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[0:00] Good evening, a warm welcome to the service this evening, those who are in the building and those still who are tuning in online. Again, it's good for us to come together and to worship God. And we'll begin this time of worship by singing to God's praise and we'll sing in Gaelic, Psalm 51, Psalm 51 verses 1 to 3 as it's marked in the English, two stanzas of the psalm. Psalm 51 and the first two stanzas of the psalm.

[0:32] After thy love and kindness, Lord, have mercy upon me, for thy compassions great blot out all mine iniquity, me cleansed from sin and thoroughly washed from mine iniquity. For my transgressions I confess my sin I ever see. So these two verses to God's praise in Gaelic and after we've sung these verses, Neil Cameron will lead us in prayer in Gaelic, please.

[0:58] Thank you.

[1:28] Thank you. Thank you.

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[11:17] Amen. Amen.

[11:39] Amen. We sing again now to God's praise and we continue to sing from Psalm 51 this time in English and we'll sing from Psalm 51 from verse 4 to verse 10 of the psalm.

[11:56] Psalm 4 to verse 10 of the psalm is a psalm where David the psalmist is asking for forgiveness for his sin which ties in with the petition that we've come to in the Lord's Prayer.

[12:09] Against thee thee only have I sinned and thy sight done this ill that when thou speaks thou mayest be just and clear in judging still behold I in iniquity was formed the womb within my mother also me conceived in guiltiness and sin behold thou in the inward parts with truth delighted art and wisdom thou shalt make me know within the hidden part do thou with hyssop sprinkle me I shall be cleansed so ye wash thou me and then I shall be whiter than the snow.

[12:38] down to the end of verse 10 from verse 4 to verse 10 we sing to God's praise. Kings thee thee only have I sinned in thy sight done this ill that when thou speak thou mayest be just Unclear in judging still Behold I in iniquity Was formed alone within My mother also be conceived In guiltiness and sin

[13:40] Behold I in the inward parts With truth delighted art And wisdom thou shalt make me known Within the hidden part Do thou with his soft sprinkle me I shall be cleansed soul Ye wash thou me and then I shall Be whiter than the snow Of gladness and of joyfulness Make me to hear the voice

[14:40] That so this very born swissed Has broken may rejoice All mine iniquities water Thy taste I from my sin Create a clean heart Lord renew Arise spread me Within If you could turn now in your Bibles please To Matthew chapter 6 Matthew chapter 6 And if I could say also One or two visiting with us tonight And it's good to have you with us This evening as we come together To worship God

[15:42] Matthew chapter 6 And we'll read from Verse 5 Jesus says to his disciples And when you pray Do not be like the hypocrites For they love to pray Standing in the synagogues And on the street corners To be seen by men I tell you the truth They have I tell you the truth They have received their reward in full But when you pray Go into your room Close the door And pray to your father Who is unseen Then your father Who sees what is done in secret Will reward you

[16:42] And when you pray Do not keep on babbling Like pagans For they think They will be heard Because of their many words Do not be like them For your father knows What you need Before you ask him This then is how you should pray Our father in heaven Hallowed be your name Your kingdom come Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven Give us today our daily bread Forgive us our debts As we have also For we have forgiven our debtors And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from the evil one For if you forgive men When they sin against you Your heavenly father Will also forgive you But if you do not Forgive men their sins Your father will not Forgive your sins And perhaps We could just I didn't actually tell Ammon this But maybe we could also Read one more section From Matthew chapter 18 Matthew chapter 18

[17:47] The verse we have come to tonight Is the verse where Jesus teaches us In verse 12 To say Forgive us our debts As we also have forgiven Our debtors And then That is emphasised further In verse 14 and 15 For if you forgive men When they sin against you Your heavenly father Will also forgive you But if you do not Forgive men their sins Your father will not Forgive your sins And that Probably Our minds even Would have connected already With the Illustration of that That Jesus uses In Matthew Chapter 18 So we'll read from Verse 21 To verse 35 The parable Of the Unmerciful servant Then Peter came to Jesus

[18:52] And asked Lord How many times Shall I forgive my brother When he sins against me Up to seven times Jesus answered I tell you Not seven times But Seventy-seven times Therefore the kingdom of heaven Is like a king Who wanted to settle Accounts with his servants As he began settlement A man who owed him Ten thousand talents Was brought to him Since he was not able to pay The master ordered That he and his wife And his children And all that he had Be sold To repay the debt But the servant Fell on his knees Before him Be patient with me He begged And I will pay back everything The servant's master Took pity on him Canceled the debt And let him go But when the servant That servant went out He found one of his fellow servants Who owed him A hundred denarii He grabbed him And began to choke him Pay back what you owe me He demanded His fellow servant

