Jehovah Tsidkenu – The LORD Our Righteousness

[0:00] Well, if we could this evening, with the Lord's help, turn back to the portion of Scripture that we read. The second portion of Scripture, the book of the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 23.

[0:15] Now, we're trying out new mics, and lapel mics, and everything, so if you can't hear me, let me know at the door. If I'm too loud, let me know at the door. It would make sense.

[0:27] I want you to hear. Jesus said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. So I want you to hear the word. Jeremiah, chapter 23.

[0:41] Now, we'll read, take us our text, verses 5 and 6. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

[0:59] In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he shall be called, Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord of Righteousness.

[1:12] Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord of Righteousness. Looking at the name of God that we're looking at this evening, is it not true that when we hear the name Jehovah Sidkenu, we're immediately reminded of the well-known and much-loved hymn that was penned by the late Robert Murray McShane.

[1:45] McShane, of course, he never became a free church minister because he died only two months prior to the disruption. A disruption that would see the free church part ways with the Church of Scotland over the establishment principle.

[2:01] A principle which held that the state was not to interfere with the affairs of the Church, especially when it came to choosing a minister for a parish. It wasn't to be the right of a wealthy patron to install a minister in their parish.

[2:16] It was to be the right of the congregation to choose whom the Lord had directed them to choose. But before the disruption took place, Robert Murray McShane died during an epidemic of typhus at the tender age of only 29.

[2:34] But when he died, McShane was serving as minister in St. Peter's Church in Dundee. And yet for all those who may know little or nothing about the godly young man who ministered in Dundee, McShane is fondly remembered for this hymn, the hymn Jehovah Sidkenu.

[2:55] Because at a time when neither the control of the state nor the righteousness of the monarch were to be considered as the head of the Church of Jesus Christ, in his hymn McShane brought home the wonderful truth that the only way a person can go from being a stranger to grace and to God to being saved by grace and by God, the only way is through the righteousness of King Jesus.

[3:24] Because he is Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord of righteousness. He is Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord of righteousness. But to the original hearers in Jeremiah's day, this name was a great promise of salvation.

[3:41] A promise which assured the children of Israel that the Lord would uphold his covenant promise and provide a redeemer. This redeemer who would secure salvation through his righteous acts as king.

[3:56] The king with the precious name, Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord of righteousness. And as we've seen before in our study of the names of God, when God reveals his name, he's revealing his character.

[4:10] He's telling us who he is and he's telling us what he is like. And as we've progressed throughout the Bible, the Lord has progressively revealed to us his character.

[4:22] And as we've said on a number of occasions, that's what we refer to as progressive revelation. Where the Lord progressively reveals himself to us throughout scripture.

[4:35] Until we finally come to the final revelation of God in the portion of Jesus Christ. And so over the past few weeks, while we've been looking at some of the names of God, the Lord has progressively revealed his character to us.

[4:50] Because in the book of Genesis, right at the beginning, the Lord revealed himself as Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. He will provide salvation.

[5:01] Then in the book of Exodus, the Lord revealed himself as Jehovah Nisi. The Lord is my banner. Because he is the one who wins the victory. And then we looked at Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals you.

[5:15] And then Jehovah Mekadesh, the Lord who sanctifies you. And then we looked at Jehovah Shalom last week. We looked at Jehovah Shalom because he is the God who brings peace.

[5:29] Not only peace with God, but we can experience through him the peace of God by laying hold of all his promises. But now this evening we're looking at one of the most well-known names of God.

[5:44] Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. But in order for us to grasp the full meaning of this name, I'd like us to consider this name under three headings.

[5:59] An unrighteous people, an unending promise, and an unbelievable portion. An unrighteous people, an unending promise, and an unbelievable portion.

[6:13] So we look firstly at an unrighteous people. Look at verses 1 and 2. It says, Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, declares the Lord.

[6:28] Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people. You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them.

[6:39] Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. So if there was ever a dark day in the life of the children of Israel, this was it.

[6:54] Because when we come to this period in the history of the children of Israel, they are at their lowest point, spiritually. They are on the verge of exile, and on the verge of God outpouring His judgment upon them.

[7:08] And as we've looked at the Lord's progressive revelation of His character towards His people, we've also noticed the progressive revelation of the character and conduct of the children of Israel, in which they have repeatedly complained when they came out of Egypt, and they repeatedly were disobedient throughout the period of the judges.

