Thank you, Mervyn. Thank you, Stephen. Thank you, Rebecca. Thank you to all who took part. I want to add my words of welcome to the congregation tonight, to our distinguished guests. Not many of you can hide behind the flag here. And to those that are listening in on sermon audio, And today we've had a visitor, a pastor, Chris Banks from England and his friend who have been visiting with us. So to you all, a very warm word of welcome. Looking down and seeing these uniforms, I used to wear a uniform too. I'm not sure if everyone in the congregation knows that. But the school I went to had a combined cadet force. I went to school in Armagh, and they had the air cadets, and they had the army cadets. I was on the army side, and I worked my way up to the company sergeant major. So I used to drill them around the square when we went away. And then for two years, I was in the territorial army as well. and we got to go to all kinds of places. You see my father was a military man and at the tail end of the war he served in the RAF. For many years he was in the B Specials and then laterally in the UDR. And as you've heard tonight, my brother-in-law was the last RUC officer to be killed in the Troubles here in Northern Ireland. We're very glad to have Stephen with us tonight at this service and other members of the family. Now, we want you to stay for tea. There's plenty of tea and plenty of things to eat. And Mervyn said the meeting will be over at 10.30. That's going to be a long meeting. I'm used to long meetings because we travel to various parts of the world. And some of these services last for four hours. But it's not going to last for four hours tonight. I'm a short preacher, especially on occasions like this. There was a man, and he was preaching one day. in a certain church, and every now and again from the back of the church, he could hear what he thought was the word, hallelujah. And he thought, this is a great encouragement, and I'm gonna preach on, and then there'll be another hallelujah, I'm gonna preach on. But he went to the door to shake hands with the congregation on the way out. He said to the man, I want to thank you sincerely for your great encouragement, shouting out hallelujah to encourage the preacher. The man says, I wasn't shouting hallelujah, I was shouting that'll do you. So we don't want anybody shouting out that'll do you, but we're glad to be here and to have the opportunity to speak at this service. The little invitation that went out, and I think you got one tonight coming in, has on the back of it the wee message that I want to preach. I hope the chief constable knows by now what the word we means, because I was in England for four years, quite a few years ago, and it had a different connotation over there, but they got to know what it meant. So the little message tonight is here on the back of the invite. I want to read just four verses of scripture from John's gospel and the chapter 10, John chapter 10. In verse 11, 15, 17, and 18. Jesus says in verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Verse 15, as the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And then verses 17 and 18. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I laid down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father." Many of the war stories that we hear of love and valor and sacrifice. A few years ago, an elderly gentleman who served in the Second World War with tears in his eyes, he shared his experience of leading men into battle. He recounted the horrific loss of young lives that day, and he himself lived to return home to his young wife and child. But he brought home memories of his experience, an experience that few of us will ever have to endure. And this is what he said, I am 94 years old and there's still not a day that goes by that I don't think about the young men that died that day. And we ought to think about the young men and the older men and those who have given their lives and paid the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf, payment that extended beyond a tour of duty to a lifetime. You and I enjoy freedoms and liberties today, civil and religious. We can come, as I prayed earlier, to the house of God like this, and we can worship God in freedom. We're not living under tyranny or dictatorship of a wicked regime. We can practice our religion. We can go about in civil society with freedom. And so churches up and down the country mark Remembrance Day. And many gather at war memorials, as they have done for 100 years. Some nine million men were killed in World War I, and a further 21 million were injured. On more memorials scattered through our nation, the words of Jesus are found in John 15 and 13, where the Lord said, greater love hath no man than this. Bible verses are often on memorials, especially this one. Because the Bible was so important in British life in the early part of the 20th century, it is the most widely read book in the United Kingdom, and it is the most widely owned book in the Western world. John 15 or 13 is very typical of sentiments arising from the First World War. These words were originally spoken by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper. His disciples are gathered around the table. The Lord has many things to say to them on that occasion, and one of them was this text. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And so these words, the Lord Jesus Christ draws a parallel between his sacrifice and the sacrifice of man, a sacrifice of love. John 15 and 13 is the heart of the gospel, that there is one who took our place, one who stood in our stead, one who died for us. His name is Jesus. Now, the Bible clearly speaks about our condition, what we are by birth and what we are by nature and practice. We are sinners condemned and unclean. And the Bible not only speaks about our condition, but speaks about our condemnation. In fact, we are told in God's Word that we are condemned already. It is what we justly deserve. Now, men do not feel that they deserve divine condemnation and punishment. In fact, most people think that they're pretty upright, and therefore they're going to be accepted by the Lord. But God tells us in His Word that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The glory of God is God's perfect standard, His perfect righteousness. And every one of us, the Bible tells us, we've come short of that perfect standard. We don't match up to the perfect standard of Almighty God. And therefore, we are under condemnation. God decrees the soul that sinneth, it shall die. But here's the gospel. Here's the good news. Here's the story of love, grace, and mercy, sacrifice, and substitution. Jesus took our place, and he died for us. And this is the theme that runs through the Bible. You can think of the prophet Isaiah 700 years before Jesus came into the world. He was able to prophesy about the cross and about the death of Christ. In Isaiah 53, verse 5, he tells us concerning Jesus Christ who would come, He was wounded for our transgressions. And that little word for is so important. It means instead of. He took the place. He was wounded for our transgression. 