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[0:00] a few moments that we turn together to the passage that we read in chapter 19 of Luke's Gospel. And from verse 28 down to verse 4, the story of Jesus going into Jerusalem for the last time to be put to death on the cross. Now we all know how in the Old Testament the prophecies that were there about Jesus were all fulfilled to the letters. And that he was, as Isaiah says in chapter 53 and verse 3 of that chapter, he was a man of sorrows and he was acquainted with griefs in this world. And yet there was no very real sense in it, but he was filled with joy. He was filled with heavenly peace as well when he was in this world.

[1:06] Psalm 45 verse 7 speaks of Jesus dead prophetically and says, Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your contains.

[1:21] So Jesus, although he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, had also his heart full of peace and heavenly joy. You remember in chapter 10 of Luke's Gospel when the disciples, 70 of them came back from the truth of preaching and healing that Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit.

[1:49] Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit. Now Christ here is an example to us and a picture to us of how the church should be on earth. The church and the Christian in the church.

[2:09] We have many trials and many times of testing in this world. Tribulations and trials come. But yet, at the same time, there is a deep well of joy from which the Christians can draw from.

[2:29] that no one else can except themselves. Those who are in a living relationship with God can draw from those deep wells of joy, even in the midst of sorrow and sadness and tribulation of many kinds.

[2:48] There is a verse there in one of the hymns that we sing from time to time that says, Solid joys and lasting pressure, none but science children know.

[3:03] We have, of course, to carry our cross. We have to go outside the camp and it's not very easy bearing his reproach.

[3:14] But there is a river whose springs do glad the city of our God at the same time. And I think this time of the year ought to be a time of rejoicing for us.

[3:28] If we are believers, if we are Christians, this should be a time of rejoicing, Easter time. A time that we remember how Jesus went to the cross and died and rose again.

[3:42] And it should be a time of rejoicing every bit as much, if not more, a time of rejoicing than Christmas. We send the Christmas and it's a time of joy that Jesus Christ was born into this world.

[3:57] But if the story was to stop there and if he died and rose again, then it's an even more joyous consideration for us.

[4:15] For you think of supposing Christ had been born into the world and lived and went back to heaven. If he hadn't died for us, if he hadn't risen again from the dead, there would be no gospel.

[4:32] And there would be no heaven for us either. So on the first Palm Sunday, the disciples were rejoicing as they went up to Jerusalem.

[4:44] As we said to the children, they were fondly imagining that their master and their saviour was going to be crowned as king up in Jerusalem.

[4:56] But they forgot or didn't realise that he was there to be despised and rejected and nailed to our cross and left to die.

[5:09] So today we remember with rejoicing that he is risen, that he has overcome death and that he is with us here in the presence of the Holy Spirit and his enemies are defeated.

[5:26] And let us learn from the first Palm Sunday, how our hearts should be as we are Christians in our own day and generation.

[5:39] How we should be if we love the Lord and if we have gone over from death to life. How should we be on this Palm Sunday?

[5:50] First of all, look at the praise that they offered, these disciples. Every word that you have in verse 37 is full of significance and tell us of how we should be praising God as well.

[6:07] How did they praise God? Well, it was immediate praise first of all. They praised God at once. They didn't wait until the procession had entered into the city of Jerusalem.

[6:22] It says, then as he was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Oros, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God.

[6:34] We should always be ready to praise God and be quick to acknowledge his great goodness and his blessings toward us.

[6:46] I like it when I hear from time to time that a congregation is going to have a night of praise singing.

[6:58] Just reading the Bible and singing God's praise at intervals and that the whole service would be given over to the praises of God.

[7:09] It thrills my heart to hear a congregation wanting to do that. When you think of it, when the glorified church in heaven is praising incessantly without stopping, surely the part of the church that is still on earth should be quick to praise him as well.

[7:32] So, the first thing we notice is that it was an immediate praise. At once, they didn't wait until the rich Jerusalem. It was also unanimous praise.

[7:45] For the mercies, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God. There wasn't a single tongue silent that day.

[8:00] There was no worry keeping back from singing the praises of God. There are some who never open their mouths in a church service such as this.

[8:15] Now, whether you have a good voice or not, let me plead with you to try to sing the praises of God.

[8:27] He doesn't mind. He doesn't mind at all if you're a bit off key or if you are screeching or can't reach the high notes.

