Good evening and thank you for coming to our drive-in this evening. We trust the weather will hold for us. I noticed on the little weather app for Saintfield earlier this afternoon at seven o'clock there is a 56% chance of rain. Now that probably looks quite accurate, it looks as if there could be a wee shower, but we trust that we will get through our meeting tonight dry. We have been blessed over this past number of weeks. In fact, from we started each Sunday evening, the weather has been really, really good. So we trust that that will continue tonight. So it's lovely to see you. We do realise this is certainly right in the middle of our holiday season now. There's a great number of our local folks are away and we appreciate you coming and being part of our number here in the car park this evening. And I trust that if you can't hear me, you can tune in. and the frequency is wrote or some of the guys will tell you the frequency so if you're not aware of that or not sure perhaps you could indicate to some of our yellow coats over here and they would help you tune in on your car radio. Now just if you had been out this morning at our service can I remind you that there will be no midweek meeting in the church this week on Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. So no Bible study in the church, we're off for the holidays. Next Lord's Day, the service is as usual, 11.30 in the church and 6.30 here in the car park, and Pastor Kennedy will be along next Lord's Day, God willing. Now our speaker today is Joshua Truesdale. Joshua's going to give a brief word of testimony of how the Lord saved a and brought him on. He's an assistant pastor over in the Rathrieland Church and he will perhaps give us a little detail of how all that came about and then he will preach the word for us this evening. But before he comes to share his testimony and preach the word we're going to bow our heads and ask for the Lord's blessing on our meeting tonight. You know we can organize a meeting we can have good speakers along we can do all of these things but if we haven't the Lord in our midst this evening well then it is in vain. So we need to come and ask for the Lord's help. And if you're a believer in the car park this evening, then you pray with me. Indeed, the Lord's presence will be a reality in our midst this evening. Let's all pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for the opportunity in the open air. We thank you, Lord, just for the permission that has been granted to us here by the council and by the SDA just to hold these meetings in this car park. We thank you for the liberty that we have to proclaim the gospel the open air and Lord we just pray tonight as Joshua would share a word of testimony and as he would open thy precious word that Lord we will be very conscious of your nearness and those things all around us Lord may become insignificant and that we might see even our lovely Savior on that center cross lifted up to die for each and every one of us. Lord we're conscious that there are those in our car park tonight who need the Savior those who have never repented and trusted in thee There are those, our Father, perhaps in our meeting tonight need a work of restoration, that perhaps lost the joy of their salvation. And Lord, we just pray that indeed that you will and we acknowledge that you can meet everyone at the very point of their need. And to that end, Lord, we pray for thy servant. We thank you for Joshua and we pray that you would help him. And Lord, we're not selfish. We pray for every similar gathering right across this little province this evening. Perhaps some in drive-ins as we are here. Perhaps some, our Father, in a normal church service where the Gospel meeting has just started. And we pray, Lord, that right throughout this little province that souls might be one for the Saviour. But Lord, for ourselves, we just pray for that sense of your help. We're conscious, Lord, that We cannot cause that anxious thought. We need thy spirit to come and move in this meeting. And to that end, we ask Lord that everything done and say it a father from this little lectern tonight might bring honor and glory to thy precious name. For we ask it all in our savior's name. Amen. Amen. Well, as I said, it's good to have a Joyce here with us today and I'm going to leave. and allow him just to take up this little lectern here in front of us. Thank you, Josh. Well, it's a privilege to be here with you again this evening. The Lord's blessed and helped this morning, and we look forward to him doing so again here in the car park this afternoon. I'm just gonna give a word of testimony about what the Lord has done for me, and I'm just gonna read a few verses from Psalm 116. If you have a Bible there and you wish to turn, feel free. If you don't, don't be embarrassed or don't feel awkward. I'll read it anyway. Psalm 116. And I'm just going to share what the Lord has done for me in my life. And I'm sure what others here can say, he's done for them. And it's our greatest prayer this evening that what he has done for us, he'll be able to do for you as well if you're not saved tonight. Psalm 116. I'm just going to read a few verses from the beginning of the Psalm. And the psalmist says, I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he has inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Amen. And we just trust the Lord will bless even that short reading of his word to all of our hearts here for his dear name's sake. Well I had one of the greatest privileges that anyone here could ever know and I was brought up in a Christian home. I was brought up in a home where my mum and my dad and most if not all of my extended family circle knew and loved the Lord and because of that I was sent along to absolutely every and any meeting that was possible that was going on I was sent along to it and to