2 Corinthians 5 and 21, for He hath made Him to be sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Galatians 3 and 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Hebrews 2 and verse 9, But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. And one other reference, 1 Peter 3 and 18, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Here in John chapter 10, this passage that I've read with you tonight, Jesus is declaring himself as the shepherd of the sheep. He is the good shepherd who giveth his life for the sheep. He says in verse 15, I lay down my life for the sheep. And again in verse 17, I lay down my life. And the same truth is emphasized in verse 18. This is the greater love. This is the heart of the gospel. This is the good news. This is the sacrifice of love, the story of love, grace, and mercy. Jesus taking our place and Jesus dying in our stead as the substitute. I want to emphasize with you, just for a few minutes tonight, the words of Christ on this Remembrance Sunday. I lay down my life for the sheep. I want you to take that little word home with you tonight. If you remember nothing else, remember these words of the Savior. I lay down my life for the sheep. It's so appropriate, isn't it, to think about such a line of Scripture at this Remembrance service. And I want to suggest to you the following. The Lord Jesus Christ, speaking about these words, laying down his life for us, he did this voluntarily or willingly. Jesus was not forced to the cross. Now, we know the part that Judas Iscariot played. He betrayed the Lord into wicked hands. We know the part that the mob played, who came to the Garden of Gethsemane and arrested Jesus and took him away. We know also the part that Caiaphas played in Pontius Pilate and the soldiers who physically crucified the Lord to that cross. Undoubtedly, Jesus was pushed and shoved all the way to Calvary. And I want you to know that this was absolute, humble submission to the divine will. I often think of the call of the prophet Isaiah to the prophetic ministry that we read about in the Old Testament, and I see a great parallel to what I'm sure happened in the annals of eternity past, when God sat in the trinity of his persons, the one with the other, and the question is posed, who shall I send? Who will go for us? And I hear the Lord Jesus Christ, as Isaiah the prophet said, here am I, send me. And that's the language of the volunteer, isn't it? Willingly coming into this world. Here's how Paul put it in the New Testament, in Galatians 1 and 4. He gave himself for our sins. And when he wrote to the church at Ephesus, he said, Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God. And speaking of Christ, the great God and Savior, he told Titus that Jesus gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity. When you think of that language, you have to say that Christ was a volunteer. He gave himself voluntarily, but he also gave himself lovingly. The hymn writer said, oh, to his love, to his wondrous love, the love of God to me, it brought my Savior from above to die on Calvary. The testimony of the great apostle Paul is simply this. He loved me, and he gave himself for me. Jesus set his love upon me, and that brought him to give his life to be sacrificed at the cross of Calvary. When Jesus says, I lay down my life for the sheep, he is declaring an act of infinite sovereign love for poor, guilty, hell-deserving sinners like you and I. When the Lord laid down his life there on that old Roman cross outside the city walls of Jerusalem, he did so because he loved you and me. There's no other explanation. There's no other interpretation. Why did he leave the splendor of heaven? Why did he enter this sin-cursed world? Why did he descend into the womb of a virgin? Why was he born in a manger? Why did he allow himself to be persecuted and ill-treated by his creation? Why did he agonize in the garden of Gethsemane? Why did he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground? Why did he wear the crown of thorns? Why was he frightfully beaten in the cruel scourging? Why was he spat upon and shamefully treated by the soldiers? Why was he laid outside the city walls and crucified upon that center cross? Why did he endure all that suffering physically and eternally? There's no other reason but for this fact. He loved us. I lay down my life lovingly. We could put that word in there for the sheep. Do you know this tonight? And then we have to say he did this sacrificially. It was a great sacrifice. It was the greatest of all sacrifices. Now, of course, the wars remind us of sacrifice, men who laid down their lives, who paid the ultimate price. Indeed, the war memorial text reminds us of this. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. But we were not the friends of Christ in our sinful state. We were his enemies. And yet he loved us and he came into this world and he became the sacrifice of sin. Come with me just for a moment and stand in the shadow of Calvary and gaze upon the bleeding, battered body of the Lord Jesus Christ there as he hangs in all his misery, in all his woe, in all his sufferings. And I want you to see here is the sacrifice for sin, the only sacrifice. I lay down my life. And he did it sacrificially. He also did this substitutionally. We have spoken about this already. This is the heart of the gospel. This is the center truth of our salvation, Jesus taking our place fully. literally taking the place of you and I. We all know what a substitute is. Even in a lesser sense, a footballer is injured, they bring on the substitute, the substitute takes his place in a higher and eternal sense. The Lord Jesus Christ took our place when he laid down his life at the cross of Calvary, for he did it substitutionally. And then finally, he did this objectively. There was one great object in view. And what was that? What was the great purpose of the cross? The Bible speaks about it. So that the Lord would bring many sons to glory, so that he would gather unto himself out of all the nations and the kindreds and the peoples and the tongues of the earth a great multitude, as the Bible says, that no man can number. This was the object in view. But you know, there's something that we need to do when we think of this tonight, the sacrifice of Christ, Him laying down His life for us. We need to appropriate it to our hearts and to our lives. We need to make this Savior our Savior. And how do we do that? We do it by faith. Simple, childlike faith in all that Jesus came to do and what he accomplished on our behalf. It is our prayer at this remembrance service tonight, as you have come to remember those who have given their lives sacrificially for us, that we might enjoy the freedoms that we enjoy today. that you might consider the greatest sacrifice of all when the Lord laid down His life, that our sins might be forgiven. May you come to trust in Him as your personal Savior. We're here to help you. Anyone that wants to talk to us afterwards, please come and talk to us. And we can open up the Scriptures and show you in God's Word what your need is. May God bless you. Thank you very much for coming.