It is a privilege to have the Reverend Dean Brown, the Clerk of Presbury, with us here this afternoon and we're going to call upon our brother now to come and bring the Lord's message to us, trusting the Lord will bless him. Well, it is a privilege to be here in Lough today and I thank you for the invitation. and it has been very good to be able to fit it in to the Australian trek that we are on at this particular moment, starting off in Perth and moving across to Port Lincoln, up to Lough today, then through to Melbourne and across to Tasmania. Many preachers, before they begin to preach, need what I can only describe as a kind of a runway. They don't really take off. until they waffle about and flail around for a moment or two. I don't have time to do that today, so I'll talk to you after the meeting, and we'll get down to the preaching of the Word of God. But let me say that we do bring greetings from the Presbytery in Ulster. We congratulate you on this milestone in the history of this congregation. May the Lord continue to bless, and may He expand your courts and your influence, and may there be many souls brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ as a result of the outreach of this particular church. We're turning to the Gospel of John, chapter 19. We'll commence to read at verse 23. Gospel of John 19, verse 23. And again, I will apologise that we will be moving rather quickly. I'll move this glass now gently, in case we move it less than gently in a moment or two. I would like to say that I've never seen one of those in my life, and I was tempted so to do. But her brother has sort of let the cat out of the bag, we'd say, back home, given the game away. by saying that I am the father of a daughter who is about to be married to one of the fellows who preached here. So I can't really say that I'm 35. If I did, you'd know I wasn't 35, so you'd quickly correct me on that. Verse 23 of John chapter 19, Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts to every soldier a part, and also his coat. Now the coat was, without seam, woven from the top through out. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon Hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished, and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was a high day, besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they broke not his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him, whom they pierced. Amen. We know the Lord Himself will add His blessing on to the reading of His word with God's word open before us. We will bow together in a brief word of prayer. Heavenly Father, to Thee we come. We thank Thee for Thine abundant mercy and for Thine outstanding truth. We know that Thy word is forever settled in heaven. And we thank Thee that as our brother quoted, faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God. We pray that as the Word of God is announced in our hearing today, that the power of Thy Spirit will attend the preaching and the double-coming blessing will magnify Thy Word, will exalt Thy Son, will make much of His dying sacrifice and blessed atonement for our sins. Answer our prayer today. Gather us together in Christ, through faith and repentance, the gifts of God themselves. In Jesus' name, and by Thy Spirit, we ask these things. Amen. A headline in The Australian. Back in Thursday class caught my eye as we flew from Perth over to Port Lincoln. The headline was, Ancient Prophecies that Motivate Militants. It focused on debate. or that's the Northern Ireland pronunciation. I'm sure it'll be something altogether different if you had some Arabic speaker coming to the building. But it's a village in Northern Syria and apparently this village is identified by the Prophet Muhammad as the site of an end of days dramum in which a Muslim army is set to defeat its enemies and that will include a foreign force. Now this so-called prophecy, that dates back 1400 years, is the reason why in the month of August of this year, the bloodthirsty butchers of Aizom suddenly took aim at this apparently unimportant string of villages in northern Syria, up in the province of Aleppo, and the chief of those villages, this village Dabiq. It has also provided the title of their official ISIS or ISIL magazine. It has helped to attract recruits from the Middle East and further beyond under the ISIL banner. Dubik is the most important village in all of Syria for them, we are told, a special ring for the foreign fighters. And its significance again was underlined in a video released just last Lord's Day that announced the wicked beheading of yet another U.S. aid worker, this time Peter Kasich. Here we are, they said, burning the first American crusader in debate, eagerly waiting for the remainder of your armies to arrive. The Islamic terrorists from the video that said that also went on to say that we vied to defeat the final and last crusade. It hasn't been since August, but many, many months, if not years before that, that websites are cropping up on the web and they're claiming that the Qur'an contains many