[8:44] On the other hand, if your heart is in the right place, then let your voice out. I've spoken to people about this so often.

[8:57] I may say, well, I'm not a church member, so I don't feel entitled to sing in the church. But that's a lot of nonsense.

[9:09] We are all entitled to sing God's praises when we come together. So don't let anything keep you back. Don't let the burdens and the worries that you have in your home, at work or in school keep you from praising God.

[9:28] I'm sure the disciples, there was quite a lot of them there that day. Some of them had their own share of trials and testings and tribulations.

[9:40] They had some of them maybe a sick child at home or a handicapped person to look after.

[9:52] All of them, I'm sure, were poor in the terms of worldly wealth. Not every one of them had a good singing voice, just the same as in any congregation like this.

[10:04] There are those who are great singers and there are those who are not so good. And all the disciples there that day, every one of them had to struggle against sin and against temptation, just as we do.

[10:22] But that did not keep them. That didn't keep them through praising God. So this morning, let us all, no matter how we may have been when we came into the church, no matter how downhearted we may have been, it's surprising.

[10:45] Once you start singing to God, it seems to lift the mood and the clouds away from your heart and from your soul.

[10:56] And that's how it's so good to be able to sing God's praises. Even in the worship you have in your homes, the worship you have on your own, with nobody else but yourself.

[11:13] When you sing to God first of all, with all, redeem the Bible and pray, it just lifts your soul up to heaven.

[11:24] So each one of us, let us praise God because of the good things he has done for us.

[11:35] So it was unanimous praise. Let's make it that here today. Let not one person be silent in this service today, when we come to sing the last hymn.

[11:52] It was a select praise as well because it was from the whole multitude of the disciples. It was the disciples who were singing.

[12:04] The Pharisees would not lift their voices to sing to God's praise and to praise Jesus. Instead they would be in the clouds somewhere muttering away and finding reasons to complain.

[12:19] And this was wrong and that was wrong and so on and so forth. All true praise comes from the heart.

[12:30] That's where true praise comes from. And how I wish, and I was thinking of that yesterday, I was praying over this sermon and praying for the congregation here and I was thinking, Well, if every voice that was raised in the praise of their football team all over the land, if all these voices that were shouting and crying out for their football team to win and all the rest of it, if they were joined together today in some church somewhere throughout their land to sing to the glory and honour of God, what a difference it would make for the worship of our day.

[13:22] But sadly, very few of those who were here, the football grounds yesterday would be here or anywhere else on this morning.

[13:34] Only those who love Christ will be able to give him acceptable praise. And it's the love, you think of it like this, it's the love that these fans have for their football team that wants them to just praise them and sing to them and shout and encourage them.

[13:59] It's because they love their team that they want to follow. And their team sometimes lets them down. As some of us have found out over these past years.

[14:13] They are not here. I won't mention anything but we have been let down badly by some of the teams. And yet we still support them.

[14:26] We still are behind them when they are playing. Again, they are before them going toikut Kings, when we are marching to the highough, a Manly leva楽iness of the眼 painters. And then we настily told you this reading about grams of music.

[14:38] He healed man, he was pleased and celebrated. You know this danger- Kris. They lady, which gives me talent, his leader wasигр més or bit這樣的 on Facebook.

[14:52] And it was joyful praise. It's not very good when the praise is done and you're not happy when you sing. Well, the whole world is of the disciples, when you are happy in your heart, then you'll sing a lot better as a result of that. There are still some people in the world who think that Christian life is dull and gloomy and that they have to be with a long face all the time. But that is so wrong. The Christians should be the happiest people in all the world today. I must say that since I became a Christian, that I have had far more fun and joy and laughter in the fellowship of Christian believers than

[15:56] I have ever known at the broken systems of this world. It was enjoyable to an extent going with the boys to the pub and going to the Cailies and going to the dancers, but it was nothing, absolutely nothing in comparison with what I found in Christian fellowship. There's a hymn that says, For the children of the Lord have a right to shout and sing. For the way is growing bright and our souls are on the wing. We are going by and by to the palace of a King.

[16:39] Glory to God. Hallelujah. To Him be the glory. Great things He has done. Him said with mirth, said the psalmist in Psalm 100. So let us be happy in our praising of God.

