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Truth has stumbled in the streets.

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Honesty cannot enter.

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Truth is nowhere to be found.

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I say, isn’t that exactly where we are?

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In a post modern culture where so many have bought into the idea that there is no such

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thing as objective truth.

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If only opinion, only what’s true for you or true for me, only truth the way we see it.

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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith.

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I’m David Pick.

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And Colin, I think many people today feel that way, that society is travelling in the

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wrong direction.

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And in fact, is there hope for truth and justice?

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Yeah, and it is discouraging isn’t it?

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We see big, big shifts in our culture.

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They’re happening so quickly.

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And there are many Christians who feel now what in the world is happening?

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What is God doing?

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And I think one of the first things to say is, you know, this may be new to us, or it

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might seem new to us, but it certainly isn’t new in the world.

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And you open the Bible and you find God speaking into cultures that have lost hold of truth,

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that have lost the sacredness of life, and that have really lost touch with any basis

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of justice that is in the law of God Itself.

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And God speaks into that.

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And God has shown through history that he’s able by his spirit to do remarkable things

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in different cultures and in surprising ways.

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So I find it very helpful to get back into the Scripture and then to look at what God

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is saying and say, My, that is speaking exactly to us today!

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So, let’s find out what God does say.

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Please open your Bible, if you can, to Isaiah chapter 58 as we continue our message, Restore

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Justice.

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Here’s Colin.

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Here’s Isaiah speaking about the culture in which he was ministering seven hundred years

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before the birth of Jesus.

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And he says this…

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Honesty cannot enter….

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Truth is nowhere to be found.

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Now, see, isn’t that exactly where we are?

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In a post-modern culture where so many have bought into the idea that there is no such

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thing as objective truth.

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Only opinion.

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Only what’s true for you or true for me.

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Ultimately truth the way we see it, but not what is ultimately true or what is ultimately

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false.

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Isaiah captures that truth has stumbled in the streets.

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Now, what happens when people lose their grasp of objective truth in a culture?

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Here’s what happens.

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When truth stumbles in the streets, justice falters in the courts.

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So one has to follow the other as surely as night follows day.

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Look at what he said about justice in verse 4.

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No one calls for justice.

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No one pleads his case with integrity.

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They rely on empty arguments and speak lies.

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And following that theme through, look at verse 9, justice is far from us.

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Verse 14, justice is driven back.

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Verse 15, the Lord looked.

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He is looking for justice, and He saw that there was no justice.

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Now, truth, justice, and when these two go, there’s one other that falls with it, life.

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Look at verse 3, your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt.

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I cannot read that verse without painfully thinking of the loss of life taken, taken

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and lost through abortion, 50 million in 30 years, 50 million in 30 years.

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Now, you grieve that as much as I do.

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But Isaiah’s speaking into a culture that we recognize, don’t we?

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Truth stumbling in the streets, courts increasingly about how you can spin a story and a massive

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cull of human life.

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So I think that we have to say that we identify as we open these Scriptures with Isaiah’s

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words about a culture that is losing justice, losing it.

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In other words, losing integrity, and losing trustworthiness, and losing truthfulness,

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and losing doing right, and losing loving neighbor as self, and losing caring about

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the plight of others as if it were your own.

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And that’s what Isaiah’s talking about here.

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Say, look here’s the reality.

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We’ve got a church he’s saying, that is ignoring justice, and a culture that is losing justice.

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That leads him to confession, as it should lead us to confession I think today.

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Notice in the middle of chapter 59, the address changes.

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Isaiah has been speaking as a prophet to God’s people.

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He’s been speaking, verse eight, about them, the way of peace they do not know, there is

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no justice in their paths, but notice in verse nine, it’s as if the prophet now comes and

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he stands with the people.

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And together, the prophet and the people turn towards God owning their sin and the sin of

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their nation.

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So I think it would be good for us to make these words our own as a prayer for ourselves

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and also for our nation today.

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And I’m going to suggest that we stand at this point in the message before we move to

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the third snapshot.

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If you would stand with me, the words I think will be on the screen, and let me stand with

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you and let us read these before the Lord together.

