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Religion, even an evangelical church can be a safe place, it seems, for hiding from God.

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And God knows those who are hiding from him in church.

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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick. I’m glad you could

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be with us today and you would think, Colin, that the Church would be one of the last places

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you’d find people hiding from God. So how do people do that?

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The fact is that we do, that that is one of the most common ways of hiding from God, and

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perhaps the reason why it’s one of the most common ways is that it’s easy to get the idea

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that if we are in some kind of religious service or religious routine or organisation, that

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God will thereby be pleased with us. That gets us off the hook from actually ever having

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to come seriously to terms with the claims that he’s laying on our lives. It’s fascinating

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to me. In the Old Testament particularly, anyone who had the idea that God was interested

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in religion and that He was pleased by it would be making a big mistake. To obey is

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better than sacrifice. One of the great themes early on in Isaiah you have God speaking about

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how tired He is of all this trampling through the courts and all these people showing up

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for religious services and yet at the heart of it there isn’t justice, there isn’t

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humility, and so forth and so on. So it’s very easy to get into a routine of saying

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well I’m a church person God must be pleased with me. Well the Bible would indicate that

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that’s a very, very, dangerous assumption.

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And just looking in the New Testament you can see how Jesus criticised and went after

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the religious people of the day the Pharisees and Sadducees.

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He’s praying away and he thinks that everything’s right because he’s praying but

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his whole prayer is an expression actually of his continued rebellion against God because

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it’s all about himself and here’s this other person who comes and he’d be despised

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by everyone else but he’s genuinely been humbled and Christ says, well now he’s

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the one who’s going to go home forgiven not the other man who was in the temple every day

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So our message today continues with the title restore people so I hope you’ll

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be able to join us in your Bible at Isaiah and Chapter 65. Here’s Colin.

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What kind of religion offends God?

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And I want you to see that that’s precisely what God is speaking about through the

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prophet Isaiah right here in this chapter.

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Ready? Here we go, six forms of religion that are offensive to God.

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Isaiah Chapter 65. Number one, I’m going to call it hypocritical religion and I’m

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looking at verse two, where God speaks about obstinate people who walk in ways

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not good. So here are religious folks, you may have met some of them.

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They talk the talk but they don’t walk the walk. That’s number one,

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a hypocritical religion.

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Here’s a second form of religion that is offensive to God, I’ve called it

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personalized religion.

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I’m still looking at verse two, where God describes people who, in their religion he says,

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are following their own imaginations.

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Notice that phrase in verse two. Following your own imaginations means

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you just assume that God is for whatever you are for and that he’s in whatever

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you’re in. In other words, following your own imaginations is really remaking God

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in your own image, it is just assuming that God is a kind of projection of your

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own preferences, your own prejudices, and your own desires. And God says, when

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people basically imagine me to be a projection of themselves – which, of

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course, is the worst idolatry – God says that offends me, it continually provokes

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me. Notice that word in verse two – to my face. Here’s number three. I’m going to call

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it ritualistic religion. Look at verse three, where God speaks about a religion

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that is about offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of

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brick. Now this is all about ritual. You might expect that God would be very

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impressed with people who are always offering sacrifices and always burning

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incense. But rituals don’t change lives, and a religion that is simply about

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rituals is ultimately empty. And God says that’s the kind of thing that provokes

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me. Number four, I’m going to call dark religion, and it expresses itself in many

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forms, but I want you to notice verse 4, that pinpoints it very clearly. God

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speaks about those who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping

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secret vigil. Now there is a brand of religion that is very dark and is

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intensely interested in the dead, and in contacting the spirits of dead people

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who are no longer with us, and in the Scripture the God of the Bible prohibits

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that absolutely, and it’s right here in Isaiah and chapter 65 and verse 4, and

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God says that whole world offends me, so don’t go near it. Fifth, rebellious

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religion. Notice verse four, here he speaks about religious people who eat

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the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat. Now remember that

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according to the apostle Paul these words are directed to Israel, and in the

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Old Testament God’s people, Israel, were given specific laws that mark their

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special relationship with him. Food laws were included that were appropriate to

