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[0:00] Mark chapter 11 and we read the verses that we read last week as we see this growing tension between Jesus and the religious leaders. Mark chapter 11 verse 27 this is God's word.

[0:19] Today that's Jesus and his disciples arrived again in Jerusalem and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts the chief priests the teachers of the law and the elders came to him.

[0:32] By what authority are you doing these things they asked and who gave you authority to do this? Jesus replied I will ask you one question answer me and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John's baptism was it from heaven or from men tell me. They discussed it among themselves and said if we say from heaven he will ask them why didn't you believe him but if we say from men they feared the people for everyone held that John really was a prophet. So the answer Jesus we don't know. Jesus said neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. He then began to speak to them in parables. A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the wine press and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away in a journey.

[1:29] At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard but they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant to them.

[1:44] They struck this man in the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another and that one they killed. He sent many others. Some of them they beat, others they killed. He had one left to send, a son whom he loved. He sent him last of all saying they will respect my son. But the tenants said to one running, this is the heir. Come let's kill him and the inheritance will be ours. So they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do?

[2:24] He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyards to others. Haven't you read this scripture? The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in her eyes. Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them but they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and went away. Now we'll turn to 1st Corinthians and chapter 6. And just the last two verses of that chapter. God is speaking through the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth to Christians there. And he says to them, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.

[3:36] You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. Amen. And may God bless these readings of his words to us. Neil Cameron is now going to come and lead us in prayer and gather please.

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[10:51] Amen. We sing again now to God's praise. We sing from Psalm 46 at the end of the psalm in Gaelic.

[11:06] The last two stanzas of Psalm 46 in Gaelic. Be still and know that I am God. Among the here and I will be exalted. I on earth will be exalted high.

[11:16] Our God, who is the Lord of hosts, is still upon our side. The God of Jacob, our refuge forever will abide. These two verses in Gaelic. To God's praise and glory.

[11:27] And they seek to sing in Gaelic. Amen.

[12:11] Thank you.

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[15:42] Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is the word that is inspired by God, the Holy Spirit carried men along and inspired them to write the words that we hold in our hands today.

[16:00] And we acknowledge that this is the word of God. This is the word of God.

[16:39] And so we pray, Lord, that you would speak to us through it.

[17:08] And we pray, Lord, that you would live the way that he died, the way that he rose. And we ask, Lord, that you would arrest us today. And we pray that you are in worship where they are in worship where they are at present.

[18:10] And we pray that we pray, and we pray that we pray, and we pray that we pray for those who have no desire to be here also. And we pray, and we pray, and we pray for those who have opportunity but to turn away.

[18:23] And we pray, and we pray that we pray that we would work in their hearts, and we pray that you would work in their hearts, awakening them, and giving them a soul thirst that will be quenched only in coming to the living waters that Jesus gives.

[18:40] So hear our prayers, and help us, we ask. We pray for the children We thank you for the way that they listen We thank you Lord for the evidence Of your work in their hearts And we pray That as they hear The message of the gospel Simply in their classes this morning We pray that you would open their hearts And that they would Know and trust their creator In the days of their youth And we ask all this in Jesus name And for Jesus sake Amen Today as we As we wear the poppies And as we observe the Silence We are Very much in our minds Thankful for the Blessing of peace And yet we're Conscious And mindful Of the horrors of war

[19:41] Some of us Might have seen even And heard accounts Yesterday evening From veterans Who recalled some of the Things that they saw And went through On the battlefields We cannot escape The horrors Of war At the time like this as well We are Reminded of the fact That nation Battled Against nation Man Man Battled Against man Over these years Of conflict And conflict Is something Which we We cannot escape In our world We are conscious Of it around us It features in every news broadcast We ever hear We are conscious Of conflict Even within us The spiritual battles Which are going on In our lives And in Mark's gospel As we Have been in chapters 11 And spilling over

[20:42] Into chapter 12 We get a sense As Mark's gospel Continues That there is an Increasing sense Of conflict As the gospel Narrative Has developed As we Track This Account Of Jesus Life As Peter Tells it Through Mark As we See More and more Of the power Of Jesus As he casts Out demons As he Heals the sick As he Still Storms As he Feeds Thousands From next To nothing Even as he Raises the dead We keep reading In this Gospel That the crowds As they Witnessed all That Jesus Did They were Amazed The crowds Were absolutely Amazed By all That Jesus Did The crowds Were growing And as the