prophecies that are now being fulfilled in front of our eyes. Due to our expanding knowledge of the universe we're living in, due to the advances in modern life, it's being drawn to their attention. They are claiming that the prophecies in the Qur'an are true. However, All of the claims that they are making that have been tested so far have shown that these Muslims are taking one verse, or part of a verse, or even a loose translation of the Qur'an, they're wrenching it out of its context in order to twist the words and to apply them to some current event that we have happening around us today. For example, take our knowledge about Arabian technology. They will lift that up, then they will go searching in the Qur'an to try and locate a verse or a partial verse to twist it to fit what we see around us today. In the Qur'an 34.12 they read, And we gave Suleiman power over the wind. A month's journey in the morning and a month in the afternoon. And they take that phrase out of the Qur'an and they conveniently explain it by saying that that expression, a month's journey in the morning and a month in the afternoon, that shows you, does it not, that the Prophet Suleiman moved rapidly between different regions, maybe by using technology similar to what we have in aeroplanes today, or that they developed wind-powered vehicles that could cover long distances quickly. Then the latter, as they always do, Allah knows best. And they will tell their adherents there is a strong possibility that in the Qur'an, at this particular point, we have something that flags up modern Iroquoian technology. Prophecy fulfilled. But claim after claim after claim to prophecy in the Qur'an are incorrect, often disproven by their own experts on the Qur'an, or by the verses themselves. When you read it all through and you take the verse in context, even that exposes the emptiness and the falseness of these supposed prophecies. And what we are left with when we come from one part of the Qur'an, the beginning of it, and work our way right through to the end of it, is a bucket load of failed predictions and no predictions at all. And we know what the Bible says about false prophecy. One example is Deuteronomy 18, verse 22, when the prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken. But the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, Thou shalt not be afraid of him. Now, this is not the case with Scripture. Not ever. The psalmist said in Psalm 119, verse 89, Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. When we get to the end of the New Testament, or towards that end, Peter is saying in 1 Peter 1, 23-25, The word of God liveth and abideth forever. The word of God endureth forever. And we are told around about the middle of the book, in Proverbs 30 verses 5 and 6, every word of God is pure. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Back in the old Reformation times, these lines are attributed to Martin Luther, I'll trust in God's unchanging word. till soul and body sever. For though all things shall pass away, His Word shall stand forever." And this afternoon, in the time that remains to me, we are going to look, can I put in the word briefly, at Quranic failure versus Biblical fulfillment. Quranic failure. verses biblical fulfillment. The passage we read, John 19, brings us around the cross. And when we come to the cross of Christ and we look at what's happening and we're taking up the sacred narrative here as supplied by John and by other of those gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke as well, we find that underlined again and again for us here by the cross is the reliability of Scripture. Old Testament prophesying after Old Testament prophesying is fulfilled to the letter. And we are reminded, Scripture shall not be broken. We are reminded what we have here in our hands. It is stable, it is reliable, it is foundational. You can come in without fear. You can build your life upon what we have in the Word of God today. You can exercise total dependence on what the Bible says. And we say that today because this battle for the Bible shows no signs of letting up. And right to the end of time it will still be like that, inerrancy. The fact that the Bible is breathed out by God without error in any part, that is the real battleground today. But we are going to look at three prophecies from the Old Testament Scriptures. Statements announced hundreds of years before our Lord Jesus Christ hung under the curse for our sins on Calvary. And as He died, the events around that death saw that those hundreds of years old prophecies were fulfilled. Fulfilled prophecy number one then. We are looking at the crucifixion clothes. The crucifixion clothes. John 19, verse 23 and verse 24. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments and made four parts to every soldier apart and also His coat. Now the coat was, without seem, woven from the top through white. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots, for of whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. Though they would not have been aware of it, the action of those Roman soldiers around the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, they fulfilled to a letter the prophecy that is found in Psalm 22, verse 18, where David wrote, they will part his clothes, speaking about the Messiah, they will cast lots as well to see who won which piece. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. That is what we find in Psalm 22, verse 18. The 22nd Psalm is undoubtedly a messianic psalm. It points to the Christ, who indeed is Jesus, our Lord. And it's literally packed full of details about the Messiah that was to come. Now, he even wrote this psalm in the 10th century before Christ. One thousand years before the arrival of Jesus on the planet of Bethlehem, David was writing, they part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. And now, Joel is seeing this prophecy fulfilled in dramatic detail in front of his eyes around the cross. Those garments that they're referring to would most likely have included a headdress, there would have been sandals as well, a girdle or a belt, and also an outer garment. And according to John 19.23, we have these soldiers and they're closing in, and they're saying, well, let's divide up these four pieces of clothing among ourselves. One clothing item per person. Let's give the headdress to one, let's hand over the sandals to another, the girdle, the belt to another soldier, and the fourth man, well, you can have the outer garment that's available here. Now they divided them up amongst them, but why are we told in Psalms, Why does John know this well? They also cast lots. Why did they also gamble? John tells us, in the middle of verse 23, "...and also his coat." They took his garments, kneed four parts to every soldier apart, and also, there is a fifth item, his coat. Now the coat was without seam woven from the top through white, they said therefore among themselves, let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled which saith they parted my remant among them, that's plural. And for my vesture, singular, they did cast lots, these things therefore the soldiers did. Having handled out the first four pieces, they looked at the fine lighting, began to study it. So it wasn't a patchwork of pieces sewn together. Rather, it was a garment without seams. It was a quality garment, they noted. This had taken some time to make. It would be an absolute shame to try and divide this seamless coat. We'd render all of the pieces we divided up frayed and useless. And so the soldiers realized here, we've divided out the first four pieces. We've got a fifth piece, this tunic. It needs to be awarded to a single soldier only, rather than being ripped into four pieces. That's where the gambling came in. That's where they started to cast their lots. Leave it to time. Leave it to chance to which of the four of us should be owning this entire garment. And in doing that, their actions perfectly fulfilled the prophecy back in Psalm 22 and verse 18. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vestures. I need to remember here that these four on the end, Roman military men, as far as they were concerned, just happened to be consigned to crucifixion duty that day. Just happened to be assigned to the charge of Jesus of Nazareth that particular day. Who, as far as they were concerned, just happened to be wearing a seamless tulip that day. They were operating out of their own impulses, as far as they were concerned. They were not Jews. They had no familiarity whatsoever with the Jewish scripture. They were not controlled by any outside influence. No disciple came up to them, tapped them on the shoulder, and said, hey, Roman soldiers, listen and listen quickly here. You can fulfill a wonderful, dramatic prophecy today if you do exactly what I'm going to tell you. That did not happen. And yet, with uncanny precision, Words written by King David a thousand years before him came to stunning fruition. A remarkable example of fulfilled prophecy. Proof positive that God gave the book, that He breathed out the Bible. But of course, this is not all. John tells us here, this item of clothing over which the Roman soldiers were gambling was without seams. woven from the top through out. Many times reading the Bible, you're thinking to yourself, well, why put in this detail? Why insert this piece of minutia? Is it really important? What significance could be associated here with such a seemingly trivial detail? But, of course, nothing is in the Bible by accident. And to find a possible explanation why we are told here that this coat was without seam, woven from the top through out, we need to dig a little deeper. In the Bible teaching, back beyond David, in the days of Moses, 1500 years before Christ came to earth, there was a law given to Moses and through him to the people of Israel, covenant requirements that would guide the nation of Israel right through their national existence. That law contained some detail regarding Israel's high priest. On the day of atonement, for example, he would go alone into the