Abimelech it had been a bad night where he hadn't slept in any peaceful way but it turns into a good day for him because he listens to the word of God and he believes the word of God and he acts upon the word of God and he's spared he receives life he was headed for death you are as good as dead says the Lord because of what you're in but if you listen to me says God you can have life and he listens he believes he responds and he is spared he's given life he's taken from death to life
[41:09] and it's a picture from the Old Testament again of the gospel message we are taken through the finished work of Jesus from death into life if we will listen if we will believe if we will respond to the message of the gospel and so the lesson for us tonight is don't just be hearers of the word but be doers respond to it so if you're here tonight or you're at a distance watching in on this and you might be 6 years old or 7 years old or 10 years old or 90 years old we might be people who've heard the word of God for decades in churches in devotional books and as our families gathered for worship we've heard the word of God we've heard the message of our sin and our state and yet the we've heard the offer of the gospel that there's life if we believe if we respond and perhaps there's somebody here tonight and you've never responded perhaps there's someone who's listening in and you've never actually actioned us and come before the Lord and said
[42:44] I don't want to die in sin I want to live I want to be saved well take the lesson tonight or take the encouragement the instruction tonight that is the offer of life in the gospel there's the offer of salvation if we will believe if Abimelech had just heard this and not responded if Abimelech had got up in the morning rubbed his eyes and said that was a horrible dream now I've got six items on my agenda for my day I better attend to these and then maybe I'll give this some thought later on if that's how he'd responded he would have been lost but it's a matter of priority he's up first thing in the morning he summons his officials he shares with him the word of God he responds to the word of God and he's saved so are you saved have you responded to the word of God it's not coming to us in dreams so much these days you know we we have the word of God crystal clear in our hands we have more than Abimelech ever had and we hear it in Sunday school and we hear it
[44:17] NYF and we hear it at Jam and Connect and we hear it in our homes perhaps we hear it in this place through various preachers we have the word of God we can memorize passages like Romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord we've heard that we are hearing that but have we believed have we received the eternal life that only Jesus can give are we saved we have a saving God Abimelech could tell the story of this saving God that he encountered and the same God comes to us this evening his desire is that none will perish that none will go to death but everyone will be brought to repentance everyone will be brought to life we are called to change direction we are called to be saved if we believe if we respond we are promised that salvation whether we're in primary school whether we're going through the teenage years whether we're battling the responsibilities of middle age or whether we're reaching the end of our days we're called to receive salvation by believing by responding to the word of God so we see that God is sovereign we see that that God is the saving God and the next thing that we see in this passage is that God is a gracious
[46:27] God because the way that God responds to Abraham is to respond in grace I mean when we think about Abraham he is not in a good light in this passage he has doubted God he has been deceptive he has been disobedient he has caused himself and his family to be put in a place of great danger and discomfort he has brought that same into the experience of the king and the king's household he has made an absolute mess of things and so we might think for Abraham how is the Lord going to respond to him how is the Lord going to deal with him is there going to be a scolding is there going to be a stern word that comes Abraham's way is the promise that Abraham has been given is it going to be nullified is it going to be reversed what is Abraham going to receive is it going to be a slap in the knuckles is it going to be punishment and yet what we actually see is that Abraham even in spite of all this he receives blessing
[47:41] God has promised the blessing and even though he falls and he fails and he messes things up here that promise of blessing continues to come to Abraham he receives grace he tastes the grace of God and that grace is brought through Abimelech verses 14 to 16 then Abimelech brought sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham and we would expect Abimelech to be saying get this man and get his family and get his stuff out of my land I've lost a night's sleep I've lost a whole lot because of this man get him out of here that's what we'd expect but because God is at work here the grace of God comes through
[48:42] Abimelech he brings sheep cattle male and female slaves gives them to Abraham and he returns Sarah his wife to him and Abimelech said my land is before you live forever you like to Sarah he said I'm giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver this is to cover the offense against you before all who are with you you are completely vindicated and this is grace I mean we look in on this and instinctively we say this is not fair this doesn't seem to be right Abraham is given land to live on that is not his land he hasn't bought it he hasn't paid for it he's not deserving of it and Abraham is given sheep and cattle and people who will work for him and he's given so much silver that it would have taken 167 years for a labourer to earn this when checked out the amount of silver he's given all this silver a thousand shekels of silver the sums are a labourer would have been paid half a shekel of silver per month and if you do the sums the amount that Abraham is given would have taken one labourer 167 years to earn and it's just given to Abraham and what has he done to deserve this absolutely nothing he's done a thousand things to disqualify himself from this but he's done nothing to deserve it yet he receives it see Abraham is not treated in a way that's just he's treated in a way that is gracious and we might be tempted as we look in from a distance to shake our heads as we look in on this we might be tempted to look at Abraham and shake our heads and be disapproving in our spirits but actually when we look in on this what we're actually seeing as a mirror we're seeing ourselves we're seeing a picture of how