give you a sort of a rough schedule of what my week would look like as I was growing up I had Sunday school on a Sunday morning and then church shortly after that on a Sunday morning there was another little Sunday school on Sunday afternoon then church on Sunday night there was a little meeting in a little hall down the road from where I lived so we were there on a Tuesday night and then the Church Youth Fellowship whenever I was old enough to go to it on a Friday night. And then even in between all of that, if there was an after school Bible club, if there was another Bible club on during the week, during the night, so you can be sure that I was there whenever I could be there. And whenever I was in all those places, even though I was young, and even though I was growing up in primary school age, and then later on into high school age, in all of those places I learnt that there was a God who lived, and there was a God who ruled and reigned over this world. And that we as human beings, that every man, woman, and every boy or girl, no matter how old, no matter how young, had sinned and had failed in living right before a holy God. But the good news that they told me, they didn't leave me worried, and they didn't leave me scared, just in that state. But they gave me the wonderful news, and they told me the wonderful news, that if I asked the Lord Jesus, just very simply and very childlike, to come into my heart, and if I told God I was sorry for my sins, then I could have those sins forgiven. and to have them as the word of God says, the Bible says that God would remember them no more. And well that was a wonderful thing to be told as a young boy. And so I was young, I can't remember exactly what age it was, but I was in my bed and my mum was sitting beside me and just very simply I did like those Sunday school teachers told me to do, to ask the Lord Jesus into my heart and to take away my sin. Now, that was nearly 20 years ago. And over those last 20 years, yous might be looking up here thinking, well, there's a young lad and he's an assistant pastor and he must be absolutely perfect in every way. But let me tell you tonight, I have done absolutely plenty that would give God every reason in our understanding to walk away and to say, no, Joshua, you've blown your chance and you've blown your chance even after that. I've done plenty that would give God every reason to do that. But His grace and His love and His mercy is so great that the Word of God says it covers each and every sin that I have ever committed and that in the days to come, even though I'm still someone who slips up every now and again, that God's grace and mercy even covers those things in the future days as well. You know, what He's done for me, He can do for you tonight as well. You know, there's plenty of people here who are saved. I don't know everyone here. I don't know most people here. I'm not from the area. But what he's done for me, he can do for you as well. And maybe you've said a prayer like that whenever you were younger. Maybe you said the prayer like that whenever you were older, but things just haven't really got going, and things haven't really started changing. You can come to the Lord. Know that he hasn't given up on you. and still trust His grace and still trust His mercy. Come to Him and the Bible says He will show you great and mighty things that you know not. So I was saved and I went to all those meetings. I went to primary school and you know really here on this side of the water nothing major really happens in primary school. There's no real big shocks. But then going into high school, and I went to Dromora High School, it had a good Christian ethos, and there were a good few Christians that went to the school. But during my time in my teenage years, sadly, there was a bit of coldness at heart whenever it came to spiritual things. During the week, my Bible wasn't really opened, and my prayer life wasn't really existent, and I had those times of coldness at heart, and the only time really that the Bible was opened was on a Sunday morning and a Sunday evening. And during those times, and I'm sure there are people here who are saved and have gone through those times perhaps, and they know that it's just a miserable time. It's just a miserable time and you're not living as joyfully, you're not living as full of the Spirit, you're not living as happily as you'd like to be and as you should be. Well if there's any here this evening, maybe like in those teenage years or maybe even older on in life going through those times of spiritual drought, those times of spiritual famine that are of your own making, again as I said earlier you can come back to the Lord, the Lord who hasn't forsaken you. Because even though I may have left him in some way, the Bible makes it clear that he never left me. that he loved me, the Bible says, with an everlasting love, not a love that's on pause whenever I get those notions of going away, the love that doesn't stop and go depending on when the Bible's opened or whenever I start to pray, but the Bible says he's loved me with an everlasting love, a love that was put upon me even before the world was created. That's how much God loves me. That's how much God loves his people here this evening. That's how much he loves you. He loves you so much that he sent his son to die for you on a cross. and to cause his son to take the wrath of God and the punishment of sins in its entirety on that middle cross, that we might know the joy of complete sins forgiven, that we might know no condemnation from the hand of God both here below and in the eternity to come. So towards the end of my teenage years, And whenever the teachers around you were starting to pressure you into picking university courses and making you go places you didn't want to go. And it was during those years and during those months