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If you have had an idea that Christian faith is somehow about

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believing in Jesus Christ from a distance, then please think again.

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Because Jesus Christ says no I am knocking at the door of your heart

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and I want to come in. That’s what he says.’

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

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and we’ve been looking at how to care for our souls and today,

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Colin of course, we begin to look at four friends for the soul.

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You know, I got the idea for this little series from a man by

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the name of Andrew Gray, who was a pastor who died at the

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age of 21, and left behind him, before the age of 21, left behind

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him an extraordinary body of remarkable material. An amazing

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preacher. Here’s just a little phrase, and he just passes over

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it. He says, there are four friends for your soul. The Son

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of God, the Word of God, the fear of God and the love of God.

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And then he moves on, these are for great themes from the Bible.

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And that’s where we’re going to focus. What a marvelous thing

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that the Son of God would actually come to live in the soul

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of a Christian believer. And so that’s what we’re going to begin

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he is the great friend of the soul, and to know him and to know

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his presence in your life is the most marvelous gift.

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Let’s open God’s word if we can at second book of Corinthians

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chapter five. As we begin our message, Son of God. Here’s

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Colin.

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We’ve been looking together at the words of Jesus about the

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soul. You have a soul and one of two things will happen to your

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soul and to every soul. Either your soul will be saved or your

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soul will be lost. And Jesus speaks about this very clearly.

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What will it profit a man if he were to gain the whole world if

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you were to gain everything imaginable and then lose your

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own soul, it would not be to your advantage.

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But then Jesus speaks about how your soul can be saved. He said

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if you lose your life for my sake you will keep it. And we

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saw that losing your life for Christ involves returning to the

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shepherd and to the overseer of your soul. We saw that Jesus is

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presented to us in the Bible as the savior who died on the

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cross but also as the shepherd who rose from the dead. And a

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Christian is a person who believes in the savior who died

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and who submits to the shepherd who lives. And then we looked at

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caring for your soul. Your soul is of greater value than the

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whole world. And so it is good to care for your soul well. We

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thought about this your money has value. And so you look after

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your money you want it to grow. Well your soul has greater

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value and therefore we want to be caring for our souls. We want

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our souls to grow in the knowledge of Christ. And these

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are the things that we’ve been considering over the past month

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or so. And the message today is really a very simple one and it

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boils down to this. You don’t do this alone. This caring for

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your soul you don’t do it alone. And I want to introduce to you

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for friends for your soul for friends for your soul think of

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them as honored guests who come into your life and stay there.

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And if you want to keep your heart right as you move through

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life you must welcome these guests and make room for them

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in your heart.

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Now throughout our lives and this will be true of many in the

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congregation today Karn and I over the years have a different

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times had different members of family and others living with us

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early in our married life living in London Karn’s brother came

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and lived with us for a year and after we recovered from that her

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sister came and lived with us also for a year. And you folks

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know what this is like you know you welcome a guest who’s

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coming to live in your home and you say when I make yourself at

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home and our home is your home and and all the rest of it now

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take that picture and try and apply it to your soul that our

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four friends for honored guests for your soul and if you care

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for your soul you will welcome these friends and you will give

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them unfettered access to every aspect of your life let me give

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you who the four friends are the son of God the word of God the

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fear of God and the love of God the son of God the word of God

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the fear of God and the love of God, all of which in the Bible

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are spoken off as dwelling in our hearts now my original plan

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was to cover all four of these I thought this is a Four Point

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message But as I prepared this week it became quite obvious to

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me that if I stayed with the original plan we would be here

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long past lunchtime and therefore I’ve decided the

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discretion is the better part of valor So today then the first

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we’re focusing particularly on the first friend rather than all

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four Would you turn with me to Galatians 2.20

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And many of you will know this verse very well and if you don’t

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it’s certainly one to come to know to underline in your Bible

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and to seek to experience Galatians chapter 2 in verse 20

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and just the first part of the verse we’re thinking about the

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son of god dwelling in our heart and Paul says I have been

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crucified with Christ it is no longer I who live but Christ who

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in me Christ lives in me that’s what the apostle Paul says

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Christ lives in me now here is a marvellous statement of what

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it means to be a Christian the son of god moves in as the

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honored guest of your soul and you can think about how the bible

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speaks of this in different ways you may remember

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revelation in chapter 3 and verse 20 where christ says I behold I stand at

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the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens

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the door I will come in to him and

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eat with him and he with me

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So if you have had an idea that christian

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faith is somehow about believing in Jesus Christ from a distance

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then please think again because Jesus Christ says no I am

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knocking at the door of your heart. And I want to come in that’s what he

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says. and when I come in he obviously uses

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an analogy here he says I want to eat with you now think what

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that means the son of God says if we could use this

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picture I want to settle down you and me either

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side of a booth together and for us to do breakfast

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lunch dinner and supper too that’s the kind of friendship I want to

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have with you table conversation that close the other side of the booth

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and I’m standing at the door and knocking because I don’t have that with

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you yet but that is what I seek and Paul is

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saying that is what I’ve discovered Christ lives

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in me. He’s the honored guest in my soul I’m not simply