[21:43] Gospel Continues We see That wherever Jesus goes There's people Pressing in Him They were Absolutely Amazed By what He was Doing Sadly Not many Of them Seemed to Put their Trust on Him But certainly There was an Amazement And there was A sense of Being drawn To Christ But the Response Of the Religious Establishment The chief Priests The elders The pharisees The sadducees The people Who were Regarded as The religious People The ones Who wore The suits The pillars Of the Community The response Of them Was different To the Crowds Because the More that Jesus Ministered The more They Descented Him Who was This Jesus Who seemed To tower Over them With his Authority Who is

[22:45] This Jesus Who walks Into their Temple And flips Over the Tables That they Set And drives Out the Money The money Changers And those Who carry Merchandise The people That they Said could Be in The temple And Jesus Comes in He cracks The whip He drives Them all Out And the More That Jesus Challenged Them And the More that Jesus preached This message Of grace Which Eclipsed Their Message Of legalistic Righteousness The more He preached The more He cast Out Demons The more He healed The sick The more He showed His power And his Authority The more They hated

[23:45] Him And warred Against Him That's the First point For this Morning Three points The first Point is At war With Jesus We see The religious People And they Are at War With Jesus They wanted Rid of Him They wanted His Influence Out of Their lives And out Of their Community And out Of their Temple They wanted His voice To be Absolutely Silenced So at Present That's What They were Plotting After The scene In the Temple Where Jesus Comes in And he Throws Over the Tables And he Drives Out Those Carrying Merchandise He Cleanses The Temple After That The Chief Priests And the Teachers Of the Law They Didn't Look at Themselves And consider

[24:45] Whether They may Be in Sin And maybe They Need To Repent And rethink What They were Doing Their Response to Christ When he Did This It tells Us in Mark 11 And Verse 18 Was They Began Looking For A Way To Kill Him For They Feared Him Because The Whole Pride Was Amazed At His Teaching And Converse To The Whole Pride Was Increasingly Underwhelmed By Their Teaching And They Hated It And Then When They Come With Their Questions In The Second Half Of Chapter 10 And Chapter 11 And Then Into Chapter 12 They Come With Their Questions To Jesus Carefully Thought Through Trick Questions They Come With Questions And They're Looking For Answers Not Because They're Wanting To Be Taught By Jesus Not Because They

[25:46] Think That Jesus Will Be Able To Edify Them They Simply Want To Catch Him Out They Were Trying To Gather Evidence That They Could Use Against Jesus Chapter 12 And Verse 12 Tells Us Again They Were Looking For A Way To Arrest Him In Short They Were At War With Jesus I Wonder If Anyone Here This Morning Is At War With Jesus I Would Be Surprised Shocked If There Aren't A Number Of People Even In This Room Here Who Are At War With Jesus Is Anyone Here Who When

[26:46] They Hear The Voice Of Jesus And When They Are Confronted With The Call And Claims Of Jesus It Makes It Makes Us Angry Is there Anyone Here When They Feel That Jesus Through The Word As We Hear It Is Placing Claims Upon Their Lives There Is A Sense Of Indignation A Sense Of Wanting To Say To Stay Back Does Anyone Here Who When They Hear The Gospel Message And The Call And The Claims Of Jesus It Provokes A Deep Rebellion Within Your Heart Maybe More Polite Less

[27:46] Audible On The Outside Than The Rebellion That We See And Hear From The Chief Priests And The Teachers Of The Law But Nonetheless In Your Heart Hidden From Everybody But Known To Christ There's A Rebellion That's There Who Are You To Say That To Me You Know That's The Same Response That Began Deep In The Hearts Of The Religious People And That Response Very Quickly Rose To The Surface Because These Same Religious People Who Were At This Point Indignant Within A Matter Of Days Would Be Leading The Christ In A Cry Of Kill Him Crucify Him You Know The Reality Is We