whenever I was seeking the Lord and asking God where he wanted me to go and what he wanted me to study, it was during those months that I'd that I started to feel and hear God point me in the direction of working and serving Him in some capacity. I didn't know exactly what it was He wanted me to do yet, but I got notions and different verses and listening to different sermons and was in different meetings where that was the particular theme of the night. And it was really speaking to my heart and to my soul in perhaps ways I wouldn't have spoke to others, even to the people sitting beside me. And there was one morning in particular where our minister in my own church where I was growing up, where I grew up he was preaching on Zechariah chapter 4 one morning and it was during the announcements after he had done the Bible reading he had read Zechariah chapter 4 and during the announcements I had a voice in my head that just would not go away and it just kept telling me read Zechariah chapter 3 read Zechariah chapter 3 and out of curiosity more than anything else I turned to Zechariah chapter 3 and while the verse 1 was talking about a man called Joshua and well that grabbed my attention right away So I started reading down through that passage in Zechariah chapter 3 and the verses 6 and 7 stood out that morning like a sore thumb that spooked me then, and I mean that as positively as I can, that spooked me then and in some sense they still spook me now just at how direct and how intentional those verses spoke to me with everything that I was going on, everything going on in terms of my future and what to do. It says in Zechariah chapter 3 in the verse 6 and 7 And after the verses and after the meetings that had been at, where it sort of sensed perhaps God leading me in some way to working and serving him, that verse in all sealed the deal in some way. So going into that summer, and I had applied to go to Queens to study theology, and if that didn't happen, then the backup was politics at Jordanstown. So with those verses and with those different meetings and sermons I'd heard, I had thought, well, that's the will of the Lord lined up for me to go to Queen's. That's me studying theology. But the Lord makes it clear in the word of God that his ways are not my ways and my thoughts are not his thoughts. And so come results day, I was feeling a bit confused because the door to theology was closed for one way or another. Queen's didn't want me. And perhaps I don't blame them in some sense. So I went to Jordan's town. to do politics instead. And as I was, you know, over the next couple of days and I was feeling a bit confused, yes, I was happy enough that I was going to university and studying something that I thought I would have to stick at. I was a bit confused with all those different verses and sermons that I had and, you know, sometimes as God's people we can have those times of confusion, we can have those times of questions, maybe even some this evening who have those times of doubt where you feel you've got a sure and certain promise from the Lord and the Lord at the minute just seems to be leading you in a different direction. Perhaps certainly over the last 18 months or so with everything that's happened, and I'm sure that's a phrase that you are fed up of hearing now, everything that's happened. Perhaps after these last 18 months now, that confusion just seems to be growing strong. I can encourage you this evening to keep trusting the Lord because He turned it around in those times of my good, He turned it around ultimately for His glory. And even in those times of confusion and those times of questions now, You can keep trusting in the Lord because he knows the end from the beginning. And so over these times of confusions, again, just a verse that stuck out in my mind was from the book of Proverbs. And I was getting a lot of verses and listening to a lot of sermons about God being there in difficult times. And that verse from Proverbs, it says, the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. And I remember I was on holiday in Bulgaria one week and I was listening to a sermon online from back at home and the minister was preaching about the great prophet in the Old Testament, Elijah, going through a terrible valley. of depression and then lots of different verses about God being there in difficult times, different hymns speaking about God being there in difficult times. And again, that was another reason to feel confused and another reason to bring up questions because I wasn't going through a difficult time. I was going to university and life just seemed to be going relatively well. I didn't know what a difficult time, what on earth it was going to be. But shortly after I started university, I was sitting across from a GP being prescribed antidepressants for anxiety and depression. And over the next three months, I can only describe it as, as others who have been there really describe it as perhaps one of the darkest valleys anyone could could ever go through. And physically trying to drag yourself out of bed to face the day was a challenge. And even though I knew that the Lord was there, and for those of us who were here this morning, we looked at how Job felt, how Job looked around, and even though he couldn't sense God was there, he still trusted that God was there, I was somewhere around that end of the spectrum. And things were just really difficult. And if it wasn't for those verses and if it wasn't for those sermons and those different things that God had spoken to me about God being there in difficult times, I don't even want to know how much more difficult those times would have been. And I remember it very vividly. It was one, it was a December morning and I was getting ready to see a friend. I was going to Scotland to see a friend. for the weekend and I remember just laying