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Justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us.

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We look for light, but all is darkness, for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.

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Like the blind, we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes.

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At midday we stumble as if it were twilight.

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Among the strong, we are like the dead.

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We all growl like bears, we moan mournfully like doves.

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We look for justice, but find none, for deliverance, but it is far away.

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For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us.

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Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities.

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Rebellion and treachery against the Lord, turning our backs on our God,

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fomenting oppression and revolt, uttering lies our hearts have conceived.

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Please be seated.

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So where do we look for hope?

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What hope is there for believers who have ignored justice,

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living in a culture that is losing justice?

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Now, the obvious answer, and all who regularly in church say,

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well, we know exactly what he’s going to say, is going to say, God’s the answer.

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Well, yes.

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That’s a little too simple.

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Look at chapter 59 and verse 1.

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God’s the answer.

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Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor is his ear too dull to hear.

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God is the answer, but here is the problem.

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Verse 2.

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But your iniquities have separated you from your God.

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Your sins have hidden His face from you so that he will not hear.

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So, you see, it isn’t gonna be enough to say, well, we need to turn back to God.

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Because Isaiah says the problem is that when we turn to God, He’s not listening.

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Because there is the issue of our sin and our iniquity, that is a barrier that separates

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us from Him and Him from us.

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And we can’t break through it.

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So what hope is there if we have no way of breaking through to God?

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Our only hope is if God should break through to us.

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We’re going to pause the message there briefly.

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You’re listening to Open The Bible with pastor Colin Smith, and the message called

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Restore Justice.

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from Isaiah chapter 58 into chapter 59.

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Part of a series called Restore My Soul.

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And if you’ve missed any of this series so far or you just like to go back and listen

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again, you can do that by coming online to our website www.openthebible.org.uk.

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There you can stream any of the broadcasts that have already gone out on air.

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You will also find us as a podcast if that’s a better way for you to keep up with

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Pastor Colin’s teaching and that’s available on your favourite podcast site.

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You can follow a link from the website or simply search in your podcast site for Open

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The Bible UK and subscribe to receive regular updates.

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Back to the message now, here’s Colin.

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I want you to see this third snapshot of the Christ who is bringing justice.

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Without the Christ, there is no other way of breaking through this barrier.

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Look at verse 15 of chapter 59 if you would.

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The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.

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He saw that there was no one.

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By the way, God is always on the side of justice, always looking to see, and he sees that there’s

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no one, and notice the word he is appalled that there was no one to intervene,

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no one who could fix the fundamental selfishness of the human heart and soul.

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Notice what happened.

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worked salvation for him and his own righteousness sustained him.

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Now here we come to one of the most incredible, marvelous pictures in all of the Old Testament

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and I want you to see its power and its glory

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because Isaiah describes God getting ready to fight for our salvation,

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getting ready to come into the world – a world that is losing justice and is ignoring

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justice, coming in as our champion to stand with us.

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He comes to deal with the dark powers, the evil powers that lie behind all human selfishness,

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all human sin, greed and evil.

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Look at verse 17.

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He – this is God – He put on righteousness as His breastplate and the helmet of salvation

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He put on His head.

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He put on the garments of vengeance, and He wrapped Himself in zeal as a cloak.

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You see, the picture here – God dressing Himself, as it were, in armor, getting ready

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for battle, God coming as our champion into the fight.

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This is why God became man in Jesus Christ, to break through the barrier to us, because

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we could not break through the barrier to Him.

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Now, you read this verse – the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation

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– we’ve heard about that someplace before, haven’t we.

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Where have we heard about that?

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With Ephesians in chapter six, Paul talks about us wearing the breastplate of righteousness

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and the helmet of salvation.

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Well, here’s where he got it from.

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He got it from Isaiah.

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And think about this.

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Isaiah tells us that Christ wore this armor when He went into battle for us.

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So when you go into spiritual warfare, you are putting on the very armor Jesus Christ

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has already worn in the decisive battle in which He triumphed on the cross on your behalf.

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Put it this way.

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Christians wear secondhand armor.

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I love that.

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Christ’s armor becomes yours.