[16:56] The praise that they offered them, first of all. Then the song that they sang. Look how appropriate this song was. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the hearts. Christ is the subject of their song. And no song is sweeter to the Christian, to the believer, than the song of the Lord.

[17:17] The song that speaks about his Saviour and his Lord and who gives him praise and glory. The song of the disciples was about Jesus. He was the one who is the King in the song. Blessed is the King who comes in the song.

[17:34] The name of the name of the Lord. And that he had been commissioned by Jehovah himself. It's a wonderful thing in the song that they sang.

[17:59] The name of the King who comes in the name of the King. The name of the King who comes in the name of the King who comes in the name of God the Father. There is glorious theology in that song compared to some of the hymns you hear today.

[18:15] Blessed is he who comes with the authority of Yahweh the Lord behind him. Here we see Christ coming into this sinful world of ours with the full authority of heaven behind him.

[18:36] He is coming in the Father's name and he is going to speak of things that he heard in heaven itself. Not coming in a selfish way but coming with a mission and an errand from the Lordhead proposed and planned from all eternity.

[19:00] What the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit had purposed and planned in past eternity. He is still coming with our mission from Jehovah and he is going to tell of the great plan of salvation.

[19:20] He is going to accomplish it himself on the cross. The Father was pleased to bruise him, Isaiah said, and make his soul an offering for sin.

[19:35] What a message, what a mission, Jesus came on. You see the Godhead offered Savior in this song.

[19:46] Yet I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. And here we see him coming to Jerusalem, riding on a colt, the foal upon us.

[20:02] There he is as the King in the very midst of the people. And the King's daughter, here on earth and in heaven, should be joyous and cannot but be glad.

[20:20] It was a song that had Christ as its subject and had God as its object as well. And those disciples sang that day, they extolled God.

[20:37] They extolled God in Christ. They sang peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Well, when we lift up Christ, we want at the same time to praise God the Father.

[20:56] When you praise him Christ, you feel you can't leave the Father out of it. The whole Godhead must be taken in.

[21:07] We want to say thanks to God for his unspeakable gift. For he so loved the world that he gave.

[21:18] He gave Jesus to be the Saviour of his people long before the universe came into being. No wonder that David said, What is man that you are mindful of him?

[21:33] Or the son of man that thou visitest him? Let your praising today be to the glory and honour of God.

[21:44] Give him the due honour that is due to his name. And it was a song that was made in the open air.

[21:57] It had the universe as its scope. It wasn't a song sung in a confined place. They were in the open air.

[22:08] And there is something about a service held in the open air. Something that is different from any other service.

[22:19] And I have been to dozens and dozens of open air services. And there is not one of them that I did not enjoy.

[22:31] At the Glasgow Cross. At the shipyards around the River Clive. At lunch time. While the men were having their luncheons.

[22:43] Standing at the corner. The Christians would be there. And they would be singing to God's praise. And there would be a message given from God as well.

[22:58] Peace in heaven. And glory in the highest. That reminds us of the song that the angels sang. On the night that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

[23:14] Peace on earth is on that night. But this one says peace in heaven. Isn't it amazing that poor sinful creatures like us.

[23:26] Can affect the things that happen in heaven. The things you and I do here on earth. Can affect heaven. Heaven.

[23:37] Every time we lift our hearts in gratitude to God. Heaven is affected. Now God cannot receive any actual increase of glory.

[23:48] From any of his creatures. For he has infinite glory. And majesty. From all eternity.

[24:00] Heaven. You could say. Well God has so much glory. And so much majesty. That you can't add a thing. To the majesty and the glory that he already has.

[24:13] But his creatures here on earth can manifest that glory. Think of a person whose heart is full of. Full of thankfulness to God.

[24:24] And full of love for Jesus Christ. That person is able to touch heaven. And reflect the glory of God. They were singing there.

[24:37] As if the war that God had waged against sin. From the beginning of time. That had come to an end. And the king had arrived. It was a song that was universal in its scope.

[24:57] It was a song that was sung in gratitude as well. Blessed. It begins with the word blessed. We can't as we said already bless God. Because he is full of blessing as he is.

[25:12] And we can't add to his blessedness in any way. Our goodness is not able to extend to him. So that we add any to the goodness he already has.

[25:26] But as he blesses us. We can reflect the blessedness which streams from him. As the full moon in the sky reflects the light of the sun.