Holy of Holies, within the tabernacle, later the temple, and he would make atonement for himself and for all of the people there. In the Bible we know that our Lord Jesus Christ is pictured in Israel's old high priest. Hebrews 3 and 1, Hebrews 4, 14, Hebrews 9, 11, many other passages show Jesus as our high priest. Now, the Old Testament high priest went into that Holy of Holies and he was dressed in a certain way. His coat was skillfully woven of fine linen, Exodus 28, verse 39. There was a Jewish historian called Josephus. Writing about the history of the Jews, he said that this coat worn by the high priest was actually seamless. This vesture, Josephus notes, was not composed of two pieces, nor was it sewed together upon the shoulders and the sides. But it was one long vestment, so woven as to have an arpiture for the neck, not an oblique one, but parted all along the breast and the back. And John here, standing by the cross, he's going out of his way, it seems, to flag up this point. And these Roman soldiers, they are gambling for the seamless tunic of the Messiah and that seamless coat. It pointed to the redemptive role of this One who would come to make an atonement for the household of faith by His dying upon the cross. But think about this a moment or two longer. Those who reject Jesus' death and atonement for sin today are gambling with higher stakes and rejecting greater evidence than those Roman soldiers back then. They didn't just gamble then for our Savior's clothes. They were also gambling that He was just another piece of criminal fluff, Sam, that it was their job that day to execute. They were gambling that what everybody else had told them about Jesus was true. that He was not the Christ, that He was not the Son of God, that He was not the King of the Jews, that He was not man's only Savior. They gambled that what they heard from the Jewish crowd was absolutely right. And coming to the cross, they did not have a lot of evidence to believe in Christ. But when that crucifixion scene was finished, And our Lord Jesus had breathed His last words upon the cross. Having seen the things that had taken place that day, their leader, the Roman centurion, stood by that cross and he confessed out loud, truly this man was the Son of God. He had imbibed the facts. He had learned the lessons. He was persuaded. We have crucified the Messiah. Mark 15.39 And those today, and I trust you're not one of them, that stand and turn their back on Christ, reject not only the judgment of the centurion, not only the transformation of those hidden disciples up until the days of Pentecost when they burst out and were energized and began to preach the gospel of our risen Lord, but they're rejecting as well. the testimony of millions of Christians down through the centuries. And more than anything, they are rejecting the testimony of the Word of God that is telling us Jesus is the only Savior. Jesus died for sinners. Jesus died for me. So, prophecy that has been fulfilled around the cross. Number one, the crucifixion close. Fulfill prophecy number two, and this will be shorter. I encourage you by saying that the unbroken bones, the unbroken bones in John 19, 36 we read, for these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken. In John 19, verse 31 down through verse 35, we get the complete picture. The holy day for the Jews was coming up. We need to speed up the death of these individuals that we have crucified upon these crosses. And they come to the Romans and they say, break their legs. Every one of them. Break their legs. Speed up the death. Get them off the cross. Let's not defile our sacred day. And we're told those soldiers came. Verse 32, break the legs of the first and of the other that was crucified with them. But, verse 33, when they came to Jesus, saw that He was dead already, they break not His legs. Verse 36, Now, for these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled. A bone of Him shall not be broken. Was it a case of pure chance that the Roman guard here held back from breaking the legs of the crucified Redeemer? Not according to John standing by the cross. He recalled a sacred article right back into the Old Testament that those soldiers would have known nothing, absolutely nothing about. For he knew that in Psalm 34, verse 20, these words were spoken about the Messiah. He keepeth all his bones. Not one of them is broken. And John standing by the cross, seeing that while he broke the legs of the other two, but not the bones of Jesus, another scripture would have rang a bell in his mind, and that would have brought him right back to the book of Exodus, chapter 12, verse 46. A detail about the Passover lamb that Israel would have offered as their sacrifice. In one house shall it be eaten, Thou shalt not carry forth out of the flesh a blood out of the house, neither shall ye break a bone thereof." And this Passover sacrifice, more than anything else, kept alive down through the generations of time the history of redemption. in the mind of Israel. It spoke of the blood of a lamb that had