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Philip Rikin, I love the way he puts it.

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He says, believers wear the hand-me-downs of Christ’s victory over Satan on the cross.

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I love that.

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Hand-me-downs of Christ.

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As I try to reflect on what this meant for Christ to bring justice, would you just look

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at verse seventeen as I read these words that were just my reflection on that verse.

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He put on the breastplate of righteousness to give me a righteousness I do not possess.

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He put on the helmet of salvation to rescue me when I could not save myself.

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He put on garments of vengeance to defeat the dark powers that oppress all of us and

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give them what they deserve.

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He wrapped himself in zeal to enter this fight that we could not win and triumph so that

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in Christ we could not lose.

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Amazing, amazing salvation of God in Christ.

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Not enough to say America needs to turn back to God.

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That’s way too general and it misses the gospel.

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It’s in Christ who has come to us that our hope is found.

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And Christ alone who breaks through the barrier to us when we could not of ourselves have

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any hope of reaching God.

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Now, why did Jesus Christ do all this?

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What was the great purpose of the Son of God coming into the world?

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Now, you could answer that question in many ways but Romans chapter 8 I think makes this

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answer very plain.

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That Christ’s purpose in coming was to create a people like himself.

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That He would be the first among many brothers.

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That the character of Jesus would be multiplied among us.

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This is why the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world.

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That is why He put on this armor to become our savior.

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Now if the purpose of the coming of this Lord Jesus into a world that is losing justice

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and ignoring justice is that we should become like Him, I want you to think about the challenge

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of what it means to be like Jesus.

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Because He became poor that others might inherit the world.

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He became homeless that others might have an everlasting home.

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He was hungry so that others might have the bread of life.

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He was bound so that others may be set free.

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He was stripped of His clothing so that others may be clothed in His righteousness.

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And He suffered injustice so that others might be justified before God.

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That character which is what Isaiah is saying of the one who counts the good of others even

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her own good is the very character of Jesus that He seeks to reproduce within us.

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So when we ask the Holy Spirit, Restore my soul, we are saying, Lord, make me more like

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Jesus!

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And the distinguishing mark of the presence of this Jesus in your life and in mine will

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be that increasingly we care more about others than we care about ourselves.

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So I’ll tell you I have a long, long list of things for which I want to thank God with

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regards to the life of our church, but I’ll put these very, very high on the list.

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The families that foster a child in need, the folks that visit prison every week to

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bring hope to those who are there.

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Those who care quietly for the grieving, visit the sick, have a passion for the persecuted.

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Those who serve the homeless, those who care for an aging parent, a neighbor, a friend,

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the passion of the whole congregation for the Congo and for other parts of the world.

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These are the things that Jesus would do.

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They reflect the kind of Savior He is and they show that we belong to Him.

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And the more the Holy Spirit breathes upon us as a church, the more these kinds of things

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are going to be multiplied as evidences of the likeness of Christ among us.

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That’s gospel reality.

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In this very last moment, let me just tell you a story.

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It came back to my mind.

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I think it’s been told since the 10th or 11th century, I regard it simply as a story that’s

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been handed down.

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But it catches something that’s at the very core of this theme today.

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It’s the story of a monk.

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Now I want you to picture this man.

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He has devoted his whole life to prayer, lives in a monastery, has given up all comforts

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in the world, lives in this stone cell.

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We’re back in the 10th century, all right?

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And he has worn out his knees in prayer, and all his life he has had one abiding passion,

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Lord if just once in my life I could actually see the Lord Jesus Christ.

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And he’s longed for this all his life.

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And one day, late in his life, he’s now an old man and he’s still on his knees in his

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cell, and light fills his cell.

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And he looks up and there he sees the presence of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, right there

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in his tiny cell.

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It is the moment of a lifetime.

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And his mind is filled with a thousand questions all that he wants to say.

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He has longed for this all his life, and he’s right there.

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And at that very moment the story goes, the bell of the monastery rang.

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Now the monk knew what this meant because every day there were folks who came out from

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the village and beggars who would come to seek bread from the monks.

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And on that day as it happened, he was the monk who was on duty to answer the door.