[19:53] Fell to his knees And begged him Be patient with me And I will pay you back But he refused Instead he went off And had the man Thrown into prison Until he could pay the debt When the other servants Saw what had happened They were greatly distressed And went and told their master Everything that had happened Then the master Called the servant in You wicked servant He said I cancelled All that debt of yours Because you begged me to Shouldn't you have mercy On your fellow servant Just as I had on you In anger His master turned Him over to the jailers To be tortured Until he should pay back All he owed This is how my heavenly father Will treat each of you Unless you forgive Your brother from your heart Amen And may God bless that reading Of his word To us We'll sing again now To God's praise We'll sing from

[20:54] Mission Praise Number 975 Mission Praise 975 Before the throne Of God above I have a strong And perfect plea A great high priest Whose name is love Whoever lives And pleads for me My name is graven On his hands My name is written On his heart I know that while In heaven he stands No tongue Can bid me thanks Depart We'll sing the whole Of this hymn We'll stand to sin To God's praise Before the throne Of God above I have a strong And perfect plea A great high priest Whose name is love Whoever lives And pleads for me My name is graven

[21:56] On his hands My name is written On his heart I know that while In heaven he stands No tongue can bid me Fence depart No tongue can bid me Fence depart Satan tempts me To despair And tells me Of the guilt within Upward I look And see him there Who made an end To all my sin Because the sinless Saviour died My sinful soul Is counted free For God the justice Satisfied To look on him And pardon me To look on him

[22:57] And pardon me To look on him And pardon me Behold him there The risen man My perfect spotless righteousness The great unchangeable I am The king of glory The king of glory And of grace One with himself I cannot die My soul is purchased With his blood My life is hid With Christ on high With Christ my Saviour And my God With Christ my Saviour And my God Just as we turn back To the passage That we read From Matthew 6

[23:58] We'll pray for a moment And ask again For the Lord's help Our Heavenly Father We thank you For your word We thank you For Jesus Your Son Our Saviour We thank you For the words That we have been Singing there Which remind us Of the fact That we We are saved Through Jesus And all that he Has done for us We thank you That if we know Our names are graven On his hands If we know He has taken Our sin to the cross We have the assurance That we are forgiven That we are saved It's easy for us To sing these words My life is hid With Christ on high With Christ my Saviour And my God But we pray That you would Press these words Into our hearts Into our souls Give us that sense

[24:59] Of awe That we are able To come to you The God of heaven And earth And call you Our Father Give us that sense Of wonder That we are able To say that Jesus is my Saviour He is my Lord He is the one Who is my friend We think of the hymn That we sing What a friend We have in Jesus We thank you That all the griefs And all the sin That weighs us down We don't have to Hang on to What we are able To bring in prayer To Jesus Knowing that What we cannot carry What we are not Designed to carry He is able To take from us And we thank you Lord for the wonder That the moment That we believe The moment that we That we receive That faith That enables us To take hold Of the grace of Jesus The Holy Spirit That comes to live In our hearts What a wonder To know

[25:59] That the God Who made all things Lives within us We become the temple Of the Holy Spirit When we call upon The name of the Lord Jesus And are saved And so Lord We pray that you would Give us greater insights Into the wonder Of your salvation Enable us to be more In awe Of what you have done And are doing And the promise That you will do For us in Christ And we pray for anyone Tonight here Who doesn't yet know Jesus And who isn't able To say from their heart That Jesus is my Saviour And my Lord Whether they are In the building here Or whether they are Watching at a distance We pray that you would Be working In the power of the Holy Spirit To draw those Who are outside of Christ Into Christ Those who are lost We pray that They would be found We pray for conversions Lord We pray for those

[27:00] Who are sick We pray for those Who are grieving We pray for those Who are struggling In different ways As we must And as we love to But Lord We pray for those Who are not sick But who are healthy In their bodies We pray for those Who are not struggling In terms of this world But who are doing well For themselves In the worldly sense And yet Who have no Sense of Their desperate need Of Jesus And we ask Lord That you would open Their eyes As you open the eyes Of all Who do believe We pray Lord That you would be Awakening souls We pray that you Would be convicting More and more of us Of the Reality of our sin And that you would be Enabling More and more of us In this community To see The wonder of Jesus And the fullness The sufficiency Of the salvation That he has worked Out for us And now Lord We pray that as we Turn back to your word That you would