[7:32] We saw that last week. And in fact, what we saw last week is that the period of the judges was defined by the phrase, there was no king in Israel. And every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

[7:46] But now as we come to the period of the kings, it was no different. It was a period in history of the children of Israel, and it could be defined, I suppose you could say, as there was a king in Israel.

[8:01] But the kings led the people to do that which was right in their own eyes. There was a king in Israel, but the kings led the people to do that which was right in their own eyes.

[8:13] And so when we look at this progressive history of the children of Israel and their spiritual state, it was a downward spiral. And of course, the children of Israel, they were meant to be God's covenant people.

[8:25] They were meant to worship the Lord and honour the Lord, and they were meant to serve the Lord. But sadly and unsurprisingly, the children of Israel didn't obey the Lord because they did what was right in their own eyes, and they began to worship other gods and bow down to idols and serve them.

[8:44] And this went on for years and years. In fact, decades passed. And although during the period of the judges, there was this repeated cycle of the cycle of rebellion and then restoration, rebellion and restoration, rebellion and restoration.

[9:00] Although there was that cycle during the period of the judges, after the death of David and Solomon, which were the pinnacle points in Israel's history, after the death of David and Solomon, the nation of Israel, it rejected all their covenant obligations and it resulted in the nation being divided into two kingdoms.

[9:23] And from there, the downward spiral continued during the period of the kings with each king being progressively worse than the last. And as they attempted to lead the children of Israel, they only led them further and further away from the Lord.

[9:42] But in order to combat all this disloyalty and all this disobedience, the Lord raised up prophets to remind the people of Israel that they were only to serve the living and through God.

[9:54] The prophets of the Lord, they were to proclaim the truth. They were to herald before the people God's covenant and they were to challenge the people for worshipping false gods and bowing down to idols.

[10:09] The role of the prophets was to call the people of Israel to realise the error of their ways and to repent and turn to the Lord. And down throughout the years, the Lord sent prophet after prophet after prophet to warn the people of Israel that if they didn't stop what they were doing and turn to the Lord, the Lord would bring judgment.

[10:32] And that's the message which the prophets preached again and again and again. The simple message that judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. You need to repent because judgment is coming.

[10:47] But it didn't matter how many prophets the Lord sent and how many prophets proclaimed his message. They still weren't listening and they were ignoring all the warnings.

[10:59] But then the Lord raised up one final prophet. This young man called Jeremiah. And Jeremiah, he knew that he was young. He knew that he was inexperienced.

[11:10] And in that sense, he knew that he was immature. He was a young prophet, but he was the Lord's prophet. And the Lord called him and appointed him as the prophet to the nations.

[11:22] He was to be God's spokesman. He was to proclaim whatever the Lord wanted him to say. And from the beginning of his ministry, Jeremiah was told that his ministry and his message was going to be the same message as all the other prophets.

[11:38] The message wasn't going to change because he was young and inexperienced. The message would remain the same. Judgment is coming. Judgment is coming.

[11:50] You need to repent because judgment is coming. And Jeremiah was a young preacher who took his role seriously. And he knew that his message was of the utmost importance.

[12:03] And because he took his message so seriously and he felt the message that he had to preach, he felt that it was such a burden. And because he felt that it was a burden, he often preached with tears.

[12:16] And Jeremiah is known to us in the Bible as the weeping prophet because he often wept over the state of his nation and over the hardness of people's hearts towards God's word.

[12:29] And he wept and he pleaded with the people of Israel to repent and to turn to the Lord. He pleaded that they would seek the Lord. But all the time the clock was ticking.

[12:43] And time was running out because judgment was coming. They had been warned. They had been pleaded with. They had been urged again and again to repent. And yet no one was taking heed.

[12:55] No one was listening to the message. No one was taking heed to what all the Lord's prophets were saying. But the reason no one was taking heed to all, to this impending judgment wasn't just because the children of Israel had acted unrighteously by turning away from the Lord and filling their lives with all these other gods.

[13:20] The reason they weren't taking heed is because they were false prophets who were proclaiming a false message to the children of Israel. And the message which the false prophets were proclaiming was a message that contradicted the message of the true prophets.