flat out in my bed at home and I was praying to the Lord to deal and to intervene in some way. And I remembered back to my primary school days and in one of those little Sunday schools, one of those children's meetings that I went to, you know the way you always got a wee prize rubber or a wee prize ruler at these wee children's meetings? Well, I got a wee prize rubber at one of these meetings and whatever way my desk was set up at home, it had sat on my eye level on one of the shelves whenever I was studying and doing my homework. And it was Psalm 37 verse 4, it says, Well that morning in December, for one reason or another, that verse came into my mind. And I just felt a voice in my head just telling me to bring that verse to the Lord. And so I just brought it to the Lord, I couldn't remember it exactly word for word, so I just paraphrased it and remembered it as well as I could. And I stand here before you here this evening, I'm standing before the Lord, and i'm telling the honest truth here because to this day i still can't believe it and i'm sure some of you here this evening mightn't believe it as well as soon as i said amen to that prayer as soon as i said amen after reading that verse back to the lord i got a ding on my phone And I have one of those things on my phone that sends you through a daily verse for the day. And well, the daily verse for the day was Psalm 37 verse 4. And as soon as I read those words and as soon as I read that verse, it was just as if a huge pressure was lifted off my shoulders and I felt some sense of peace and some sense of clarity. that I hadn't felt in a good few months anyway. So again, dear believer, here this evening, if you're going through those times of difficulty, going through those times of trials and troubles, be encouraged. Know that God knows the end from the beginning. He has the end goal in sight. And the Lord promises that he'll be good and he'll work all things together for the good of those who love him. So shortly after that, I left university. God made it very clear that I wasn't to be there any longer. And those times of questions and those times of confusion were brought to an end in that regard. And the next question was, well, what do I do now? So I spent the best part of the next year helping out Colin Tinsley. He gave his testimony here, I believe, a couple of weeks ago, helping him around the different schools and different holiday Bible clubs, helping spread the gospel and the good news of Jesus Christ amongst the boys and girls all around the country. And I emphasize that all around the country. You found out where you were going. that morning Colin gave you a text what time you were to meet him at the house and it was a wonderful joy and a wonderful privilege to be able to spend those months, the best part of that year, spreading the good news of Jesus Christ to boys and girls all around the country. I even had the opportunity of going to Poland with him to help him out with a team there during that summer and I forgot how many were saved but it was at least a dozen, at least a dozen children were saved and even The one who was brought in to help cook the food, even he got saved on that camp as well. So again, we can be very discouraged, this side of the world, about things that are happening. We can sometimes feel like we're on the defeated side, but be encouraged, child of God, here this evening, God is working in wonderful ways. in wonderful ways and in wonderful places that we wouldn't even perhaps think about even here this evening. So shortly after I spent the best part of that year with Colin helping the boys and girls, I was thinking about where the Lord wanted me to be next and the different things about different Bible colleges. And ever since I looked across Bible colleges in Edinburgh, and I came across Edinburgh Bible College, and ever since I first came across their website and what they stood for and what they taught and how they taught it, I just felt such a heavy burden to go there for the best part of three months. And so shortly after that, I applied, and shortly after that, I was accepted. So I spent three years there, I spent two years studying, and then I went to Ruffryland for a placement period. And then I went back to Scotland for a placement period. And then COVID happened. And I'm still technically waiting to graduate. But things are going well, even during these challenging 18 months and I'm back in Ruff Island again serving there as the assistant pastor because God has a wonderful, wonderful way of revealing his will. If God was to show me even the plans that he had for me over the next few years, I don't think I'd want to know. And I'm sure there's many here this evening who would say the same thing. If God was to pull back the curtain of the future days, I doubt many of us would be very eager to see what would be going on. But we serve a King here this evening, and we serve a God who, first of all, has loved us and washed us from our sins. And we have a King who promises that all things work together for the good of those who love Him and for those who are called according to His purpose. And I've certainly been able to testify to that, not only tonight, but for all the days of my life, and even more so particularly over the last four or five years, how God has really moved and how God is faithful to His promises. If you're saved this evening, and again, perhaps have those times of doubt, those times of confusion, perhaps even those times of coldness at heart, All I hear this evening, we plead with you and we encourage you to be restored back to that joy of salvation, get back to the Lord, get back into his word and back into fellowship even with other believers. And again, we mentioned the verse this morning, we mentioned it again, how Jeremiah, how God said through Jeremiah to call unto him and