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believing in a remote Jesus from afar I’m experiencing communion with the son

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of God who actually dwells in

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my heart something very wonderful that we’re looking at today

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now the obvious question is how is Christ present in the soul

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of a believer what does that actually mean

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remember Christ rose from the dead and he rose in a resurrection body

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and in that resurrection body a risen Christ ascended

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into heaven the disciples saw him go now the resurrection body is obviously

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different from the bodies that we have now

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but it is nonetheless a body and the scripture makes clear that the

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risen Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the

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right hand of the father in heaven

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so the presence of the resurrected body

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cannot be in your heart any more than it could be on the communion table

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so how is Christ present then in the soul

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of every believer the answer is by the holy spirit

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and jesus spoke about this very clearly to his disciples

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you can read about it in john’s gospel in chapter 16 and chapter

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14 remember jesus was telling them that he must go

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to the father and they didn’t want him to go of course

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but jesus said it is to your advantage that i go away

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because if i do not go away the helper will not come to you but if i go

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i will send him to you the helper now who is this helper that

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jesus is speaking of and the answer is he is speaking of the holy spirit

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and he says this quite clearly jesus says i will

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ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever

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and then he says who the helper is the spirit of truth and he says you know

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him for he dwells with you notice that he dwells with you and will be

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in you that’s john chapter 14 verses 16 and 17

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so i am going to the father says jesus but i am going to send to you the holy

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spirit of truth and he will dwell with you

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and he will be in you now the holy spirit

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the third person of the trinity is referred to in the bible as the

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spirit of god as the spirit of christ

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as the spirit of truth as in the verse we’ve just quoted

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as the holy spirit or simply as the spirit it’s interesting that in

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romans chapter 8 and verse 9 there are three references to the

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holy spirit in one verse uh using three of these different uh

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titles romans 8 9 you however are not in the flesh

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but in the spirit if in fact the spirit of god

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dwells in you anyone who does not have the spirit of christ

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belong to him so here is the great reality that

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stands at the very center of an authentic christian life

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jesus christ the son of god who was born in the manger

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who died on the cross and who rose from the dead

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lives by the spirit in the life of every believer

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i’m going to say that again because it is so remarkable

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that jesus christ the son of god who was born in the manger and died on

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the cross and rose from the dead lives

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by his spirit the spirit of christ in the life the heart the soul

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of every believer and that is why paul says in

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galatians and chapter 2 in verse 20 that is opened before us

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i’ve been crucified with christ i no longer live but

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christ lives in me that’s why the apostle says in the

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book of colossians it’s christ in you that’s your hope

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of glory we’ve got to pause our message briefly there you’re listening to open

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the bible with pastor colin smith and today’s message son of god

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it’s part of our series soul care if you’ve missed any of the series or if

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you want to simply go back and listen again

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come to our website openthebible.org.uk we want to help

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you to understand how the books in the bible fit together

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and a good way to do that is with open the bible story

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you can find that on our website it’s a journey through the whole bible

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a study course in 30 parts entitled the drive

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it will take you deep into the valleys of the old testament

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the peaks of the glories of jesus and the ups and downs of the Christian life

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all the way through it will show how the bible always points to the person

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of jesus christ you can find open the bible story on our website that’s

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openthebible.org.uk back to the message now

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here’s colin years ago when i was still a student

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i came across a book by a man called william

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law that was called a serious call to a devout and holy life

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some of you may have heard of that book it’s actually quite famous

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and has been regarded in some spheres as something of

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a classic a serious call to a devout and holy life and here i was a young

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student wanting to give my life to christ

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and i thought to myself now that’s what i want

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a holy life i really want to be devoted to christ

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so i got the book and i started reading and i didn’t get very far

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because it was very very dry there are 24 chapters i was looking at

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it again online i actually threw my original copy away because i hadn’t

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found any value in it by the way i do know there may be a

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rebellious section of the congregation they’ll say i got to read that book

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because he didn’t like it you know and just see what what’s wrong with it or

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else what’s wrong with him um but i you know out of 24

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hefty chapters i don’t think i got through four or five before

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i gave up then just last weekend i was reading

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a book a wonderful book by ian murray who is a historian

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a christian historian and i was absolutely fascinated it just popped out

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of me you know how that happens when he made a comment about this man

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william law and let me read the quote to you in

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full so that you’ll understand it he says this any teaching on holiness

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which puts the main emphasis underline that the main emphasis

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on the christian’s duty any teaching on holiness that puts the main emphasis

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on a christian’s duty turns sanctification that’s the way in which

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we become progressively more like christ

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turns sanctification into a matter of self

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effort a work dependent on ourselves or an experience that we have to seek

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if that were the case says marie it would not be good news

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grace would fall into the second place and our works would be put before the

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grace of god then he says this this is not an

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imaginary danger that is to make the main emphasis self

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effort and to put our works before the grace of god

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this is not an imaginary danger because in the 18th century

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in england there were clergy ministers who lamented the moral decline

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that sounds familiar to us doesn’t it they lamented the moral decline

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and they spoke and wrote therefore about holiness