[13:38] For the true prophets such as Isaiah, Hosea, Jeremiah, they all proclaimed judgment is coming. You need to repent. And the people of Israel were being told you're going into exile.

[13:52] God is going to judge you. But the message of the false prophets was a message of peace. They sought to assure the people of Israel that everything will be okay and that if the Lord does bring judgment it won't be as bad as the Lord says it will be.

[14:10] And their argument was that, well, they're good people and they're God's covenant people. They have the covenant sign upon their bodies. They won't be judged by God. the Lord won't judge them so severely like he does with all the other nations.

[14:26] And because of the message of the false prophets the children of Israel thought that they would be okay in the end. They thought that they'd be fine. But as a result of these lies that they were being fed what we see is a message of woe towards the false prophets.

[14:45] Where it says woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who care for my people.

[14:59] You have scattered my flock and have driven them away. You have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds declares the Lord. The prophets they were meant to shepherd the people of Israel but the false prophets instead they were feeding them lies and they were contradicting the Lord's message and they were causing confusion.

[15:25] And you know my friend that's what every false prophet and every false preacher will do. They will feed you lies they will contradict the word of God and they will cause confusion because they will soften the message and water down the gospel.

[15:43] and that's a dangerous thing to do. It's a dangerous thing to minimize the importance of God's word. And this is not an Old Testament concept because it's so relevant to the day and age in which we live where there are so many voices and so many people speaking about their different ideas and what they think where people they don't like to speak about death or God's judgment.

[16:11] They don't like to talk about hell anymore. They say they don't want to scare the children. We don't want to hurt people's feelings. We don't want to offend anyone by talking about hell.

[16:24] I take no delight in telling anyone that they're going to hell. I take no delight in telling anyone that judgment is coming. I take no delight in talking about death.

[16:37] But the only reason I do is because I want you to be saved. above all else I want you to be saved. I want you to be saved and know Jesus for yourself.

[16:50] I mean would you rather I told you a lie? Would you rather I fed lies to you? Would you rather I acted like a false prophet and softened this message? Would you rather that I told you it'll be okay for you?

[17:04] You don't need to do anything. Don't need to seek the Lord. Don't need to bother. but I'm not going to do that. And you know I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to tell you that you're not a sinner and you don't need to repent because you do.

[17:20] I'm not going to tell you that you don't need to worry about eternity if you're not a Christian because you do. I'm not going to tell you that you don't need to turn to the Lord because you do. I'm not going to tell you that this message of salvation through Jesus Christ isn't urgent because it is.

[17:37] I'm not going to tell you that God's judgment won't be as bad as the Bible makes it out to be. It will be worse. Far worse. I'm not going to tell you that your eternal salvation isn't really important to me because it is.

[17:56] It's of the utmost importance to me. And it ought to be of the utmost importance to you. That without Christ you are under the same judgment as the children of Israel.

[18:13] And the message which has been proclaimed to you tonight is that you have acted in unrighteousness and you need to repent. Isaiah has told you that your unrighteousness, your righteousness, it's as filthy rags.

[18:30] Hosea has proclaimed that you have committed spiritual fornication and adultery. And Jeremiah is now affirming to us judgment is coming and you need to repent because judgment is coming.

[18:49] Would you rather I told you a lie than not tell you a lot? That you need to repent because judgment is coming. But what we see here is that the message of the prophets was twofold because there was bad news but there was also the good news.

[19:12] The bad news is judgment is coming but the good news was the promise that after judgment salvation will come. And that's what we see next.

[19:25] An unending promise. An unending promise. We've considered an unrighteous people but secondly we see an unending promise. If you look at verse 3, the unending promise.

[19:38] Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and I will bring them back to their fold and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed.

[19:53] Neither shall any be missing declares the Lord. Behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

[20:10] In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called. Jehovah Sidkenu the Lord our righteousness.

[20:23] So the bad news for the children of Israel was that judgment was coming but the good news was salvation is coming. And this was the message which all the true prophets proclaimed.

[20:36] Because Isaiah, Hosea, Jeremiah they all prophesied that after the judgment of exile in Babylon there would be salvation. But more than that Isaiah, Hosea and Jeremiah they all prophesied that there would be a saviour.

[20:54] And that's what we see here in this prophecy from Jeremiah verses 5 and 6. And the importance of the prophecy is highlighted to us when it's introduced by the word behold.