he will show great and mighty things that we know not. If you're not saved, you've heard of how God has intervened in a life, how God has changed a life, how God has kept his hand upon a life. And it's our greatest prayer that what he has done for me, even though you may have faced different challenges, different circumstances, perhaps at different stages of life, we pray that what he's done for me, that he's done perhaps even for people in the car beside you, he'll be able to do. You have to preach in a great and a mighty way. Very briefly this evening, I just want to preach from even just one half of a verse from Psalm 34 and the verse 8. Now we were in a psalm this morning, we were in, we just read from a psalm there and we're back in another psalm. I can assure you we did a lot more than the psalms. Whenever I was in Bible college, we did a lot more than that. But these are just a few thoughts that the Lord has laid on my heart for Seinfeld here today, this morning and even again this evening. I'm just going to read one half of a verse from Psalm 34 and it's Psalm 34 and the verse eight. And this is what the Psalmist says, this is what the word of God says. And this is our invitation, this is our challenge to those who aren't yet saved here in the car park this evening. The Psalmist says, oh taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good. You know, there's many fancy ways and there's lots of fancy words and lots of colourful schemes that churches use to try and share the gospel. Some believe that you have to use all the big fancy letters that would win a game of Scrabble in themselves. And some of them think that you need all the time, the fog machines and the flashing lights to try and share the gospel. But here, the psalmist here, and it's David, it's David who challenged and killed the giant Goliath. David here offers a gospel invitation, just that's nine short words, taste and see not the Lord, is good. And that is the gospel invitation tonight in a nutshell. Taste and see that the Lord is good. No fancy words. And yes, fancy words do have their place sometimes. But even here in this simple half of this verse, we see how simple, how open the gospel invitation is to each and every one who would come and call on to God. Something that's so not too simple to be laughed at and not too difficult just to be thrown up in the air and ignored. But here tonight, I want to invite you to get a taste of what the gospel is, what God is and what he has done. Again, what he's done for me, what he's done for others. And we pray what he can do for you this evening as well. First of all, I want you to notice that the gospel is simple. The gospel is simple. What is it that David is asking his reader? to do. He's asking them to taste and see that the Lord is good. You know he's not inviting anybody to do something that's impossible. He's not asking anybody to do something that they couldn't possibly do. He's just setting out the very simple, the very easy invitation to taste and see. that the Lord is good. Now it's a very simple invitation, just to come to the Lord as you are, to taste the Lord and see that the Lord is good. Taste and see what he can do for you in your life. But it's often those easy, simple things. It's such a simple, easy task, but yet it's one that many people often miss. And it's one that many people ignore and they try and do their own thing. And believe it or not, they'll try and do things that are a lot harder than simply coming to the Lord and seeing that He is good. There's many people who think they have to work their way to see that the Lord is good. They think that if they do all these wonderful things and perhaps even have letters after their name for doing all these wonderful things, maybe they think then that they'll have God's acceptance. Well, other than spending time and spending energy, for some even perhaps spending money on all these things, it does nothing for your eternal soul. It does nothing to bring that sense of peace. It does nothing to bring contentment. And most of all, it brings nothing to bring justification to a heart. It brings nothing to settle the righteousness of a soul. It does nothing to deal with your sin. Compare all those hours you've spent on all those works. Compare the energy and the time you've devoted to all those things. to the simple invitation that's here in the Word of God, just to taste and see that the Lord is good, just to come to Him as you are. Maybe there's some that'll work their way to try and get God's acceptance, and there's others who'll meditate and try and get their way to some sort of spiritual voice, and they'll climb the moorings the early hours of the morning, they'll go out in a wee boat to the middle of the lake on their own, and they'll try and hear some spiritual voice that way, Go to all different lengths and breadths of the country, even lengths and breadths of the world to try and hear some spiritual voice speak to them from inside their head. And again, just compare the time, the money that you spend on all those things, how much it's been wasted compared to the simple invitation that's extended here to all of us here in the car park. this evening just to taste and see that the Lord is good. Maybe you're someone like that. And maybe you're trying to hear that spiritual voice from inside you whenever God is shouting through the heavens, taste and see that the Lord is good. The Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God. The heavens declare the glory of God. God is shouting as loud as he can to get your attention. and all we're asking you to do this evening, all the Lord is asking you to do this evening is just come very simply and come very humbly to Him and see what He can do for you. There's many who'll work, there's many who'll sacrifice, there are many who'll meditate, there's many who'll