[28:00] Teach us from it Teach us to pray And enable us To hear the words Of Jesus And to And to Act upon these words Enable us to be those Who have a closer Walk with you You have greater Intimacy In the gift Of prayer That you have Called us to And have given us The responsibility To be attentive In So bless us Lord we pray We pray for Any who Are visiting With us tonight And we ask for your Blessing upon them And any congregation That they may be Connected with We pray for We pray for those Who are at a distance From us Those that we Can't see Online but Whom you see And every Soul Every family Every church That is connected Lord we pray Your blessing To be upon them As we pray Your blessing To be upon us So lead us And guide us By your spirit We pray Help us Lord To Help me to speak Help us to listen

[29:01] Help us Lord To respond In faith To your voice As we listen And we pray this In Jesus name Amen Well if you've got Your Bibles open At Matthew chapter 6 That would be helpful This is a passage That I've read Over and over again Over these past few weeks It's a passage I think that's probably Quite familiar To many of us Anyway As the Lord's Prayer Most of us Can probably recite it Although perhaps Not all of us But sometimes When you're reading Over a familiar passage There can be One or two words Just in a fresh reading That just jump out And they have an impact Just in that moment And over the course Of this last week As I was reading This passage There was one word That caught my eye

[30:02] A few times In the reading And it's It's the It's the word Manor We don't find it In the NIV Don't think we find it In the ESV either But I was reading it In the King James Version And Jesus He says in verse 9 After this manner Therefore I pray Now we have a few Boys and girls With us This evening A few missing Tonight actually But from when We are very young We're taught About the importance Of our manner Or our manners You ever heard that?

[30:42] Put your hand up If you've If your mum Or your dad Or your auntie Or your uncle Or somebody Has ever said to you Hey Watch your manners Aha Farrakhar In the front row Is making an admission there We know We can think back To From when We were very young And we're We're told I can think of At the table Most commonly Watch your manners Don't talk When your mouth is full No singing at the table No whistling at the table That was part of Manners in our house Don't start eating Until everyone else Has been served Don't leave the table Until you've been excused Watch your manners David And Jesus here He teaches us About our manner As we pray There are manners To watch

[31:42] When we pray Now There are occasions Where Our prayer Is just a desperate cry There are occasions Where we can't even Find words to pray Never mind A structure It's a It's a narrow prayer It's a prayer When we're In the most desperate Circumstances And we just cry out And God the Holy Spirit He takes our cries Our sighs Our groans Our wails They're brought As prayers That's a different Kind of praying But In terms of A model here For prayer When we're in The quiet place We take time To be with God Jesus teaches us About Manners in prayer The manner By which we Approach God In prayer We come to Our Father So there Is an intimacy Not a coldness And a formality

[32:42] And yet Jesus says We come to Our Father In heaven So there's To be reverence And not A casual Flippancy In prayer And then There's Manners to Watch In terms of What we ask For The structure The priorities That we have In prayer When we pray And when we ask For things We're to Think first About God About his name Verse 9 And his kingdom Verse 10 And his will Verse 10 And then We're able to Ask for The things That we know That we need Personally Daily bread And tonight We come to Verse 12 Where Jesus Us Jesus teaches Us to Ask for For forgiveness Verse 12 Forgive us Our debts

[33:43] As we Also have Forgiven Our debtors So if we're Going to take A text for This evening That's the text It's verse 12 Forgive us Our debts As we Forgive Our debtors But I think We should start By noting That there's A connection Between Verse 12 And verse 11 So the first Point For this evening Is there's a Connection There's a connection That we note Now If we think About a painting You know When you look At a painting The shapes And the colours Aren't just Sort of Randomly Smeared Against the Canvas An artist An artist Gives thought To the Contrast And to the Shading And to the Outlines To the To the Structure Of the Print Or the Painting Everything In the Painting Is carefully Positioned Everything's Connected