[21:08] And what we're being told to do when it says behold is stop and consider what's being said. And he says behold the days are coming.

[21:19] And this phrase the days are coming it's repeated again in verse 7. But it's meant to indicate that this prophecy given by Jeremiah it will find it's fulfilment beyond the period of the kings and beyond the old covenant and beyond the old testament.

[21:39] Therefore the phrase the days are coming it indicates that this prophecy will be fulfilled in the new covenant and in the era of the new testament church.

[21:50] Which means that everything that has been said in this prophecy in verses 5 and 6 everything that's been said is a promise about Jesus. It's a promise about Jesus.

[22:02] Behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the earth.

[22:16] And so the promise which is being issued to the children of Israel in light of their coming judgment is the promise of the Messiah. that there will come a king from the lineage of David and he will establish his kingdom and he will sit upon the throne of David.

[22:36] And what we're being reminded of here in this promise is the Davidic covenant. The covenant which the Lord made with David on that momentous occasion in 2 Samuel 7.

[22:50] And we looked at it not so long ago. And you'll remember that when there was peace in Israel from all the enemies of Israel David sought to build a house for the Lord.

[23:00] But the Lord wouldn't allow David to build it because he was a man of war. And so the responsibility was to be left to David's son Solomon. But even though David wanted to build the Lord a house the Lord promised David that he would build him a house.

[23:21] a house which would be a royal dynasty from whom the Messiah would come. And the Lord covenanted with David and promised to him he said I will set up your seed after you who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.

[23:38] He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son. And so in the covenant with David the Messiah promised a royal saviour.

[23:52] The Messiah was promised to be a royal saviour. He was to be a king who would reign and prosper as Jeremiah says and he was to be a king who would execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

[24:06] And this description was of course the description of executing judgment and righteousness. That was in contrast to the judgment and unrighteousness.

[24:17] the corruption and unrighteousness of all the previous kings in Israel. Where Jesus was promised to come and reign over Israel as the Messiah king.

[24:29] And that's what the reformer John Calvin says at this point in his commentary. He says Christ would be endued with a spirit of wisdom as well as righteousness and judgment so that he would possess all the qualifications and fulfil all the duties of a good and perfect king.

[24:49] So there was to be no other king like him. He was to be the king of kings and the lord of lords. But Jeremiah not only tells us what this Messiah king will be like he also tells us what he will do.

[25:04] For he says in his days when this king comes to reign in his days Judah will be saved. Judah will be saved.

[25:16] Salvation will be brought to the remnant that returns from exile in Babylon. They will be saved. They will experience salvation. They will come to know Jesus. The saviour who comes to save his people from their sins he will be made known.

[25:31] But this promise to Judah of a righteous king it's wonderful because it shows how the Bible just dovetails together so neatly.

[25:44] Because this promise of Jesus being the righteous king who executed judgment and saves Judah it ties in with the promise Jacob gave to his son way back in Genesis 49 where Jacob sent to his son Judah the scepter which is a scepter of righteousness the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver nor the one who executes judgment nor a lawgiver between his feet so it says the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet and so what's been expressed to us is this promise is that when the king of righteousness comes to execute judgment and righteousness in the earth he will save his people he will save his people and then Israel will dwell safely they'll lie down in peace there will be peace with them it's the image of sheep lying down in peace and safety so when Jesus comes there will be peace in Israel there will be peace in Israel but before we come to this title

[26:59] Jehovah Sidkenu I want to say something about the other title which is given to Jesus in this prophecy where he's referred to as a righteous branch or a branch of righteousness and this is a key title that relates to Jesus because it's what Isaiah was prophesying about in Isaiah chapter 11 which we read earlier because Isaiah and Jeremiah they were both contemporaries they both you could say worked at the same time together but what we read in Isaiah 11 is what's being built upon in Jeremiah 23 because Isaiah who prophesied a lot about Jesus in his prophecy he affirmed in chapter 11 that this royal branch of righteousness will come from the root of Jesse David's father he said there will come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the

