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Friends, there is so much more of this infinite love of God than any of us have yet tasted.

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So, the question that rises up therefore in the heart of any Christian believer, surely

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is, having tasted, how can I receive more?

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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick and Colin, I think

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those of us who have begun to experience the love of God, well, we want more.

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Yeah, that’s right. Well, a Christian by definition is a person who knows by experience

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the love of God, the love of God poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, but we’re

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talking about a love that is inexhaustible, that is infinite, that is beyond the range

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that love being poured into our hearts, I mean it’s like pouring an ocean into a thimble

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here. And what we’re looking at today is how having tasted something of this love, which

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is true of every Christian believer, how can I know and enjoy more of the richness of this

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love of God? That’s a great question. Paul prays for Christians, that we will know more

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of the breadth, length, depth and height of the love of God. Well, that’s what we want.

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How are we gonna get it? That’s what we’re looking at today.

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So, let’s get right into the message. I hope you’ll join us if you can in Romans, and chapter

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five, as we continue the message, The Love of God. Here’s Colin.

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I want you to look at what the Apostle says.

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God’s love has been poured into our hearts. How? How?

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Through the Holy Spirit. You see what he’s saying?

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Only the Holy Spirit can do this. Your pastor can speak to you about the love

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of God, but your pastor doesn’t have the ability to pour this love into your heart.

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You have to go to God for that. Your counselor can point you in the direction

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of a God who loves you, but she cannot pour the love of God into your heart.

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You have to go to God for that. But look at what it says here in the

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Scripture. It’s not just that the Holy Spirit can pour the love of God into our hearts.

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It says He has. Do you see that? God’s love has been poured into our hearts

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through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

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So trying to shape our minds by what the Bible actually says, Paul is writing to

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Christian believers in Rome and he’s saying effectively, now here are two

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things that you need to know about yourself as a Christian. Number one. For a

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person in Christ, the Holy Spirit has been given to you. He has been given to

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you. If that’s not true of you, you’re not yet in Christ and you shouldn’t pretend

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that you are. There’s no such thing as a person who’s in Christ who has not

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received the Holy Spirit. Check that out in Romans chapter 8, and verse 9, it’s

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very, very clear. How could Christ be in your heart and how could you be in Christ

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if it was not that the Holy Spirit had done that work and made it to be

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so? Could not possibly happen otherwise. So if you’re in Christ Paul is saying to

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these Christians in Rome, understand two things are true of you the first is this

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that the Holy Spirit has been given to you, and here’s the second, therefore

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because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and therefore the Spirit of Love,

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God’s love has been poured into your heart. These things are true of everyone

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who is in Christ, everyone who is in Christ has tasted something of the love

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of God and the person who has not tasted something of the love of God is not yet

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in Jesus Christ but friends there is so much more of this infinite love of God

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than any of us have yet tasted, the love of God is greater far than

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tongue or pen can ever tell. You think about the vastness of this love of this

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infinite God being poured into the restricted capacity of a human heart.

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I mean we talk about trying to pour a quart into a pint pot. This is like

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trying to pour an ocean into a thimble isn’t it? I mean it’s just the love of

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God in a human heart so the question that rises up therefore in the heart of

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any Christian believer surely is having tasted, how can I receive more? And so

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here’s the second of these two things today. The first was to gaze into what is

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promised and how wonderful it is and to get the taste of what a difference more

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and more of this would make in our lives and then the second thing is to ask the

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question, how can we enjoy more of what is here promised? I want you to notice

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what Paul says, God’s love has been poured into our hearts. The obvious

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question then is, whose hearts? He does not say that God’s

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love has been poured into all hearts. That’s very important. This is not a

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universal experience that he’s talking about. He does not say God’s love has

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been poured out into all hearts, he says God’s love has been poured out into our

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hearts. So the question is, who are they? Our. Who are the people into whose hearts

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the love of God is poured? Because the more that we reflect the marks of these

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people the more therefore we will experience what is promised to them. So

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who are the people who enjoy this outpouring of God’s love in their hearts?