been shed to save them from the angel of death in the land of Egypt. But it looked forward in time to the blood of a lamb that would be shed to save them from the burden of their guilt forever. And Joel's standing by the cross. He's lodging into what he sees here. And he's saying, what I have before me is undoubtedly the Lamb of God who is being slain in this particular fashion. These Jews, he noted, they congregated around the Romans. They told them, break the legs of Jesus. And had they succeeded, they would have made it impossible for Christ to be identified with that Passover sacrifice. But though that was the thought in man's heart, as it happened so many times, Proverbs 19.21 summarizes the situation. There are many devices in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. One Australian preacher, Marcus Lone, has commented, Jesus had been kept by the shield of the ancient type and prophecy. And when he died, he could claim with humble truth, I may tell all my bones. Psalm 32 and the verse 17. And so while John notes here, his blood has been shed. But his bones have been spared. It was like a beam of light that just illuminated this truth in his mind. And he remembered the words spoken by that other John, John the Baptist, by that river bank, as he was baptizing. And over the horizon, Jesus comes. And John points to him and he says, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. After our Lord's death, resurrection, ascension into heaven, the early church continued to observe the Lord's table, but with a new understanding of its true significance. The Lord Jesus is our true Passover Lamb, sacrificed for us to take away our sins. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5 and 7, for even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. In this circumstance, the unbroken bones of Jesus underlines another fact. It shows that we have a mighty Savior. There is that further significance in the unbroken bones. The strength of the body is in the bones. Break one. You will quickly find that out. The Hebrew word for bones. signifies the strength. And so a bone of Jesus must not be broken to show that though He is crucified in weakness, His strength to save is not at all shattered or broken. Matthew Henry says, famous Bible commentator, sin breaks our bones as it broke David's. And David talks about that in Psalm 51 and 8. But it did not break Christ's bones. He stood firm under the burden, mighty to see. Sin will break your bones. By that I mean it will collapse your constitution. It will pound you. It will shatter you. It will splinter you. And if you die unrepentant and drop down into hell for all eternity, it will crush and grind your body and soul in excruciating, unalleviated torment. Your only hope is to run to this Christ for salvation, the sin-bearing sacrifice who is still strong to save. Fulfill prophecy. Number one, the crucifixion clothes. Number two, the unbroken bones. Number three, the pierced side. The pierced side. If you look at verse 34 of John 19, you'll read the words, "...but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water." To make doubly sure of death. We're not breaking his bones. He is dead. But just to be doubly sure that he's passed away, that legionnaire drove his lance through the ribs upward through the pericardium and into the heart. That's why there was an escape of watery fluid from the sac surrounding the heart and the escape of the blood of the interior of the heart, rather conclusive post-mortem evidence that Jesus actually died. Of course, the Muslims say that he didn't. Somebody else just swept in at the last minute and took his place, and Jesus didn't die at all. Our Lord Jesus most certainly died. This is but some of the evidence. And He died not the usual death as far as the body is concerned. He had said, into thy hands I commend my spirit to be fathomed. But He died physically, not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation. but of heart failure due to the shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium. And we are told that these two tremendous cleansing elements of blood and water pour forth from the crucified Christ. Again I say, in the words of Matthew Henry, the blood and water that flowed out of it were significant. They signify the two great benefits which all believers partake of through Christ. Justification and sanctification. Blood for a nation. Water for regeneration. Blood for atonement. Water for purification. You may have sung the lines of Augustus Toplady, that great old Calvinistic hymn. Rock of Ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let thee Water and the blood from Thy ribbon side which flowed, be of sin, the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and power." But as Joel, standing by the cross, sees that javelin goes into the side of the Savior, and that blood and that water begins to flow out, he's thinking to himself, this means something in terms of Old Testament Scripture. And so in verse 37 in John 19, and again, Another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced. Many