sacrifice and punish even themselves and try and punish themselves, do things to themselves, withhold things from themselves. from coming to the Saviour. But again, you're only really harming yourself and your body, perhaps even your mental and emotional state as well, but it does absolutely nothing for your spiritual state. It does nothing for your soul. It does nothing in terms of sin. Again, compared to all those times of pain, all those times of misery, compared to what God is asking you to do here, just to taste and see that the Lord is good, just to come simply, just to come humbly to Him and see what He can do It was something so simple, something that just seems so small. And yet it's often the small things, the easier things that people refuse to do. The small, easy things that for some people it's the hardest to do. Because the small, easy things here like God is speaking about, it means leaving aside pride. It means leaving aside yourself and coming and accepting that you're not enough and coming to Christ because he It's about setting aside that pride. It's something so simple and yet something that most people find the hardest thing to do. You know, in the word of God, it says there was a rich young ruler who came to Jesus. He had a lot of money, he had age on his side, and he had power and influence. He had everything that this world could offer him. But he left after having a conversation with Jesus. Jesus told him to leave all he had, to sell it, and to come and follow Christ. And it says that rich young ruler left that conversation grieved. because he had many riches. He wasn't willing to leave it all behind and come and follow Christ. Something so simple compared to all the commandments that he had kept, all the work that he had to do to keep up with his power and influence. He thought that that was the easier way and he left behind the chance to come to Christ. Maybe there's one here this evening and you're doing a lot of hard work to try and gain God's favour and you're burning yourself out and you're getting nowhere. In fact, perhaps you even feel further away from God is when you first started trying to work for Him. Well, here is the wonderful news you have this evening, how God is simply asking you to come in such a simple and such a humble way, just to come and taste and see that the Lord is good. You know, not only is the gospel simple, David here makes it out to be. But we also see here that the Gospel is sensible as well. And that includes the senses. What does David say? Taste and see that the Lord is good. David here isn't telling the reader to come and have some sort of spiritual experience that will fade after a a matter of minutes, or if you're lucky, after a matter of hours. But he's saying here, taste and see that the Lord is good. This is something that encompasses the whole human being. This is something that completely changes, completely transforms each and every area of your life. God's inviting you to taste and see that the Lord is good. He's not inviting you to some religious happy hour on a Sunday morning, but he's asking you to come and see a life completely changed, a life completely transformed by the grace and the power of the one who holds all things in the palm of his hand. You know there's many people and even whenever Paul the Apostle who wrote many of the books in the New Testament, even during his day there were people who sought to try and understand philosophically or whatever the word is, to try and understand the gospel and try and put fancy words in. And there were people who were looking for signs, people who were looking for miracles to try and justify it. But Paul says it's just so simple. It's just so simple to understand. Again, we mentioned it earlier, it's not so simple to be ignored, and it's not so difficult just purely for the intellectuals. But it's just a simple, humble invitation to come just as you are to Christ. and see how he can change a life. You know, David here understands and he's been able to testify in some way like we've done here this evening. He's saying, taste and see that the Lord is good. He's tasted and he has seen that the Lord is good. Now, if you know anything about David, you'll know that he was a man who did have his failings. He was a man that did sin in his life but still the Lord was good to him and still he knew that the Lord was good through all the days of his life. You know one of the best perhaps the best known psalm of David that's read in most cases at funerals, and I'm sure many of us would be able to recite even part of it, that wonderful verse how he says, surely goodness and mercy has followed me all the days of my life. And even after that, he says, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. David isn't asking his reader, and we're not asking you this evening to do something that we know is not true, but we're inviting you to share in this wonderful change, this wonderful grace and mercy and love of God, to taste and see that the Lord is good. Not only is the gospel simple, not only is the gospel sensible, but here we see that the gospel is supreme. The gospel is supreme because look at who David is pointing at. Look at what David is pointing at. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Now David isn't saying build yourself up, he's not sending somebody on a self-help program and he's not sending him some help, some help recovery books that will try and change his mindset and get him to do all these different things. But David is pointing his people and we're pointing you this evening to the only one who is good. We're pointing you tonight to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We're pointing you to God tonight. There's not one thing good about you, there's not one thing good about me tonight, in myself. I'm still selfish at times, I'm still a pain sometimes. Maybe there's people that'll say that's a bit more than sometimes, but let me tell you tonight, I'm pointing you to the only one who is good, the only one who is perfect, Lord Jesus Christ. You know it says in the Bible that there's none righteous, there's none that understand and there's none that seek after God, even those ones that think they are. Trying to find that spiritual voice, the Word of God says they're looking for the wrong thing. And the one they ought to be searching for is the one who's shouting the loudest, the one who extends that invitation, the one who doesn't tell us to work our way to him, not the one that tells us to try and listen out and hopefully one day we'll get the right thing. But here he is, arm outstretched, saying, taste and see that the Lord is good. maybe you're here tonight and you think you are good and maybe you think you are you're the bee's knees and you may well be well if you have a if you have a child i don't have a child i have a pup and i didn't have to teach the pup to be bad i have to try and correct the pup and what he's doing and even whenever i was young i'm sure my mum and dad can testify they didn't have to teach me to be bad They had to teach me to be good. It was in my nature to do bad things. It was in my nature to do those things that were wrong. And purposefully, whenever mum and dad told me, and I'm sure told you as well tonight, not to do something, you were more likely than not going to end up doing it. It's in our human nature to disobey. It's in the human nature to rebel. And so if that's the case, then there's not one of us who's going to be able to stand before God and say, I have fully kept the law of God in its entirety from the day I was born. Not one of us here. Dare I say, even over the last week, or even over the last couple of days, not one of us, myself included, would be able to say, I've been perfect, absolutely perfect. That is why David is pointing his reader to the Lord. That is why we tonight are pointing you to Christ, the only one who has lived to have never sinned, the only one who was perfect, the one who was so perfect that he left the splendours and the glories of heaven and came into this sinful, wretched world and still didn't sin, but nonetheless went to that middle cross on Calvary's tree. and died a death that we deserved because he lived a life that we can never live. And on that middle cross, he took the wrath of God that was due for me, that was due for those of us who are safe, that was due for you tonight in its entirety. As God poured out his wrath and as Christ, the son of God, was left forsaken, as he cried out, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And he died a death. that we deserved. He took a punishment that we deserved, that we might know the forgiveness of sins, that you and I tonight would know the joy of sins forgiven. That is why David is telling you to come and see, to taste and see that the Lord is good. No, he's not pointing you to religion. He's not pointing you to a system. He's not pointing you to works. He's pointing you to God himself. You know, in the Old Testament, this was something that the people in the Old Testament could only dream of. One sacrifice that would do for all time. Because year after year, the people in the Old Testament had to bring sacrifice upon sacrifice to the temple, to the tabernacle, to the altar. And it was just an endless stream of blood. It was an endless stream of sacrifices. But the Word of God says, whenever Christ came into this world, and die for our sins. That was the perfect sacrifice. That was the once for all sacrifice. All the Old Testament ones just pointed to Him. And it gave the people then the hope that that one day was going to come. And we are so blessed that that day has come. and that the day of opportunity is now here, that the day of grace is now here, that God, even to the most vilest of sinners, even to the most wretched person in this car park here this evening, is able to cling to the hand of God outstretched and claim the wonderful promise that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now as I bring this message to a close this evening, not only have we seen that the gospel is simple, that the gospel is sensible, that the gospel is supreme, but for the ones even that still have those doubts, for the ones that still have that sense of hesitancy, tonight we see that the gospel is satisfactory. Look at how David describes it. Taste and see that the Lord is good. David doesn't say, see that it'll do, or as we would so eloquently say this part of the world, it'll do rightly. David isn't saying it might get you by. David isn't saying it might work for me, but it mightn't work for you, so be a bit wary of it. David here is saying with surety and with certainty, it is good. See that the Lord is good. This is something that not only satisfies for a couple of days, or a couple of weeks, or a couple of months, or even if you're fortunate, a couple of years. But this is something that is eternally satisfying. This is something that deals with our sins, past, present and future. And not only does it deal with life here below, but it gives us a sure and certain hope of eternal life to come in heaven with our Saviour. You know, the Word of God says if we're saved and we have those sins forgiven, here's a wonderful sense of encouragement and a wonderful word of comfort for those of us who are saved. The Bible says we're children of God and if we're children of God we're heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ to the wonderful kingdom to come. To the wonderful riches and the glories and the blessings that we have to look forward to in eternity. If you're not saved tonight Ask yourself the question why you would risk leaving all of that and missing all of that, the joys of sins forgiven, having those