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And there’s a very simple way and a very reliable way to answer that question. He’s

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speaking to a certain group of people so let’s look at what he says immediately

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before the promise and let’s look at what he says immediately after the

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promise and we’ll discover the people into whose hearts the love of God is

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poured. And if we can become more like them we’re going to experience more of

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this love of God permeating every part of our being. So let me just point out

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these four markers very very simply who are the people into whose

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hearts the love of God is poured number one. They are people who exercise faith.

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The love of God is poured into our hearts who’s he speaking of? Look at

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verse one. Therefore since we, same group of people, have been justified by faith

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we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Who’s the we? People who

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exercise faith. We have been justified by faith and God’s love is poured into our

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hearts. You see the connection? Now faith is more than saying you believe. Faith is

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believing God over all other voices and the Christian life is lived by faith and

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Christian experience is mediated by faith. No one can ever believe God’s

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truth and Satan’s lies at the same time. When God says to you, in Christ you are

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justified, Satan comes along sometime in the course of the week and he says how

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can that possibly be? Look at you. You have massive contradictions. Look at this

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area of your life. It’s a complete and utter mess.

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How can God possibly be at peace with you? Well then the question is who are

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you going to believe? Faith believes God over other voices. And friends, don’t

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think of this simply about, you know, a decision 20 years ago I came to faith

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and so forth. That’s wonderful and that’s important. But the life of faith is a

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matter of believing God over other voices every day. You’re going to go out

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this week and there’s what the world says you are.

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There’s what your own heart that sometimes condemns you may say you are.

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There’s what the devil himself may suggest to you, the great accuser may

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say you are. And then there is what God says that you are. There’s what the world

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in its constant bombardment of advertising says you need. And then

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there’s what God says you need. And every day we’re making active choices. This is

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what exercising faith looks like. To believe God over all the other voices

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that surround us… that’s faith. Faith believes God over all other voices and

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does it on a day-to-day basis and it’s these people, people who are living by

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this exercised faith on a daily basis into whose hearts the Holy Spirit is

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pouring the love of God. You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor

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Colin Smith and the final message in our series, Soulcare. A message is called

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Love of God. We’ll come right back to it shortly. If you’ve tuned in late or if

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you’ve missed any of the previous messages you can always catch up or go

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back and listen again online. Come to our website openthebible.org.uk and

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there you can stream any of the previously broadcast messages. You can

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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. That’ll be on your regular podcasting site. Just

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search for open the Bible UK. Back to the message now, here’s Colin…

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Knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance character and

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character produces hope. so here, particularly we’re being told if you

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connect verse 3 and verse 5 that we’ve been looking at that the love of God is

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wonderfully poured into the hearts of people who are marked by having

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persevered through suffering. Isn’t that very striking to you that the love of

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God poured out would be in the experience of people who suffer. Our

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instinct is, well, if God loves me I shouldn’t ever suffer.

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But think of the one who knew the love of the father without measure, and think

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of how much he suffered, and how much he was loved.

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This is very important because the promises of God, and we’re looking at a

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wonderful promise in Romans chapter five and verse five, the promises of God are

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really hammered out, as someone has said, on the anvil of human experience, and

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human experience is often painful.

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But notice that these people persevere through their sufferings, we rejoice in

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our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance.

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Now, friends, obviously this does not mean that we should seek suffering, what it

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does mean is that we should use it.

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When it comes, we should, in the pain of it, at least be encouraged by this, that

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this is a place where we may hope to taste more of the love of God poured out even

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than at other times, and to ask God that by his mercy it may be so.

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That’s the great encouragement in pressing on through the difficulties, the

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suffering, the pain, the sheer discouragement.

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Suffering produces endurance and character and hope, and into our hearts

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the Holy Spirit pours out this marvelous and increasing knowledge of the love of

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God. Here’s number 3. Into whose hearts is the love of God poured? Our hearts who

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are they? Our, who are these people? They are people who own their need for Jesus.