[34:43] You know And even If you play Lego With the Children I was thinking About a time When I Played Lego Actually With one Of the Young Boys In our Congregation And I Was trying To help With the Structure That he Was making But everywhere I put a Piece of Lego It was The wrong Place No no It doesn't Go there It goes Here You know In his Mind Everything Had to be Carefully Positioned And with God's Word It's even More so Every Verse is Carefully Positioned And God The Holy Spirit Has Determined That Verse 11 Perhaps Peculiarly Would come Before Verse 12 I think That might Seem a Little Strange To us As Jesus Teaches Us to Pray He puts Verse 11 Before Verse 12 I think If we were Asked the Question What do You think Comes first In prayer Forgive us Our sins Or Give us Today our

[35:43] Daily bread I think If we were Asked that Question We would Say Well I think Forgiveness Of sin Comes before Daily bread In our Petition In our List For prayer And yet That's not How Jesus Structured This prayer He asks Us to Come to Him for Daily bread Before we Come for Forgiveness And We could Ask the Question Why is That And we Can't Be sure But here's A couple Of thoughts We're hearing A story about William Booth Of the Salvation Army The founder Of the Salvation Army And he Was Well known He was Well loved By all The tramps In London He paid Attention to Them He spent Time with Them He cared For them In the Most practical Ways He would Feed those Them who Were hungry He would Seek to Clothe and Give shoes To those Who had

[36:44] None And on One occasion William Booth Was asked The question Why are you Doing all This social Care When you Should just Be preaching And his Response Was as Follows He says You cannot Warm the Hearts Of people With God's Love If they Have an Empty Stomach And cold Feet There's Wisdom In that Jesus Knows That we Are physical People He knows That we Are those Who get Hungry He knows That we Are those Who need Bread To live That are Basic Human Needs That we Thought about Last time We were Together And so Jesus In verse 11 Teaches us That it's Okay to Ask for These things When we Come in Prayer Jesus Knows That if We have Empty Stomachs And cold

[37:46] Feet If we Have basic Human needs That aren't Being met We're going To be Distracted And we're Going to Struggle Both Spiritually And physically So maybe That's why Verse 11 Comes before Verse 12 We can Sometimes be Slow To come And ask For things Are we Struggling With something This evening Something that Seems very Practical Very mundane Something that We think In our minds That well God isn't Going to be Interested in Something as Small as that Well the Truth is He is Interested In whatever It is However Small it Is That is in Our minds Playing in Our thoughts We can Come to Him We can Ask him For our Daily bread So I think We're given An encouragement Here to pray For what we Need So there's A connection Here between

[38:46] Verse 11 And verse 12 That Jesus Knows that we Need these Things and so He encourages Us to ask For these Things but I think There's another Obvious Connection Between verse 11 and Verse 12 And it's This If we Don't have Daily bread Then physically We die We need Bread To be able To live Without Bread we Die Physically And if we Don't have Forgiveness Verse 12 Then spiritually We die We need To have Forgiveness If we're To have Spiritual Life So I think There's a Connection There No bread No life No forgiveness No life And so Jesus teaches

[39:46] Us to come Asking for That forgiveness Jesus says When you Pray Say Forgive us Our debts Now sin Is a debt That's what Jesus is Teaching here He's He's Telling us To ask For forgiveness For our Sin But sin Is a debt And the Word that's Used for Debt There in the Greek It could Also be Translated As an Offence Sin is An offence Against God Think about The A9 You're driving Down the A9 Now there's These speed Cameras That are Average speed Cameras The whole Length Of the Road And sometimes When the Road's Clear And it's Dry And there's No traffic It can be Easy to Forget and Maybe drift A little Over 60 Mile an Hour Now what Happens if You do That Well if You do That You get A speeding Ticket And it Will say You have Broken The law It will Say you've Committed

[40:47] An offence Under whatever The legal Code is And it Will say There's a Fine to Pay And you And I Are in Debt To the State Until we Pay the Fine Now when We sin Against When we Sin we Sin against God Sin is not Some abstract Thing that Floats around And is Disconnected From everything When we Sin we Sin against God David says In Psalm 51 in Verse 4 Which we Sin Against Thee Thee Only Have I Sin Sin is an Offence Against God's Law Sin causes Us to go Into debt With God So what is The debt You know What is the Penalty What wage What debt What feed Do we owe To God

[41:47] Because of Our sin That's the Question and The answer is Finding in Romans 6 23 you know The verse Well The wages Of sin Is death Now we can Open up a Speeding ticket After being Out on A9 And we Grimace When we See That there's A fee To pay But we Can We can Pay it The 60 Pounds Usually But when We read About the Debt That we Owe To God Surely We shudder Because we See the Seriousness Of this We see How much We need Forgiveness We need Forgiveness As much In fact We need Forgiveness More Than our Daily Bread So what Does Jesus Teach us To do In this Prayer He teaches Us To ask