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And so now he faces this agonizing decision, will he stay with the moment of a lifetime

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with the Savior in his cell and ignore the beggar, who can come back another day?

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Or will he leave the presence of the Savior and give bread to the beggar?

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Suddenly he makes his decision, he leaves the cell, the light behind him, and he goes to

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the door, he takes the bread, he gives it to the beggar, and then so slowly trudges

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his way back to the cell.

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I have missed the moment of my life.

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And when he gets back to the cell, he is absolutely amazed because here is Christ Himself.

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Sitting, waiting in the cell.

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And he falls to his knees, and then the story goes, the Saviour said these words,

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If you had not gone, I would not have stayed.

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Here we are longing for a deeper knowledge of the presence of Christ in

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our lives. And Isaiah says, you’re looking for that? Here’s what to pursue. Grasp

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every opportunity you have to loose the chains of injustice, to set the oppressed

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free. Share your food with the hungry, provide poor with shelter, then, then,

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then then your light will break forth like the dawn, your righteousness

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will go before you and you will come, and the Lord will answer. That’s a

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wonderful insight into our armour as Christians. We often hear about our

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armour but to know that it’s second hand, that Christ has already worn it,

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that’s an amazing thing. You’ve been listening to Pastor Colin

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Smith on Open the Bible and the message called Restore Justice, part of our

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series Restore My Soul, and if you’ve missed any of the series so far, please

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come online to our website openthebible.org.uk and catch up, or go back

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and listen again there. You can also find us as a podcast on your favourite

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podcast site. Search for Open the Bible UK, and subscribe to receive regular

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updates. Also on our website you’ll find Open the Bible daily and that’s a series

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of short two to three minute daily reflections based on Pastor Colin Smith’s

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teaching and read in the UK by Sue MacLeish. Many people find it a brilliant

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way to start the day so I’d encourage you to do that. That’s on our website

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openthebible.org.uk, also again as a podcast. Open the Bible is only

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able to remain on the air and on the Internet because of the financial

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support of our listeners, people just like you, and if that’s something you’d

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like to do then we have an offer for you this month. For the whole of this month,

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if you are able to set up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible

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in the amount of £5 per month or more, we’d love to say thank you by

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sending you a copy of C.H Spurgeon’s book Encouragement for the Depressed.

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Colin, can you give an example of Spurgeon’s Encouragement? Well, the first

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part of this book is based on Zechariah 4 and verse 10, Who has despised

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the day of small things? When the temple was rebuilt after the Exile, people

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who remembered the old temple that was very grand, looked at the foundations

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and they said, is this it? You know it just looks so small.

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And I think that speaks to us today that many who really labor in serving the Lord

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have the question, is this all that’s really coming from it? Is this the extent

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of what we shall see God doing in our lifetime? Do not despise the day of

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small things. Well, Spurgeon takes that verse and applies it to the

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discouragements that we often feel when we look at our own lives and think that

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things are small. You know, I only have a little knowledge. I’m not as bright as

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other people. My faith seems very small… And to that, Spurgeon says do not mourn

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that your faith is small. Thank God that you have any faith at all. I love that.

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Thank God that you have this gift. It’s the most marvelous gift. He says,

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if you believe in Jesus, though your faith be small as a mustard seed it will

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and over time it will grow. So I find that Spurgeon’s writing is just

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nourishing to my soul. When I feel down, I often go to Spurgeon because I find

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that he picks me up and I think that that’s what folks will find as they read

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this wonderful little book. Well the book is called, Encouragement for the

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Depressed. It’s by C.H. Spurgeon and it’s our thank you gift to you for being able

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00:24:50,800 –> 00:24:55,479

to support the work of Open the Bible Financially this month in the amount of

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00:24:55,479 –> 00:25:01,219

five pounds per month or more. Full details or to give online come to our

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00:25:01,219 –> 00:25:07,439

website openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin

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Smith, I’m David Pick and I hope you’ll be able to join us again next time on

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Open the Bible.

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Some of the laws that God gave to Israel to protect the poor were never put into

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practice. Find out why next time on Open the Bible.