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I’m looking at the verses just after verse five now. And notice how these

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people are described. While we were still weak, verse six, at the right time Christ

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died for the ungodly. Verse eight, but God shows His love for us, same group of

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people, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And you see

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that the we and the us in verse six and verse eight are quite clearly the same

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group of people, into whose hearts the love of God in verse five is poured.

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So here the Apostle is describing what we were by nature and he uses three words

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that are all very important. The first is weak. We were weak.

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Employers are in the business of hiring. They’re always looking for the people of

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greatest ability. Does a general rule, the people of the greatest ability end up

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being the ones that get chosen? But here God’s love is poured out to

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people who know that they do not have in themselves the ability to do what he has

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called them to do.

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That apart from Jesus Christ, it is for me impossible. Then he describes our

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nature as ungodly. Christ died, verse six, for the ungodly.

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Now a godly person, is a person who is for God and what the Apostle is saying

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here is, look that wasn’t us! We weren’t for God. We were for ourselves. We were

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ungodly. We, if we had an appearance of godliness at all, it was driven by our

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self-interest rather by genuine love for him. No, God was for us long before we

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were ever for him. Our nature is ungodly, what about ourselves? Left to ourselves

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that’s how we would always be and we are sinners, verse 8, that means we are

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rebels, we fall short, we’re off the mark, we’re guilty and without excuse before

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God. So you see what this is saying, that a person into whose heart the love

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of God is poured, is a person who knows, if you were to take away from me Jesus

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Christ and all that is come to me through him, then this is all that would

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be left by nature. I would remain for ever a weak ungodly sinner and here’s

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the amazing thing, that God saw us as we were, He had compassion on us, He sent

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his Son for us, He demonstrates his love for us in this, that while we were in

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this wretched condition, Christ died for us. Now here’s the really important

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application at this point, the Holy Spirit will never pour the love of God

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into the heart of a self-righteous person, never, it never happens.

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People who think themselves godly and righteous and strong never get to savor

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his love as long as they continue to think that. People who feel that God owes

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them don’t taste this love it’s never poured out into the hearts of the

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self-righteous. It is poured out into the hearts of those who own their need for

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Jesus Christ, and the more that you grow as a Christian the more you will own

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that, the more you will see that, the more you will see if you took away Jesus

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Christ and everything that has come to me through him what I would be left with

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is nothing that’s why we sing that song Hallelujah all I have is Christ. That’s

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what it means. I don’t want to present before God something that I think I’ve

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achieved in my life, because every good comes from and lies in him and it’s my

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good only, because by God’s grace he is mine. And then here’s the last Into whose

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hearts is the love of God poured? People who are exercising, and living by faith,

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believing the voice of God over every other voice on a daily basis are going

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to experience more and more of the love of God. People who just press on through

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suffering with endurance, and find character being formed on the love of

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God. Some folks are just like a rose that has been crushed and there’s a

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perfume that comes from their life and it’s beautiful. It’s Romans 5.5 being

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poured out into the life of a person who’s gone through Romans 5.3.

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Amazing. The love of God is poured out into a person who really owns their need

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for Jesus Christ and the love of God lastly is poured out into the life of a

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person who embraces Jesus Christ. Notice again the we. Same group of people.

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If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son

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now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by His life. What a marvellous

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statement about the Lord Jesus Christ. All that is ours through His death on

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the cross all that is ours through His resurrection from the dead and Paul

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brings the two together. We’re reconciled to God through the death of

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His Son. It’s through what he accomplished on the cross that we’re

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forgiven and the past is wiped clean and we’re brought into this new

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relationship with God, and all this flows from what Jesus accomplished on the

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cross, but it doesn’t even end there, now that we’re reconciled, Paul says, how much

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more shall we be saved by His life. You’ve got a risen Saviour who is at the

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right hand of the Father even now, and what that means is that you know when

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your sins are forgiven you just begin to discover that now this is the start of a

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whole ongoing battle against stuff that you find within you that you’re battling

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every day, and you have a risen Christ who is able to help you and one day he’s

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going to bring you into his presence and on that day the battle that was begun

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when you came to Christ will be complete and there will not be a hint of sin in