[42:47] For it He teaches Us to Confess Our sin So that's Our second Point There's the Connection Between the Two verses And secondly Here there's The confession That Jesus Teaches us To do Verse 12 Still we're Stinging that For the Whole service Forgive us Our debts And these Four words They amount To a Prayer of Confession Jesus teaches Us to Confess Our sin Not to Hide it Not to Cover it Up Not to Make excuses To try to Justify it Remember David tried To do That He tried To hide His sin He speaks Of it in Psalm 32 And he Says in Psalm 32 In verse 3 When I Kept Silent When I Didn't Confess My bones Wasted Away Through my Groaning

[43:47] All day Long See when We don't Confess Our sin That the Weight of That sin The debt It presses Down on us It hangs Over us And I'm No medical Expert But I I wonder How many People Suffer Mentally Because they Feel The weight Of their Sin And don't Know what To do With it So they Go to A psychologist Who says To them There's no Such thing As sin It's all In your Head And yet The weight The weight Is still There And How many Times They hear That kind Of thing

[44:48] The weight Is still There That there Is still That inner Groaning There's still That sense Something is Wrong So what Do they Need to Hear What do We need To hear We need To hear The words Of Jesus Telling us Your sin Is real But if you Confess It It can Be Forgiven And the Burden The weight Of guilt Can be Taken Away Instantaneously John Stott In his Book He quotes An expert Psychiatrist Who was in Charge of A psychiatric Unit In London And he Said this Quoting him He said I could Dismiss Half my Patients Tomorrow If they Could be Assured Of forgiveness It's his

[45:49] Opinion And Jesus Teaches us To pray For forgiveness And Jesus Assures us That That all Those who Confess Their sin They will Be forgiven Not they Might But they We Will be Forgiven Again you Know the Verse well From 1st John 1 9 If we Confess Our sins He is Faithful God is Faithful And just And will Forgive us Our sins And purify Us from All unrighteousness That's good News For anyone Who walked In this Evening For anyone Who watches At a distance And who Feels that Crushing Weight of Sin Sin How good Is that News Every Sin Every

[46:50] Debt Every Offence Cleared The second We ask To have You and I asked For forgiveness Yet And if We haven't What are we Waiting for You ask Now But if we Think a little More about This We Go back To the Context In which Jesus Was Speaking And Jesus When he was Teaching this He wasn't Standing Speaking Primarily to A crowd Of those Who were Unbelievers He was Speaking to Believers In fact He was Speaking He was Teaching his Disciples Disciples And so We would Maybe ask The question As we Think about This If he's Speaking to His Disciples Aren't They already Forgiven And the Answer is Yes They are With the

[47:51] Exception Of Judas Who was Who was A fake The Disciples Were Already Forgiven In the Legal Sense The Disciples Of Jesus Back Then And Still Today The moment We confess The moment We believe We are Forgiven The debt Of sin That we Owe Is cleared We are Cleansed Once and For all Past Present Future Sins Gone Isaiah 1.18 Says Though your Sins are Like scarlet They shall Be as White as Snow Though they Are red As Crimson They shall Be like Wool And that's The Biblical Legal Truth If we Have Confessed Our Sin If we Are Trusting Jesus We are Cleansed We are Clean Remember in John 13 Jesus He Is Washing The feet Of the Disciples And he Says to The Disciples You are Clean

[48:51] Though not Every one Of you As he Referred to Judas See with the Exception of Judas They were Forgiven They were Clean So the Question is Why do Those Who are Already Forgiven Have to Ask for Forgiveness And confess Our sin And I Think the Answer to This Takes us Back to The First word Of the Prayer And the First word Of the Lord's Prayer Is Father Our Father See Jesus Is Teaching Children How to Have a Close Healthy Relationship With our Father And although When we Become Disciples Of Jesus We Turn From the Practice Of sin We

[49:53] Still Fall Into Sin We Still Fail We Still Struggle With Sin We Are Still Prone To Wonder We Still Sin We Still Grieve The Holy Spirit And so We Need To Keep Confessing Our Sin In Order To Keep The Relationship With Our Father Clear And Healthy And so Jesus Says Confess Your Sin Disciples Confess Your Sin When You Fall When You Fail When You Grieve The Holy Spirit Confess It And for Confession To be Real It needs To be Specific Let me Give You A Kind Of Hypothetical Situation I'm