[28:47] Can't Be Neutral Towards Jesus We Are Either For Him At Peace With Him In Relationship With Him Or We Are At War Against Him And To Be At War Against Jesus Is The Most Dangerous Place In The World To Be Get To Make he is ultimate king of kings he is the God man he's the one before whom we will bow one day whether we like it and believe it or not and what I want to think about today in the time that we have left is another reason that we should honour and trust Jesus not simply because he's an authority over us but we should honour Jesus and we should trust Jesus when we think about what he's done for us we should honour Jesus we should trust Jesus when we consider the magnitude of his love for us that takes us to our second point first point is at war with Jesus you can put a question mark at the end of that and ask that of your own heart second point is when we consider what Jesus has done for us we realise that we are bought by Jesus and I want to pick up on that text from 1 Corinthians chapter 6 it's a text that I quoted last week in the sermon and it's been in my mind the whole week and I want to to think about what Christ has done for us through the lens of that text it says in verse 19 and 20 of 1 Corinthians 6 you are not your own you were bought at a price therefore honour God with your body today I think we live in a world that's more individualistic than any age we've ever seen before and I walk down the street in Edinburgh when I go to meetings there are thousands of people passing each other on the streets headphones in and no one's connected to each other you know you can go to a coffee shop or a or a cafe in a city it can be crowded you can be sitting with half a dozen people all within touching distance of you and nobody even looks at each other never mind speaks to each other we're all disconnected we're all in our little individualistic world that's over there you might say but this happens here too one of the visits that I do

[32:26] I won't tell you where I go but one of the the men I visit he always takes me back to to days gone by talks about the croft talks about the way things were he says that in the past in these communities everybody seemed to do these manual tasks together things like the peats so a whole community a whole township would go out to the the croft and cut the peats and then go from one croft to the next croft to the next croft to the next croft all helping each other all doing these tasks that were required to to get each other through the through the winter but now there's what I was saying in kind of a word of lament now everybody's for themselves the croft does his own peats doesn't do anybody else's peats he's doing his own affairs but doesn't think in terms of the community and that certainly is whether that's true or not of these places you're a better place to know than I am but that's certainly something that is consistent with our our age we think today much more about being our own person with our own stuff our own responsibilities our own our own possessions it's mine

[34:03] I will see I will protect I will deal with I will manage my things and you get on the years but you know Jesus challenges that mindset he did it back then in Jerusalem he still does it today he says this to the apostle Paul this morning to those who have an individualistic mindset Jesus says this you are not your own you were bought at a price remember that song that was getting played in I suppose it would be the 80s now when I was in school was it the soup dragons I can't remember the line I'm free to do what I want any old time nobody tells me what I can and can't do I am my own person

[35:04] I make my own decisions I have my own freedom nobody's in charge of me and yet Jesus says to the apostle Paul you are not your own you were bought at a price it's a well known story which is told about a wee boy you'll have heard it a dozen times over he got some wood he got his carbon knife out and some wee bits and pieces of tools and he began to craft this little boat for himself he took time and he very meticulously got on with this job and he designed the boat and he got it into the shape that he wanted and he smoothed out the rough edges and he then got the bits and pieces that were to be attached to this boat he painted it he did the finishes touches and in his eyes this boat that he had made was just perfect he loved his wee boat and one day he took it out to sail not on the loch but in a river nice wee still pool but at the end of the still pool there was a current pool and the wee boat went along the pool towards the current down a wee mini waterfall and he just watched it getting swept away down the river faster than he could ever travel and he had to stand and wave it goodbye he was heartbroken because he knew he'd lost it it was soon going to be in the sea a few days later the wee boys walking along through the time and he passes a second hand shot what does he see in the window he sees his wee boat definitely his little boat so he went to the shopkeeper and he says to the shopkeeper that the boat that's that's my boat it's mine

[37:18] I designed it I made it I seeped it I painted it it's mine the shopkeeper says no it's mine I paid for it if you want this boat there's the price go and get your money so the wee boy went home he got all his money and he bought it back for that price the god that we buy before this morning the god who addresses us through his world he is our creator he is the god who made us and he made us for himself he made us to be content to be at peace to be to be in a relationship with him that's what we were designed for but sin came into this world and sin caused the people whom god loved to be lost to be swept far away from him so what did he do not content to see us in our lost state god the father sent his son jesus to be our savior and here in mark chapter 12 where we've reached in our studies we find jesus and he's in jerusalem it's tuesday why was he there why is he in jerusalem on this tuesday well he's in jerusalem on tuesday because he knows that on friday of that week there was a place that he needed to be and that place was calmering where he would go to a cross and where he would die he would shed his blood to pay the price of our sin jesus went to that cross to buy us back so that we who were so hopelessly lost could be saved and today this same god says to us if we are trusting him he says to us remember you are not your own you were bought at a price you know today it's right for us to remember that the peace that we enjoy it did not come freely it was bought at a price lives were laid down blood was shed so that we could live with this physical peace that we enjoy today it's right that we remember that