[25:42] So we can also reflect the blessedness which comes from God to us. Peter wrote in his first letters.

[25:53] Chapter 2, verse 9. And said. Proclaim the praises of him. He called us into darkness. And to his own marvelous light.

[26:04] The song that they sang. Then there's the opposition that they meant. The opposition. Formless opposition if you are doing any work for God.

[26:19] Or seeking to bring glory to his name. And some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd. Teacher. Rebuke your disciples. If the disciples had been praising the Pharisees.

[26:32] There would have been no word of asking Jesus to rebuke them. They would not have objected. If they had been saying. What a wonderful crowd of people those Pharisees are.

[26:47] Aren't we fortunate to have them with us here. Not one of them would have lifted a voice to object.

[26:58] You see a proud heart never praises God. Because it wants all the praise for itself.

[27:10] And so the Pharisees were jealous of the disciples. They were jealous because they saw them as happy as they were. They were miserable themselves.

[27:22] And could not bear to see others happy. Here is a typical example for us of the elder brother syndrome. The elder brother you remember in Luke chapter 15.

[27:38] Refused to go into the feast his father had prepared. He was jealous of his young brother. Who had come home.

[27:49] And if the joy of the Lord is not flooding your heart this morning. Don't prevent it from being in the hearts of others.

[28:02] Don't be as stumbling block as those Pharisees were. To others who were wanting to praise God. They were also jealous of Jesus.

[28:14] And that is always the hallmark of the evil one. Of the devil. Of Satan. He hates it when Christ is uplifted.

[28:25] He hates it when Christ is extolled. And he will try to stop it. Satan is quite happy to hear us preach about morality.

[28:37] To preach about ceremonies. To preach about ordinances. He is happy enough to hear us praising our church. Our denomination.

[28:48] And how much better we are in other churches. And how much better we are in other denominations. That the minute we begin to praise Jesus.

[29:00] It is like a whip to the devil. And it goads him. To cry, teacher, rebuke your disciples.

[29:12] We should give to the devil more of the things he does not want. And he does not like. You never hear the devil saying, teacher, rebuke your disciples.

[29:26] When false doctrines are preached. You never hear the devil saying, teacher, rebuke your disciples. At the assembly, at the General Assembly.

[29:38] When false teaching is brought forward and adopted. Has been the right thing. He never says, teacher, rebuke your disciples.

[29:49] When the word of God is put to one side. And the word of God is over-fashioned. We are living in 21 AD now. We are living in a modern era. And the word of God is not necessary anymore. He never says that.

[30:14] Once you start preaching about Jesus. And saying, what a great saviour is. Then the devil will find a reason to share it.

[30:29] Rebuke your disciples. The opposition they met. And the opposition that we will meet with. As well in their own need. But look kindly at the support that they enjoyed.

[30:44] The support that they enjoyed. But he answered and said to them. I tell you. That if these should keep silent. The stones would immediately cry out.

[30:56] God's children in every age. Feel that they have to. Praise God. For his goodness. The Psalms told in 1-3-7.

[31:08] If I forget you. Oh Jerusalem. Let my white hand forget its skin. If I don't remember you. Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth. That's what we feel like. If we can't get praise in God. Then it's a sad day. And that day may come. This land of ours is still.

[31:20] A land that allows people. Freedom of speech. To a certain extent. A few went down. In the middle of the town. And started an open air meeting. Preaching the gospel. Telling people. That's what we feel like. That's what we feel like.

[31:31] If we can't get praise in God. If we can't get praise in God. Then it's a sad day. And that day may come. It's a aunty. An aunty. It's a great deal. It's a great deal. This land of ours is still. A land that allows people. Freedom of speech.

[31:42] To a certain extent. A few went down. In the middle of the town. And started an open air meeting. Preaching the gospel. Telling people that. They need to be converted. That they need to be saved.

[31:55] That if they die without. Being converted. That they will end up in the lake of fire. With the devil and his angel. And so I say. end up in the lake of fire with the devil and his angels. The police would soon be there because somebody would take umbrage, they would report you and you would end up maybe taken to jail. And it has happened in other parts of the country. We have been saved from being lost eternally. We are secured on our way to heaven. We have been saved by the blood of Christ and filled with his Holy Spirit. And Jesus the King is in the midst and his blessings are shared out among us. Should we not praise Jesus in the midst, sharing out his blessings.