burdens of guilt and shame left behind forever. Why you would risk leaving all of those behind just for the sake of another few days of pleasure and sin. Why would you leave all that behind? Taste and see tonight that the Lord is good. You know it's good for two reasons. It's good because it's satisfactory for you. It's satisfactory for me tonight because it means that we don't have to add anything to it. We don't have to take away anything from it. The work of Christ when he died on that middle cross is perfect for us. We don't have to do anything to add to it, or do anything to take away from it. You know, it says in the Bible that God made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. I think it was C.S. Lewis called it the great exchange, where God, if you can imagine a courtroom scene, where God takes those sins that we've committed, all those things that we've said wrong, thought wrong, done wrong, and God takes them off us and he places them on Christ, if you can picture it, on that middle cross. And in that great exchange, the righteousness of Christ, the perfectness of Jesus Christ, the only man to have never sinned, it's as if his life, his testimony, is clothes and covers you and me. And so when God looks at you and I this evening, those of us who are saved, this is how the gospel works. If you confess your sins to God tonight, if you come just very simply and very humbly in faith to him, This is how God will work. He will take Christ's righteousness. He'll take Christ's perfectness and clothe you, if you can picture it, in that. And God will look on you and he will say, as we looked very briefly this morning in the building, there is no condemnation. because you're in Christ. There's no condemnation because you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, because you've trusted in him to know the joy of sins forgiven. See, not only is it satisfactory for you and for you tonight, but it's satisfactory for God. The gospel work is satisfactory for God because he doesn't demand anything else. This perfect once for all sacrifice is all that's needed. It says in Hebrews that this man, Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down at the right hand of God. We mentioned it this morning that if you think about the temple in the Old Testament and the tabernacle, maybe you've seen pictures of it and illustrations of it. It had lots of wonderful furnishings, lots of wonderful pieces in it. But one thing it didn't have was a chair, because the priest could never sit down, because the work was never done. The sacrifices were never enough. The sacrifices kept coming and they kept coming. The priest could never sit down, the work was never done. So whenever the Word of God says that Christ sat down, the work was done. And it's as if God is satisfied with the work of Christ to share the gospel, to deal forever with the problem of sin. The gospel here tonight is satisfactory. Tonight, taste and see that the Lord is good. No, he'll just do. Not as something that'll get you through for a wee while and then you'll have to find the next craze, or the next phase, whatever it is that comes along. But this is something that eternally satisfies. It's eternally satisfying for me. It's eternally satisfying for many of us here this evening. Let me ask you tonight if you're not saved, what is it that's holding you back? What is it that's stopping you from tasting and seeing that the Lord is good? Let me ask a more vital, perhaps a more important question. What are you putting before the Lord? What are those things that you think are good more than the Lord? What are those things that are more dear to you than the joys of sins forgiven, of being eternally secure in the eyes of the almighty righteous judge? Let's just close this meeting in a word of prayer. Our gracious God and our loving Father in heaven, we give thanks for your help this evening, even for your help given throughout this day. And Father, we pray that as the Gospel has gone forth once again this evening in the car park, we pray that you would speak to each and every heart as you would see fit. For Lord, you know each and every car, you know each and every occupant, and you know their spiritual state, you know their eternal state as they stand. You know those who are destined, to be with thee forever in the splendors and the riches of the glory to come and father sadly you knew those who at this moment in time are destined for a lost sinner's hell father we pray that even before this evening is through even before they leave this car park here this evening that they will have done what has been so simply and so openly and extended here this evening, such a simple invitation, such a simple challenge, to just simply taste and see that the Lord is good, that they would come humbly in faith, declaring their need of a saviour, acknowledging their sin. And Father, once that confession is made, knowing the joys of sins forgiven, knowing what it is to be eternally secure, knowing what it is to have the Father to have the righteous judge of all the world, who in days to come will judge all mankind, knowing his smile upon their hearts, upon their lives this evening, and walking away tonight with a wonderful verdict, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Father, we pray you take us to our homes in safety and be with us until he returns or calls us home, for we ask it in the Savior's precious name. Amen, amen. I'll be up here, folks. Perhaps God has spoken to some poor lost soul here in the car park this evening. Don't be afraid to come over, whether you want to drive over or walk over, that's up to you. We'll keep your two metres if you wish. And I'm not the one who can help you, but I can certainly point you to the one who can. Follow the steward's advice as you leave, and may the Lord bless in the days to come. Thank you.