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the Old Testament time before our Lord Jesus Christ came. So for a person in Old

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Testament Israel to eat the flesh of pigs, which as is well known were

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prohibited to Old Testament Israel, and the broth of unclean meat. For a Jewish

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person to do that is simply open rebellion against the Old Testament

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commandment of God that had been given at that time. So here’s a person who’s

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saying, you know, whatever God’s commanded, I’m going to do the opposite. And there

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are folks like that and it’s a kind of form of religion, it is I will be my own

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God, I will determine my own way and if God says no, that is the very thing to

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say yes and God says, that offends me. That is like smoke in my nostrils. Here’s

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number six, the last in the list, and perhaps the most subtle and perhaps one

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of which many of us may feel we’re in the most immediate danger, I’m calling it

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arrogant religion, and you see it right there in verse 5, God speaks, last in the

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list, about those who say, keep away. Don’t come near me because I am too sacred

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for you. What a marvelous description of a religious person who is unbearably

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proud. Looks down on other person, I’m holier than you. And God is saying this,

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He says, if your religion makes you proud, if your religion makes you feel morally

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superior to other people that you work beside or live beside or whatever else,

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you need to know that that religion provokes me, defends me. It’s like smoke

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in my nostrils when I see religious people who think that they are better

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than anybody else. Because, of course, the gospel is the opposite effect. It brings

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me to the place of saying, I am a sinner who needs a Savior, Jesus Christ,

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and it cost his blood that I might be forgiven. Isn’t it interesting?

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Look at verse 5 as a whole right there. It’s almost as if the arrogant religion

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is the most offensive of them all. As God goes through this list,

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the folks who say keep away, don’t come near me because I’m too sacred for you,

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such people are smoke in my nostrils. Now, this is profoundly helpful.

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It’s very, very important for us to understand this, especially in a culture

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that thinks that all religion’s good, you know? As long as the person’s sincere

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and so forth and so on.

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The Bible is making it clear to us God directly speaking through the Prophet

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Isaiah tells us that religion is a mixed bag and much of it offends God.

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God is especially offended by religion that is hypocritical, that is talking the

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talk but not walking the walk, personalized, that is a projection

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of our own preferences, prejudices, and desires, ritualistic,

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that is primarily about rights and disciplines that don’t change lives,

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dark, that is seeking communication with the spirits of the dead,

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rebellious, that is pursuing what God has told us to forsake,

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and arrogant which is religion that makes us feel superior to other people.

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God says that stuff provokes me continually to My face.

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Now, I hope that if you’ve been burned by religion

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and you’re still feeling the bruise of that

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you can take this in, and perhaps even today,

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you will say, this is God reaching out to me.

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I’m finding actually that God is looking for something that is true and authentic,

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and it’s that that he wants to draw you into.

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Do you know religion can be a strange place for hiding from God?

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I want to challenge us about that this weekend.

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Is it possible even for some of us, we come to the service,

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we’re glad to be part of the church, and we’re connected to some other people.

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Well, religion, even an evangelical church, can be a safe place, it seems, for hiding from God.

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And God knows those who are hiding from him in church.

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I was thinking about this just remembering it was years ago now, but

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when I was in seminary, one summer we went out for a mission, a whole group of us students,

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we’d been invited by a small church in a small borders town in Scotland. And there were

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just two churches there, one was St. Mark’s, which was the church that had invited us,

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and the other was simply known as the parish. And because the town was fairly small, it was

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possible for us to set and fulfill the objective of visiting, knocking on the door, of every home

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in the town. So, the first morning, off we go in our twos, I remember it so vividly, climbing up a

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fairly steep hill, it’s the borders of Scotland after all, and I decided we’ll start at the top

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end of the hill and work down, rather than the bottom end of the hill and work up. And we got

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to the first house, knocked on the door and we had our line and our pitch kind of ready,

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and i said we’re students and we’re here for a week of mission at the invitation of St. Mark’s

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Church, and we’re here just to talk to people in this town about Jesus Christ. And you know

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what she said to me? She was a very well educated and obviously dignified lady and well to do. And

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she said, Oh, I’m not interested in that. She said, I belong to the parish church.