[32:50] Shall we therefore keep peace? Shall we keep silent? Not at all. It was a godly, corish of the 19th century. His name was Billy Breen. And he had a favourite saying when people opposed him and persecuted him for too much singing, speaking too loudly. He would hear his voice before he would see him, praising God. And he said one day, if they were to put me in a band, I would shout glory through the bang hole. That's what he felt about his Lord and his Master. Is it possible? Let me ask you for the stones to cry out that Jesus spoke about them. Yes, it's possible for the one who created them could as easily have made them to speak, speak. He had only to say the word. And if they spoke what would they say? They would cry out to the

[34:10] Christians and say to them, Christians, why are you silent when you should be praising your Lord and your Saviour? Why is your tank silent after all that God has done for you? But more than that, they would begin to praise God who made them out of nothing when he created the universe. They would say, oh yes, there was a big bang, definitely. But not the way that your scientists make out what the big bang was. Because your scientists leave God out of it. And we know that he was behind it all. We came into being then when he created the universe. And the world. And should the children of God keep silent and not tell the world how God by his grace made them new in Christ Jesus. You've got a message to tell, my dear Christian. You've got a message to tell the world how God saved your soul and changed your life. The stones that they spoke could tell of the long ages past and years past, but the old days of your creation. And are we as Christians not able to speak of the many wonderful things God has done for the church down the years? Could we not tell the world about the revivals that took place right up from the south of Scotland, right up the east coast and down the west coast as well, on the islands?

[36:05] when revival spoke, broke out, and throughout their land, Wesley and Whitefield and others. People have forgotten about them, if they ever heard about them.

[36:19] It's about time they heard about them again, and all that God has done for us as a nation. If the stones should speak, some of them would tell how they were taken from the quarry, and how they were chiseled, and how they were broken, and made to fit into the wall of the temple in Jerusalem or somewhere else.

[36:45] Can we not talk about the way God found us in the quarry of sin, and how he took us and broke us and chiseled us before we became part of the living Church of Christ here on earth?

[37:01] Even the little stones that keep the bigger stones steady in the war, they would say, well, we thought that we were useless because we were so small.

[37:13] And yet, to our embarrassment, to our surprise, the builder picked us up. What is he going to do with us? We were saying to the church. Surely he's not going to use us. But he did use us. And we're part of the war. And we're doing our own work in the war.

[37:34] Can we not say that as Christians as well? We who were nothing and are nothing of ourselves, and will be nothing of ourselves, God picked us up and highly exalted us to take our place among the princes of his people.

[37:55] To speak personally, I went to school when I was seven years old. There was no road through the moored, so I was kept back for two years.

[38:08] And I felt like, well, beyond all that I was plagued with asthma. And I was all sick, for a lot of the time that I should be at school. Left when I was fifteen, barely.

[38:23] No higher school, nothing to my name, not a thing. God did the rest, the rest is history.

[38:37] Who like me, his praise should sing. That wee stone from North Lewis, from Hobeg, Loch Poortel, chosen by God to be a little part of that building, the church.

[38:59] Just keeping a bigger stone level and a bigger stone in its place. What an honour being for a tiny little stone to be in that building for God.

[39:16] The praise that they offered, the song that they sang, the position that they made, and the support that they enjoyed. If these would not speak, then the stones would cry out.

[39:32] May God bless to us this world that has found here. Let more be modern feet. Think of where we could be today, and where we are.

[39:46] The devil had us in his grip. We are being led from broken sister into broken sister, trying to find satisfaction.

[39:58] And the day came when we discovered the need of Christ. When he came into our lives. Now none but him can satisfy.

[40:10] God, make us useful in yourselves. Little and small as we are. Help us to be useful. You call us home.

[40:21] In Jesus name. Amen. We shall close by singing to our face. From heaven we lift the kingdom of God.

[40:32] Here and everywhere. Almost now and forevermore. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[40:44] Amen. Turn the party in the morning, who's in a robot-comp位 for the child. Right on board. Does it change the way to sing? It should be like to be part of the right mission. Everything that needs to help bring to the floor during the world.

[40:56]  Not normal. The ways to protect himself from the earth to the planet. Many may make you better remember to ensure that there was three and the crops.