[51:19] God treats us he is gracious to us this is just one picture in the Old Testament of grace one of many pictures in the Old Testament of grace but if we were to go from the Old Testament to the New Testament we don't just see pictures of grace we are given tokens of grace think about last Sunday we picked up bread and wine which enabled us to taste even something of the grace of God and as we taste it our minds are transported from the table to the cross where we see the most amazing picture of grace where we see that the Son of God are slain for us it's not what we deserve it's grace it's God's riches it's forgiveness his joy his peace his promises given to us freely at Christ's expense the bread that speaks of the body the wine that speaks of the blood the payment it's just given to us it's grace we sang it two Sundays ago what kind of love is this that gave itself for me
[53:13] I am the guilty one and yet I go free what kind of love is this that what kind of man is this that died in agony he who had done no wrong was crucified for me it's grace so what are we to do as we think about this grace where we're to do what Abraham did we're to receive it it's a gift and having received the grace of God we're to show that grace to others as we pray for them and as we ask that God would bless them as he has blessed us look at verses 17 and 18 then Abraham prayed to God and God healed
[54:13] Abraham his wife and his slave girls so that they could have children again for the Lord had closed up every womb in the Bimelech's household because of Abraham's wife Sarah so Abraham he receives grace he receives blessing and then he shares he shows that grace he's the means of blessing in this family that he's connected with at this time and as we look in on this we have a pointer to Jesus Abraham is showing us just a preview of Jesus and what he would do one commentator says the grace of God turned curse into blessing Abimelech had prayed for mercy but for the curse to be removed and for him to know life he needed to identify himself with the one in whom all families of the earth are blessed
[55:17] Abraham's prophetic calling was to intercede for this ruler poor representative that he was Abraham was used to bring salvation to Abimelech and his family in this he pointed forward to the great prophet to come it is through Jesus Christ that the curse is removed and we receive life our sinless saviour has provided a covering for our open and secret sins and our sins of ignorance and so in all of this as we think about the salvation of God as we think about the grace of God we are being pointed forward to Jesus and the final thing we see and I'm not going to go into this tonight is we see the promise keeping God we'll pick up on this the next time we open this but in verses 1 to verse 7 we see we see what we've been looking for through all these chapters and that is that
[56:31] God keeps his promise go back to Genesis 12 and there's the promise to this elderly couple of a son that would be a blessing to them would be a blessing to many in the nation and then to all nations and time passed 25 years passed and this couple needed patience they had to wait upon the Lord but God kept his promise promise and it seemed impossible as the biological clock ticked past what they considered to be overtime it seemed so medically unlikely so supernatural faith was required but God kept his promise and now as we just glance at Sarah as she comes to this point her laugh has gone from the the incredulous doubtful snort of of
[57:42] Genesis 18 to this gleeful thankful praiseful shriek because God had kept his promise God is a promise keeping God and that promise was not just for her it was for all the nation and it was for all nations this is a promise that can be traced from Isaac to Jesus this is a promise that can be traced from Israel all the way to Scotland so today we we surely share in that smile with Sarah as we think about her God God and our God he's the sovereign saving gracious promise keeping
[58:45] God and he's worthy of our praise so praise him trust him and tell others about the one in whom there is blessing heavenly father we thank you for your word and we thank you for this account of the life of Abraham with its twists and its turns we thank you that nothing of the humanity and the sinfulness of Abraham is deleted from the account we thank you that we are given a clear picture of the reality the sinful weak reality of the people whom you call to come to yourself and yet we thank you that as we see the weaknesses of the people you call we see the strength and the majesty and the sovereign power and the grace and the glory of your character and your work we thank you that as we look in on
[60:01] Abraham the slow to learn believer at times we do see ourselves we see our journey of faith as we seek to follow you and yet we are given such hope and such joy as we marvel at your grace and your glory so accept our praise and our worship help us we pray to trust you and help us we pray to be to be bold and to take the opportunities that you give us to tell others of the blessing that was promised in Isaac and yet which we receive tonight in the one who came from the line of Abraham and Isaac Jesus our saviour and our lord and we pray this in his name and for his sake amen we'll sing to conclude from psalm 100 the whole of this psalm psalm 100 all people that on earth do dwell sing to the lord with cheerful voice him serve with mirth his praise foretell come ye before him and rejoice we'll stand to sing all people that on earth do well sing to the lord with cheerful voice himself with mirth his praise foretell come ye before him and rejoice know that the lord is
[62:08] God indeed with the lord of the the lord he did us make we are his rock he doth us be and for his sheep he doth us take o enter then his gates with grace approach with joy his course unto praise God and bless his name always for it is simply so to do for why the lord the god is good his mercy is forever sure his mercy is forever sure his truth that all times firmly stood and shall from his to reach endure and may the grace of our lord jesus christ and the love of god the father and the fellowship of god the holy spirit be with us all now and forever more amen