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And you know, if I’d heard it one set perhaps would have forgotten it. I heard that

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a hundred times that week, at least. It’s possible to get yourself into church world

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and completely miss Jesus Christ.

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And the God of the Bible who seeks people who don’t know him

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is also very concerned to find people who claim to know him.

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back to the message now we’re in Isaiah and chapter 65 here’s Collin.’

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I want us to see this very clearly here. It’s a wonderful thing how God deals

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with this mixed bag of religion because here we’re in the situation where truth

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and falsehood, light and darkness in this world is all mixed up together in

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religion. What is God going to do about it? Well, I want you to see that the same

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God who seeks those who don’t know Him also sorts out those who claim to know

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Him and you’ll see that in verse 8 particularly. This is what the Lord says

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and God uses a very vivid picture to help us understand what He’s going to do

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about the mixed bag of religion. He says,

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So, God says well I do on behalf of my servants I will not destroy them all. So

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God is saying, you know think of religion as a bunch of grapes and some of them

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are bad but some of them are good and what God is saying is that He will sort

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out He will distinguish He will separate and He won’t throw them all away. He will

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sort out the good from the bad God says quite clearly this is what I’m

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going to do about the whole religious world I’m going to sort it out and of

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course our Lord Jesus Christ tells us in the New Testament that God will bring

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all people one day to account that includes secular people who don’t know

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him and religious people who claim to know him and on that day Jesus said

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among the religious people there will be some people who say Lord this is what

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we’ve done for you and they’ll want to come up with a long list of everything

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that they think that they have done for God and to some our Lord says he will

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say depart from me I never knew you so this is another window into the heart of

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God the God of the Bible seeks out those who don’t know him he sorts out those

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who claim to know him the good grapes from the bad now here’s the conclusion

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I’ve drawn from pondering this over these last days you know at the end of

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the day it doesn’t really matter too much whether we start off as secular

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people who don’t know God or religious people who claim to know God either way

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all of us need God’s saving intervention in our lives and Paul takes up that

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again in the New Testament in Romans and chapter 3 and verse 9 he puts it like

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this he says Jews and Gentiles are all alike under sin I think about that Jews

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that is the religious people who claim to know God and Gentiles that is the

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secular people who do not know God and Paul says you know God blasts across

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that distinction between these two groups because all alike are under sin

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and all alike stand in need of one Savior Jesus Christ who has come to do

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what to seek and to save that which was lost.

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Now we took a moment just to look at what God says to those who ignore him

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and those who don’t seek him.

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I want you to see just in these last moments what God says to those who

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provoke him.

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What does God have to say to false religion,

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arrogance, darkness.

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You see again you might expect that God would say you know there are

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some religious people and they claim to know me but actually they give me a bad

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name in the world and so I repudiate them.

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There are some folks who have formed darkened kinds of religion and what is

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light have to do with darkness I have no interest in them.

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I just associate myself with them.

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I want nothing to do with them.

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But that’s not the God of the Bible.

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Look at what he does say in verse 2.

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All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people.

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Think about this.

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God is speaking about those who walk in ways that are not good,

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who follow gods of their own imagination, pursue darkness,

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go into open rebellion, look down on others with intolerable

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pride.

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What does God say?

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He says, well, this is like smoke in my nostrils.

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But all day long I hold out my hands to these obstinate

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people.

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You wouldn’t have expected that, would you?

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Listen until you get to know the amazing God of the Bible.

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See, this is grace.

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God seeks those who ignore him and he saves those who provoke

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him.

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And you say, how does God do that?

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How would he seek people who have no knowledge of him.

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How would he bring them into a knowledge of himself.

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How would he save people who are who have provoked him and

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offended him and like smoke in his nostrils?

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See, that is why Jesus Christ came into the world.

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Isn’t it to seek and to save that which is lost.

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John describes it this way.

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The word became flesh, that is God became Man.

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The God you can’t see became the person that men and women did

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see in Jesus Christ so that God makes himself known to those who

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otherwise would not have a hope in the world of everlasting

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goodness.