[41:18] let's remember also today that the peace with god that is offered to us the freedom in christ that is promised to those who believe it was bought by jesus on the cross at calvary at a price you were bought at a price i was bought at a price so i must honor jesus and you must honor jesus with your body with your life to third point final one honor jesus that's the implications of all that we're thinking of in terms of this truth that's the application for our lives when we see what jesus has done for us if god the holy spirit is working in your life and mine this morning such that we can see the cross we can see the blood shed we can see what jesus has done for us we see our sin we see the cost of our salvation if we see these things it's because god is speaking to us and when we see what christ has done for us the response that is fitting the only response that is fitting is that we would honor him with our bodies with our whole lives now this morning yesterday and again tomorrow we will in the silence as we take time to remember we will honor those who laid down their lives for our peace as we observe that silence sometimes though you can be watching maybe a football match and somebody for example some kind of public event occasionally you'll see in a public event like that the silence is called for and the vast majority of the thousands who are there bow respectfully and they observe the silence and there's a few clowns a few drunken idiots who in the silence will start to shout out and create and cause a disturbance and when we see that it makes us sick makes us angry that people will be so ungrateful so lacking in respect so lacking in honor and yet when we think about

[44:20] God the father who sent his son into this world to suffer and die for our salvation when we think about what was done for us and when we see the response of so many who are determined not to honor Christ how must God feel as he looks at Scotland so determined in our unbelief so hostile to the name of Jesus how fitting it is that God would have a righteous anger a wrath building towards us when we think about all that was done for us and yet the response it's anything but honor it's brazen rebellion one of my favorite hymns is the hymn by Isaac

[45:58] Watts when I survey the wondrous cross and Watts says in that hymn as he looks to Christ on that cross he says see from his head his hands his feet sorrow and love flow mingled down did there such love and sorrow meet or thorns compose so rich a crown and then Watts leads us in a response to that cross and he says we're the whole realm of nature mine that were an offering far too small love so amazing so divine it demands my soul my life my all what is

[46:59] Watts saying he's saying to us you were bought at such great price so let us honour Jesus with our souls with our lives with our all the hymn that we sang with the children here is love vast as the ocean loving kindness as the flood when the prince of life our ransom shed for us his precious blood who his love will not remember who can cease to sing his praise when we think about all that has been done for us in Christ when we think about his life laid down for us why would we not want to honour him with our all so many of us even as

[48:25] Christians we are thinking about how little can I get away with doing and still stay a Christian actually what we should be thinking is how much can I do with my little life to honour Christ and he has done so much for me just try and bring everything to a conclusion let's just agree together it is futile to be at war with Jesus and those who are at war with Jesus here this morning can we acknowledge that it is futile to be at war with Jesus because when he returns we are told that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord every life will surrender to his authority and that day will be a terrible day for some but it will be a day of great joy for others because it's the day that we will see the face of the Christ who loved us and laid down his life and shed his blood to buy us back from the clutches of the enemy of our souls so that we could be with him eternal it is futile to be at war with

[50:15] Jesus and what an amazing love story as we finish think about this to be finish what an amazing love story the gospel of Jesus Christ is and what a contrast to anything this world has to offer what does this world have to say what do the atheists say they say to us you're a string of DNA you're an accident you're the shrapnel from some cosmic explosion some big bang your life has no meaning you have no purpose you have no value you have no worth you have no hope that's the religion of atheism what does

[51:25] God say he says you were bought at a price you're no accident I made you you are loved you have value you have purpose you have hope in Christ what a tragedy if any of us would embrace that hard cold untrue message of atheism and spurn the loving advances of Christ let's pray heavenly father we thank you for the gospel we thank you that

[52:37] God so loved the world that he sent his only son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life we thank you for the wonder the depth of your love how deep the father's love for us how vast beyond all measure that he should send his only son to make a wretch his treasure our sin has made us wretched we thank you Lord for showing us that and telling us the truth about that we thank you that we are treasured and we are saved and we are kept when we put our faith in Jesus so help us Lord we pray to trust in Christ and to devote our lives to honour in Christ with our bodies with our minds with our gifts with our all and we ask God in Jesus name

[53:48]  Amen