[28:08] Lord but then listen to what he says listen to what he says about Jesus his delight is in the fear of the Lord and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes nor decide by the hearing of his ears but with righteousness with righteousness he shall judge for righteousness shall be the belt of his loins and faithfulness the belt of his waist isn't that a wonderful picture of who Jesus is the king of righteousness the king who prospers and reigns the king who executes judgment and righteousness the king who saves his people the king who brings peace my friend he's the perfect king and he's presented to us as king Jesus righteousness I'm looking at this wonderful description of the character and the conduct of Jesus it's no surprise to us that he was given this name and this is the name by which he will be called

[29:09] Jehovah said Kenu the Lord our righteousness Jehovah said Kenu the Lord our righteousness but by saying the Lord our righteousness says Calvin Jeremiah is showing us that the righteousness which Christ possesses is not only a righteousness in which he is righteous in and of himself but the righteousness of Christ is of another kind it is ours he says because Christ is righteous not for himself but he possesses a righteousness which is able to be communicated to us and then Calvin says if we desire if we desire to have the Lord as our righteousness if we desire to know Jehovah said Kenu for ourselves he says we must seek

[30:10] Christ for righteousness cannot be found except in him righteousness cannot be found except in him therefore my friend in order to experience the righteousness of God we must look to the full and the final revelation of God in the unbelievable portion of Jesus Christ which brings us to look at our last point this evening we've considered the unrighteous people and an unending promise but lastly we come to look at an unbelievable portion an unbelievable person the end of verse six and his name by which he will be called Jehovah said Kenu the Lord our righteousness therefore behold the days are coming declares the Lord when they shall no longer say as the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt but as the

[31:11] Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them then they shall dwell in their own land an unbelievable person just thinking about it the title which I've given here I suppose it could be taken in two ways one negative one positive because to say that Jesus is an unbelievable person could suggest that he's far fetched doubtful and unlikely to be a wonderful saviour but of the new covenant in the era of the new testament church which we are in the day came when the son of

[32:23] David sat upon the throne of David the day came for Jesus to reign and prosper the day came for Jesus to execute judgment and righteousness in the earth and even though the arrival of Jesus was blurred by all the misconceptions of the Jews thinking that the Messiah was coming to empire Jesus revealed that he came to deal with an unrighteous people he came as he says himself not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and he came to fulfill an unending promise that he is the branch of God's righteousness but even more my friend Jesus was the hyssop branch of God's righteousness because upon Calvary tree the hyssop branch of God's righteousness shed his blood and he was made to be sin for us and the theologian of the

[33:27] New Testament the apostle Paul he stresses to us that God made his righteous hyssop branch who knew no sin he made him he made him to be sin for us for us for us just think about that he made Jesus the receptacle of our sin he made Jesus sin for us but what for why why did he make him who knew no sin to be sin for us was it not says Paul that we might become that we might become the righteousness of God in him that we might become like him and this is the wonder of this unbelievable person that Christ our righteousness our Jehovah said Kenu he was made sin that we could be counted as righteous in him as

[34:33] Calvin said Christ is not only righteous for himself but he is our righteousness he possesses a righteousness which he is able to communicate to us therefore he is our righteousness because in him we are made the righteousness of God in him we are united to Christ by faith in him we are declared righteous in him we are justified before a holy God is that not what our catechism teaches us justification is an act of God's free grace wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone it's received by faith alone my unconverted friend listen to what it's being said it's received by faith alone therefore when we are justified by faith and when we are justified by faith we have peace with

[35:48] God through our Lord Jesus Christ do you have peace with God do you have peace with God are you still at enmity with God the only way you can have peace with God is to have the righteousness of Jehovah said Kenan how do you get it by faith how do you receive it by faith by faith alone do you have peace with God through Jehovah said Kenan the Lord our righteousness because what's unbelievable about the person of Jesus is that he not only exchanges our sin for his righteousness he also promises to gather all his people to himself and that's what we're being reminded of here in verses 7 and 8 talking about the in gathering they behold the days are coming when they shall no longer say as the

[36:59] Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt but as the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them then they shall dwell in their own land the days are coming when it won't be like the days of old when the children of Israel came up out of Egypt the days are coming where there will be this greater in gathering of the Lord's people from all over the world when people from every tongue and tribe and nation and language the world over they will take the name Jehovah said Kenu upon their lips and they will gather for worship because that is the great hope of the church that the blessing of the covenant will be extended throughout the nations and then there will be this great in gathering of the Lord's people not only of the Jews but also of the Gentiles there will be this in gathering of the righteous remnant because in contrast to the failed shepherds of