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Or a hope in the world of ever finding him.

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No one has ever seen God, but God the one and only has made

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him known.

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So that Jesus says, when you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the

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Father.

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God seeks in the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

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and how does he save people who have provoked Him?

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See, this is not why Jesus only came.

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This is why Jesus died.

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Think about this, brutal men face to face with God in the

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flesh and they struck him on the head and they spat in his

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face, then they nail him to a cross and he says, Father,

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forgive them, They do not know what they are doing. See that’s

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grace. That’s how the amazing God of the Bible seeks and

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saves folks who don’t know him. Aren’t looking for him to do

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anything in their lives. We’ve gotten into a kind of hiding

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from him even in religion. He reaches out to you and me says,

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Picture Jesus on the cross. Now hear these words of God through

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Isaiah again. All day long. I hold out my hands. To this

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obstinate people. That’s the God of the Bible. And when you

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discover who he really is, you will want to know him turn to

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him trust him and follow him. Some important truth today. God

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seeks people who ignore Him and God saves people who provoke

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him and because of that, there is hope for anyone. Maybe as

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you’ve been listening, you feel he’s been calling you into a

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relationship of the kind that we often talk about here on open

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the Bible. You’d like to know more about how to enter into

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that relationship by the saving grace of God and if so, I

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hope you’ll seek out a trusted Christian friend or family

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member or maybe go along to a Christian church fellowship.

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Take time to speak with the folk in the relationship, the

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pastor or some members of that fellowship. Tell them about

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your journey to discover faith for yourself. You’ll find

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they’ll be ready to pray with you to help you make that step

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or if you’re not yet ready to make that step and still have

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questions and we all have questions, there may well be a

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Bible study course or a home group or an alpha program that

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you can join. You’ve been listening to Open the Bible

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with pastor Colin Smith and our message today, Restore People,

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part of our series Restore My Soul. And if you’ve missed any

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of the series or want to go back and listen again, you can

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do that online by coming to our website. That’s openthebible.org.uk

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or by searching out our podcast, which is

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available on all the regular podcasting sites, just search

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for Open the Bible UK. Open the Bible is supported entirely

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by our listeners and if that’s something you’ve been

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considering doing, then this month we have a great offer for

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you. If you’re able to set up a new donation to the work of

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Open the Bible in the amount of Five Pounds per month or more,

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we’d love to say thank you by sending you a copy of C.H.

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Spurgeon’s book, Encouragement for the Depressed. Colin, who

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is this book for?

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Well, this book is really for anyone who is discouraged or

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going through a dark time, and I can’t imagine that there’s any

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Christian who doesn’t experience that at some point in life.

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What’s so striking to me about this book is that it’s written

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by a man who was known for his extraordinary faith. I mean,

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the Spirit of God rested on the life and ministry of C.H.

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Spurgeon and yet he knew what it was to go through times of

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extraordinary darkness and even a sense of despair at some

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points. You know, he suffered from small pox, gout,

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rheumatism, inflammation of the kidneys, and his wife was

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bedridden for decades. I mean, this man really knew what it was

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to suffer. And yet he found, in all of this, that he was forced

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closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what he says. He says,

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I’ve learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the

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rock of ages. I love that. Kiss the waves that throw me up

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against the rock of ages. Here’s biblical wisdom from a man of

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faith who knew what it was to really struggle in dark times.

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And I have found his writing to be wonderfully encouraging,

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refreshing, and uplifting. And that’s why I’m really grateful

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that we have the opportunity of getting this book out this

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month. C.H. Spurgeon’s book, Encouragement For the Depressed,

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is our gift to you. If you are able to set up a new donation to

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00:24:42,180 –> 00:24:46,180

the work of Open the Bible this month, in the amount of £5 per

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00:24:46,180 –> 00:24:50,020

month or more. Full details and to give online go to our

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website open thebible.org.uk.

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For Open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick,

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and I hope you’ll join us again next time.

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If you want to elevate your church’s worship, ask about

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00:25:06,900 –> 00:25:11,459

its commitment to mission. Discover why, on Open the Bible,

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next time.