another would have said, pure chance. John's thinking, there's another sacred article concerning which this Roman soldier with a spear had no knowledge whatsoever. There's another sacred article. It says not only in Psalm 22 and 16, they pierced my hands and my feet, but in Zechariah 12 and 10, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son. And John is grasping the fact that here in front of his eyes on the cross is none other than the Son of God who has been pierced exactly in the way the Bible describes. His hands and feet to be kneeled with ruthless force to that tree. That spear has been thrust with deadly accuracy through His side. He is the pierced one. This see Him, John, standing by the cross in later years in His life when He was exiled on the Isle of Patmos, lifted up His pen again and wrote again. And His words are recorded in Revelation 1, verse 7. And He looks to the final day. And He says, Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him. And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. They wailed because of Him on the day of Pentecost. When we would assume some of those that stood at the crucifixion and cried, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! pricked in their hearts, smitten in their conscience, and called for salvation unto the Lord on that day of Pentecost. That was in salvation. They cried while there was opportunity. But in that day when our Lord returns for those who have not yet turned by faith and in repentance through the Spirit of God unto Christ, that have kept dawn and dawn in their infidelity, that have kept turning their backs on the crucified Lord Jesus, they in that day when He reappears shall look upon Him whom they have pierced and shall weal because of Him. We have all been guilty of piercing the Lord Jesus. We all must look upon Him. And I would encourage you to look upon Him today with a look of salvation, with the Isaiah 45 and 22 look where He cries, Look unto Me, and be ye saved, O ye ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is none else. Rather than look at Him with trembling and with fear as you approach perdition, when He returns again, So at this cross, prophecy after prophecy, dating back 1,500 years even in one circumstance before our Lord was kneeled to that cross, prophecy was fulfilled in those final few hours. In fact, some scholars have calculated that Jesus fulfilled perfectly into the letter no less than 33 distinct Old Testament prophecies in this final 24 hours of His earthly life coming up to Him and including Calvary. And I know I'd prompt a walkout if I should say we've only considered three now for the other 30. I'm not going to do that. What I'm saying is this. You can depend upon this Book. You can trust. Your whole person for time and eternity. To what is said in this book for again and again and again. It's held up to scrutiny. Passed every test. Proven to be true. And its prophecies will always stand. Krulman put it, we have a sure prophetic word by inspiration of the Lord. And though it's healed in every hand, Jehovah's Word shall ever stand. by powers of empire banned and burned, by pagan pride rejected, spurned, the Word still stands. The Christians trust, while haughty empires lie in dust. Lo, what the Word in times of old, of future days and deeds foretold, is all fulfilled. Why leave just Rome as traced on the prophetic scroll, abiding, steadfast, Firm and sure, the teachings of the Word endure. Blessed he who trusts this steadfast Word. His anchor holds in Christ the Lord. I'd like to thank the Reverend Brown for coming and bringing the Lord's message to us. We're going to close our meeting in prayer. I'm going to give thanks for the refreshments. And after that, I'm not too sure where we go or what the procedure is, but I'm sure our brother can direct you. But we'll close and we'll give thanks for the provision. Our Father and our God, we thank Thee that this afternoon we can consider the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for Him who came from the splendor of heaven to die upon the cross of Calvary. We thank Thee that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. While many will doubt the scriptural record, many will try and disprove that the Lord Jesus Christ was a real person. that He actually died to redeem guilty sinners. We thank Thee that the record of inspired Scripture is true, that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. We pray for those this afternoon who are, as the Word of God says, dead in their trespasses and in their sins. But we rejoice that there is salvation found in Christ. And we pray this day Thou wilt write Thy word upon their hearts, and draw them by Thy spirit unto Thyself. Father, we pray that Thou wilt bless us now, that we give Thee thanks for the good things that have been provided. Bless them to our bodies. Bless our fellowship. And may we eat and drink for Thy honour and for Thy glory. And give each of us that safe journey home, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.