[38:07] Israel mentioned here in contrast to the failed shepherds who led all the people astray we have here the promise of Israel's true shepherd who gave his life for the sheep the good shepherd who reminds us that he has sheep which are not yet of his fold and he must also bring them are you one of them he must bring them all until there is one flock and one shepherd because his promise is as we have it in verse three he says then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and I will bring them back to their fold and they shall be fruitful and multiply that's the great hope for the people of God that's the great hope of those who have called upon the name of Jehovah Sidkenu that there will be this great in gathering of those who have trusted in the finished work of the

[39:14] Lord our righteousness is that not we were singing even as we began our service this evening praise God for he is good for still his mercy lasting be let God's redeemed say so whom he from the enemy's hand did free and gathered them out of the lands from north south east and west he gathered them in there will be this great in gathering of the righteous and they will gather as one flock and they will worship one shepherd and they will sing the new song which he has put in their mouth and they will sing it to the Lord for wonders that he hath done my friend his name is Jehovah Sidkenu the Lord our righteousness and he is able to make unrighteous people righteous he fulfills an unending promise of salvation and this

[40:21] Jesus he is revealed as an unbelievable person but all I want to know tonight is what does Jehovah Sidkenu mean to you what does Jehovah Sidkenu mean to you because prior to his death the young Robert Murray McShane he said of himself I once was a stranger to grace and to God I knew not my danger and felt not my load though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree Jehovah Sidkenu was nothing to me I oft read with pleasure to soothe or engage Isaiah's wild measure and John's simple page but even when they pictured the blood sprinkled tree Jehovah

[41:22] Sidkenu seemed nothing to me like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll I wept when the waters went over my soul yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree Jehovah Sidkenu it was nothing to me when free grace awoke me by light from on high then lethal fear shook me I trembled to die no refuge no safety in self could I see Jehovah Sidkenu my saviour must be my terrors all vanished before the sweet name my guilty fears banished with boldness I came to drink at the fountain life giving and free Jehovah Sidkenu is all things to me but what does he mean to you what does he mean to you my friend I hope and pray that as we come to the end of another year in our lives that you'll say about this

[42:23] Jesus what McShane said when he concluded his beautiful hymn Jehovah Sidkenu my treasure and boast Jehovah Sidkenu I ne'er can be lost in thee I shall conquer by flood and by field my cable my anchor my breastplate and shield in treading the valley the shadow of death this watch word shall rally my faltering breath for while from life's fever my God sets me free Jehovah Sidkenu my death song shall be what will your death song be make sure it is Jehovah Sidkenu the Lord the Lord may the Lord bless these thoughts to us let us pray O Lord our gracious God we bless and praise thee tonight for who thou art and who thou hast revealed in thy word

[43:28] Lord we bless thee for thy son we thank thee for him we thank thee that he is our righteousness that he is our peace that he is one who came to die in our room instead that he came to experience Calvary's great transaction where he became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him O Lord bless thy truth to us bless thy word that we would not be strangers to grace and to thee but that O Lord we would be able to say that Jehovah Sidkenu is that he is the one who will lead us and guide us even through the valley of the shadow of death cleanse us Lord we pray thee bless us as we look to the year ahead help us to keep looking to Jesus for he is the author and the finisher of our faith take us to our homes and safety and do us good for Jesus sake Amen we shall conclude by singing in

[44:34] Psalm 67 Psalm 67 in the Scottish Psalter it's on page 300 Psalm 67 one of the great missionary Psalms praying for the Lord's blessing upon all the nations that the covenant promise would be fulfilled before the ingathering of all the Lord's people the psalmist says Lord bless and pity us shine on us with thy face that the earth thy way and nations all may know thy saving grace let people praise thee Lord let people all thee praise oh let the nations be glad in songs their voices raise heaven to God's praise all blessed and beauty are thy honor spread thy peace not yet thy way and nations all may love thy saving grace let people praise be

[46:07] Lord let people all be free oh let the nations be homme not my hearts they O xu?

[46:53] Praise Thee, Lord, let them praise Thee, all great and small.

[47:07] The earth our fruit shall yield, our God shall bless His hand.

[47:21] O shall the best men shall bear, here unto earth at most end.

[47:40] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and forevermore. Amen.