[50:53] Sure This Never Has Or Never Will Happen Certainly Not To Any Of Us Connected In The Congregation But Just Imagine Just Imagine That There Was A Fight A Dispute Between Two Siblings Two Sisters For Example Just Imagine That Happened In A House You Know Always Not Peace But There Was A Momentary Lapse Of Peace A Dispute Happens Between Two Sisters Over The Hair Brush They Want To Use Or The Time That They Are In The Shower Or Whatever It Is And Something Blows Up And There Is A Big Rammy In The House And In The Aftermath Of That As The Parents Try To Sort Out This Dispute Between The Two Sisters Usually The Parent Will Say To One Of The Children At Least Your Behaviour Was Out Of Order Say Sorry And Usually The Will

[52:16] To The Next Few Minutes Peace Is Restored The Bad Atmosphere The Tension Lifts It's Kind Of Like That In The Spiritual Sense Here When We Sin As Children Of God If We Are Christians We Don't Stop Being Children Of God Because Of Our Sin But As We Sin We Grieve The Holy Spirit And There Is A Problem Between Us And Our Father And Jesus Seems Distant And There's A Tension There's An Awkwardness There's A Coldness Of Heart There's A Difficulty To Pray There's A Reluctance To Come To The Word There's A Problem There's A Distance There And So Jesus Says When You Sin Don't Let It Linger On Confess

[53:21] It Ask For Forgiveness Confess Your Specific Sins And As We Confess Our Specific Sins As We Look To The Cross As We Look To Jesus As We Turn Away In Repentance From Sin We We We Feel The Forgiveness Of God Washing Over Us As We Trust In The Word Of God The Promises Of God To Us And As We Confess Our Sin As We Linger In Prayer Confessing Our Sin Intimacy Is Restored Between The Child And The Father Psalm 51 Is The Expanded Version Of These Four Words Forgive Us Our Sins Because In That Psalm David He Teaches Us What It Sounds Like And What It Looks Like To Confess Sin And

[54:22] As David Asks For For Forgiveness It Seems That He Feels And He's Able To Write About The Compassion And The Mercy And The Grace And The Forgiveness Of God And The Joy And The Assurance Of Salvation Is Restored To Him You Know There's No Assurance And There's No Joy There's No Confidence That We Are Forgiven When We're Not Confessing Our Sin But It's As We Confess Our Sin As Jesus Teaches Us To As We Meet With God In Prayer That The Gospel Truth Is Felt In The Inner Person And The Joy Of Salvation The Joy Of Being A Child Of God Is

[55:22] Restored So Jesus Teaches Us To Keep On Confessing Our Sin To Keep On Asking For For Forgiveness The Question Is How Can This Happen God Is A God Of Justice God Is Holy He Won't Turn A Blind Eye To Our Sin He Won't Pretend It Didn't Happen So How Is It Possible For A Just God To Forgive Guilty Sinners Where Does Our Sin Go Who Pays The Debt That We Owe To God And These Questions Take Us To The Cross Where We'll Finish This Evening In Two Weeks Time God

[56:23] Willing We'll Be at The Lord's Table And As We Take The Bread And As We Take The Wine We Are Brought Back To The Cross God Knew That We Would Need This Reminder To Keep Coming Back To The Cross And As We Do What Jesus Taught Us To Do We Remember The Death Of Jesus And That's Where We See How This Forgiveness Was Made Possible If We Go Back To The Speeding Ticket The Debt Remains Until The Price Is Paid But Once The Price Once The Fine Is Paid The Debt Is Gone And Jesus Went To The Cross He

[57:23] Went To Die He Went To Pay The Debt That Our Sin Accrued We Read The Verse Already The Wages Of Sin Is Death Jesus Never Sinned So He Went For Us He Went To Pay The Debt The Debt The Wages Of Sin Was Paid Out Against Jesus And He Paid It All He Settled The Account John John In His Gospel Takes Us To The Cross In John 19 And He Gives Us The Final Words Of Jesus And Says In Verses 28 To 30 After This Jesus Jesus Knowing Knowing That All Things Were Now Accomplished That The Scripture Might Be Fulfilled That