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one of them was william law who wrote a book called a serious

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to a devout and holy life 1729 yet says marie and this was what got me

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the teaching of these men this is a historian speaking

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brought no change to the church or to the nation

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he then explains why? the reason their message was not good news

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it was simply self-effort and moral improvement you see

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he says they directed non-christians to live as if they were christians

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you see they see the moral decline in the country and they say what we need is a

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restoration of traditional values we need

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a restoration of christian values so what we’ve got to preach

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is we got to tell non-christians to live as if they were christians that’s what

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William Law did

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and Iain Murray the historian looking back on the whole history of the 18th

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century said it made absolutely no difference in the church it made

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no difference the nation then he says this it was only

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when George Whitefield and the Wesley’s and others began to preach

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Christ and the necessity of the Holy Spirit

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and the new birth that then a great and a mighty change

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began and he’s talking about a great and a

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changed not only in England but also of course here in America

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where the great awakening the preaching of George Whitfield

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Jonathan Edwards and so forth remarkable, remarkable movements of God

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in which many people were converted and lives

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were lastingly changed nothing like that ever came from the

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ministry of men like William Law because they were essentially calling

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for a more disciplined life and that’s not good news

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and so it made no difference to the church and it made no difference to

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the nation and it just popped out to me you can understand why because I’m

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thinking now 200 years ago, well nearly 300 years

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later, here’s a theological student in London

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who’s picking up William Law and wanting to live more of a holy life

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and saying well this looks like a famous book that’s going to help me

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and find says what as dry as dust

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because it’s all about my effort to live a better life

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there’s no Christ, new birth the Holy Spirit

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Christ living in me

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friends isn’t this the greatest challenge of christian parenting

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little fellow, little girl trusted into your care

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and how easy it is to spend all your time doing what William Law did

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trying to instruct a non-christian to live as if he or she was a christian

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now don’t do this do that read your bible say your prayers

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don’t swear, you say well now what do we need to do

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what Marie is saying, the real change came

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when Wesley and Whitefield they began to speak about Christ they began to speak

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about the necessity of the holy spirit to change

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your little life, now we’ve got visitors every Sunday

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folks who are new to the church and all the rest of it

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and let me just say this if this all seems beyond you

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i want to boil it down to a simple question

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Can you see that if it was possible for the spirit of Jesus Christ to be an

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honored guest in your soul to dwell in your mind

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and in your heart and to settle down in your desires

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and in your conscience and even in your memories

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can you see that if that were to happen it would be entirely different

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from you simply doing your best to be a good christian

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and I hope that you know what I am talking about and what Paul is talking

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about in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20 from your own experience

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and if you don’t I hope that you will be awakened to what it

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really means to be a christian and that you will determine today that you will

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not sell yourself short and you will not rest until you can say

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with clarity and with joy I have been crucified with Christ and I

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no longer live but Christ lives in me I’m saying to

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parents often who have kids that are like

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this in their whole attitude towards God stop

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telling him he’s a christian you’re doing the greatest damage by

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insisting on that you have no basis for doing so

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begin to speak about the need of a change of heart from the inside

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otherwise he’ll conclude that what you’re talking about isn’t worth having

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Christ lives in me you’ve been listening to open the bible with pastor

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Colin Smith and our message today son of God

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it’s part of our series soul care and if you’ve missed

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any of the series or if you tuned in late today or you want to go back and

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listen again you can do that by coming online to our

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website openthebible.org.uk you can also find our

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messages as podcasts on your favorite podcast site

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or by following the link on our website also on our website you’ll find open the

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bible daily that’s a series of short two to three

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minute reflections based on pastor Colin Smith’s teaching

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and read in the uk by Sue McLeish there’s a new one posted every day so

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it’s a great way to start the day open the bible depends on your generosity

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to keep pastor Colin’s teaching on this station and online

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and as you set up a new monthly gift to the work of open the bible this month

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we want to thank you by sending you a free copy

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of Chris Lungard’s book the enemy within straight

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talk about the power and defeat of sin Colin who would you say this book is for

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Well, first is for anyone who is a Christian

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By definition a Christian is a person in whom the holy spirit dwells

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and also by definition a Christian is a person who is engaged in a serious battle against sin

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the apostle Paul says we got to put to death the misdeeds of

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the body by the power of the holy spirit who lives within you

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And here’s the thing as you grow in the Christian life, you actually become more aware

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of the sins that you need to fight against in your life not less aware of them

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So there’s an increasing sense of battle that a Christian experiences

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and this book by Chris Lungard

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The Enemy Within is one of the most helpful books

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I have ever found on the subject of the battle of the Christian life

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It is really encouraging

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I’ve found it helpful and I think that everyone who reads it will find it helpful too

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Well we want to send you a copy of this book

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Chris Lungard The Enemy Within

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Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin

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And it’s our thank you gift to you if you’re able to set up a new donation

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to the work of Open the Bible this month in the amount of £5 per month or more

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Full details on our website openthebible.org.uk

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For Open the Bible and for pastor Colin Smith

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I’m David Pick

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and I hope you’ll be able to join us again next time on Open the Bible