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you and there will not be a trace of sin around you. This is the kind of Saviour

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Jesus Christ is, reconciled by the death of God’s Son, saved forever by the life

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of God’s Son. The Christ who died to save you, lives to keep you and He will

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never, never, never let you go. And it’s into our hearts, that is, the hearts of

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those who have embraced this Christ the crucified Saviour and the Risen Lord

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into our hearts the Holy Spirit pores the love of God. We want to know more of

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this marvelous love. Exercise faith, believing the voice of God over all

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other voices. Use your suffering and persevere through it knowing that out of

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this, you may taste more of the love of God than in any other circumstance of

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your life. Own your need of Christ and walk in humility before him and embrace

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this marvelous Savior, the crucified Savior, who is the risen Lord.

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Pastor Collin Smith on Open the Bible, ending the message there with a call to

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come and embrace the love of God in Jesus Christ in this way and to begin to

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experience the love of God for ourselves. Maybe that’s something you haven’t yet

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experienced or maybe you have questions about what it means to become a

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Christian. You’d like to know more about how to enter into that relationship by

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the saving grace of God, and if so I hope you’ll seek out a trusted Christian

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friend or family member or maybe go along to a Christian Church Fellowship.

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Take time to speak with the folk there, the pastor, or simply members of that

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fellowship. Tell them about your journey to discover faith for yourself. You’ll

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find they’ll be ready to pray with you to help you make that step, or if you’re

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not yet ready to make that step and still have questions, there may well be a

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Bible study course or a Homegroup or an Alpha programme that you can join.

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Today’s message was the final one in the series SOUL CARE and if you’ve missed

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any of the series or if you’d like to go back and listen again, you can always do

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that by coming online to our website openthebible.org.uk, or find us as

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podcast if that’s a better way for you to keep up with pastor Collins teaching, and

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that’s available on all the podcasting sites, simply by searching for Open the

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Bible UK. Open the Bible is listener supported. It’s your generosity that

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keeps Pastor Colin’s teaching on this station and online. Thank you if you

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already give regularly. If that’s something you’ve been thinking about

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doing, if you’re able to set up a regular gift to the work of Open the Bible in

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the amount of £5 per month or more, this month we’d

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love to thank you by sending you a copy of Chris Lungard’s book, The Enemy Within

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straight talking about the power and defeat of sin. Colin for those of us not

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familiar with Chris Lungard what can you tell us about him? Well Chris Lungard

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has done a brilliant job of describing the battle that Christians have against

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sin and pointing us in the direction of how we can prevail in that battle. Now

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the Bible speaks about this very clearly especially in Romans chapter 8 in verse

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13 we’ve got to put to death the misdeeds of the body by the power of the

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Holy Spirit who lives within us. That’s the ongoing battle of the Christian life.

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I think one of the most insightful writers in all of human history on this

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is a Puritan writer by the name of John Owen. He wrote on the battle against sin

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in a profoundly helpful way. You’ve got to know what sin you’re up against. You’ve

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got to find where it’s lurking in your heart and then you’ve got to be

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ruthless and giving it no quarter and putting it to death. That’s Romans

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chapter 8 in verse 13. But the problem with John Owen is that he was a

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seventeenth-century Puritan and he wrote hundreds of pages that are quite

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difficult to read and the genius of Chris Lungard is that he has taken

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the insights of John Owen, some of the richest insights into the battle of the

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Christian life in history. And he has put these in clear and contemporary and

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compelling terms. And that is why this is such a wonderful book. It is

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brilliantly titled The Enemy Within Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat

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Of Sin. Anyone who wants to prevail in their battle against sin should read

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this book. It is wonderfully practical, wonderfully encouraging and wonderfully

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helpful. Well we’d love to send you a copy of this book, to thank you for

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setting up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible this month. There are

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full details on our website openthebible.org.uk. For Open the Bible and

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Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick and I hope you’ll join us again next time

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What does it mean to find rest in God?

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Is it going to sleep? Or going on holiday? Or watching TV?

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Find out next time on Open the Bible