[58:23] Said I Thirst Now A Vessel Full Of Sour Wine Was Sitting There And They Filled A Sponge With Sour Wine Put It On Hyssop And Put It To His Mouth So When Jesus Had Received The Sour Wine He Said It Is Finished It's One Word In The Greek Finished And Bowing His Head He Gave Up His Spirit And That Word There Is A Word That We Need To Keep Returning To Finished A Tetelestai It Was A Word That Was Written On An Account When It Was Paid In New Testament Times The Account Would Be There With A Whole Lot Of Debt On It Once It Was Cleared Once It Was Paid One Word Was Written Across The Account Tetelestai It's

[59:23] Finished And That's What Jesus Cried Out On The Cross Finished And Then In Full Control He Bowed His Head He Gave Up His Spirit And He Laid Down His Life You Know For All Who Do Not Confess Their Sin For All Who Do Not Look To Jesus For For For For For For For For For For For For For For For For For To For M For For hand them over are forever paid out.

[60:27] But the offer of God in the gospel the gift he holds out to us is forgiveness. The wages of sin are death.

[60:40] Romans 6.23 That's the dark side the second half of the verse but the gift of God is eternal life.

[60:53] So have we received this gift of God yet? Are we forgiven? Psalm 130 verses 3 and 4 If you Lord kept a record of sins Lord who could stand but with you that is forgiveness?

[61:14] So the crucial question as we finish is have we received that forgiveness? Are we with God? On the final day when we stand before the throne of God above will we be confronted with a record of our sin that remains unpaid?

[61:41] Will we have a debt that will take eternity to pay? Or will that record have been held against Jesus and paid for through his blood on that cross?

[61:58] Has Jesus as we sang a few moments ago has he made an end of all my sin? So we confess our sin that is forgiveness and that forgiveness was worked out on the cross.

[62:23] There's one more point but I'm not going to go there this evening. I'll just give you the point the title of it. The final thing is change. And we can maybe explore this in the prayer meeting in a week or two's time.

[62:39] But the gist of this is if we are forgiven we will forgive. if we have received the grace of Jesus then we will show out the grace of Jesus.

[63:01] That's not a condition of salvation because we cannot do that in our own strength. But that's an effect of salvation.

[63:13] If we are forgiven there will be change. Because as we look at those who have grieved us there will be a readiness to forgive.

[63:30] Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father we thank you for your word and we thank you for this prayer that Jesus taught us to pray.

[63:43] we thank you for the forgiveness that is offered in Christ. We thank you that as we confess our sin you are a God who is faithful and just to forgive our sin because you look to Jesus as our Saviour.

[64:00] You look at him and pardon me. So enable us we pray each of us to be those who are with God to be those who have sought that forgiveness and who know that we are saved in Christ.

[64:15] And enable us Lord we pray if we are disciples of Jesus to walk close with you and not to allow the sin that sticks to our feet as we travel through this world to weigh us down.

[64:27] But we pray that day by day we would be confessing our sin and knowing that intimacy that is offered to the disciples of Jesus. forgiveness and we pray Lord that you would help us to be those who are changed by your forgiveness.

[64:45] We know that when we withhold forgiveness from others we can become so bitter from the inside out. And so we pray Lord that just as we have been forgiven we would forgive.

[65:00] And we think about how we may have been hurt by others and then compare that to how often and how grievously we have offended you Father.

[65:12] There is no comparison. So help us Lord to receive grace and to show grace. And we pray these things in Jesus name.

[65:25] Amen. We'll sing to conclude the hymn 757 It is well with my soul.

[65:37] And there's that great verse in the hymn My sin O the bliss of this glorious thought My sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.

[65:50] Praise the Lord Praise the Lord O my soul. So let's sing to God's praise. Jesus like a river attendeth my way when sorrows like sea billows roll whatever my love you have taught me to say it is well it is well with my soul it is well with my soul it is well it is well with my soul

[67:01] O Satan should buffet if trials trials should come let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed his love for my soul it is well with my soul it is well it is well with my soul my sin o'er the bliss of this glorious love my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to his cross and I bear it no more praise the Lord praise the Lord

[68:21] O my soul it is well with my soul it is well it is well with my soul for me be it Christ be it Christ as to live if Jordan above me shall roll all I shall be mine for in death as in life you will you will whisper peace to my soul it is well with my soul it is well it is well with my soul but Lord it's for you for your coming we wait the sky north the grave is our goal

[69:52]  O trump of the angel O voice of the Lord blessed hope blessed rest of my soul it is well with my soul it is well it is well with my soul and now 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 forevermore Amen