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The Bible Voices
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A lot of people today are living with the idea that whatever we do in this life, it
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will all be alright with everybody in the end. You know thatís how the most often expressed,
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ìHow could a loving God, who is kind and good, ever send anybody to Hell.î You must
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have heard that question asked but quite clearly God is saying something different.
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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Iím David Pick. Colin, weíve probably
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all heard that question asked, and maybe weíve asked the question ourselves. But what is
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God clearly saying? Well, weíre in Isaiah chapter 57, where God says there is no rest
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for the wicked. So thereís a category in the Bible called the wicked. We donít hear
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that word very much. Weíre going to look in the program today about what that actually
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means. What is the freight carried by that word wicked? That occurs in the Scripture
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very clearly. And then what God says about the wicked is thereís no rest. And Heís
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speaking here not only about present experience, but about future experience. Itís an awful
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statement to be unable to find resolution, peace, rest. Thatís the ultimate end of the
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wicked. And why does God speak to us about this? Because through the Gospel He invites
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us into a wonderful rest that is offered to every person in Jesus Christ, that the wicked
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can come to Christ and may have a new heart and a new life and a cleansing and grace and
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find rest. Thereís no rest for the wicked but there is rest for those who are righteous
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in Jesus Christ.
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So todayís message is both a promise and a warning. Join us in Isaiah 57 if you can
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as we begin our message ëWhy the wicked never restí. Hereís Colin.
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If you do have your Bible open, youíll be able to see with me clearly that this chapter
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begins and ends in completely opposite ways. Look at Isaiah 57 in verse two, just so that
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we know where we are in the Scriptures. God says ëthose who walk uprightly enter peace,
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they find rest as they lie in deathí. So they upright, no peace, and theyíll find
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rest in death.
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Now look at the end of the chapter, verses 20 and 21 which were read. ëThe wicked are
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like the tossing sea which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. There is no peace,
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says my God, for the wickedí.
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And so, this chapter, with its contrasting beginning and end, is telling us that there
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are two entirely different destinies for these two groups of people, the upright who will
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experience rest and the wicked who will never know what it looks like.
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Now we live in a culture of relentless activity and weíre seeing over these three Sunday
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mornings of which this is the second that our greatest need is to find what it means
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to rest. And if you were here last week you may recall that we saw that when the Bible
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talks about rest itís not talking about sleeping. For the simple reason that the Bible tells
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us that God rests, and we know that God never slumbers nor sleeps. Secondly we found out
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that the Bible, when it talks about rest is not talking about pleasure. Itís not talking
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about lying in a hammock by the beach with a cool drink on a warm day, for the simple
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reason that we read here that the wicked never rest, and quite clearly a wicked person if
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In a hammock on a warm day with a cool drink by the beach. So weíve been trying to explore
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together what is, then, this rest that the Bible talks about that God enters into, that
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the wicked cannot know, and as weíll see next week, is to be found in Jesus Christ.
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And we are working with this definition together, that when the Bible talks about rest, it is
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talking fundamentally about a purpose fulfilled, and a project completed. God illustrated this
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in the pattern of creation. He finished his work and when he finished his work he completed
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all that he had planned to do, he accomplished what he intended then, he entered into his
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rest. And the Bible refers to this rest as Sabbath. A special day that God still gives
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to his people to enter into this experience of completion. We saw that it is intended
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by God to be a window in time in which we get a glimpse of eternity. That’s why it’s
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so wonderful to gather together and to worship God like this. This is the climax of living
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because it is an anticipation of what it will be when all of God’s people are gathered
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immediate and then visible presence with great joy and in his blessing. This is an anticipation
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of all that is to come. And God weaves into the pattern of every week, six days of labor
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one day of entering into rest when that work is finished. He weaves that pattern into our
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ordinary lives so that that will be like a weekly snapshot in miniature of the big picture
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of what your life is all about. Because God big picture gives to you a certain number
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of days to live in which there is a certain amount of work that he calls you to accomplish
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during your years on this earth. And when that is over, you will enter into his immediate
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presence in Jesus Christ, into that rest. If you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ you
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will enter into a day that is unlike any other. That is the big picture of the Christian life.
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Well that’s what rest looks like for God’s people, and that was our subject last week.
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And today we are going to discover that God makes it very clear that there are some people
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who will never enter this rest. Look at verse 20.
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The wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot rest.
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There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.
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The wicked . . .
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Let’s just hear what the Scriptures are saying, and then we will begin to think about its
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meaning together.
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But what this is clearly saying just as you look at that verse, God is saying the wicked
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are incapable of rest.
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The wicked will never experience it, enjoy it, or enter into it.
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Now that’s very important, because a lot of people today are living with the idea that
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whatever we do in this life, it will all be alright with everybody in the end.
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You know how that’s most often expressed, how could a loving God whose kind and good
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ever send anybody to hell.
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You must have heard that question asked.
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But quite clearly God is saying something different and as we open our Bibles it is
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very important for us today to understand it.
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I am convinced increasingly that the Church of Jesus Christ in our culture needs to speak
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about wickedness.
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Because we live in a world in which wickedness is on our television screen every day in life
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and if we do not address what God says to wickedness, we will become irrelevant to the
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world in which we live.
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Just since last we gathered here, a suicide bomber destroys himself and many others in
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a bus filled with people returning from offering prayers.
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That’s wickedness.
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A terrorist drives a vehicle up outside the UN headquarters in Baghdad, destroys their
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center of operations and takes the lives of more than 20 innocent people.
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That’s wickedness.
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And the extraordinary thing as we live in this world, is that for the last twenty years,
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the pundits of post-modernism have been telling us that there is no such thing as wickedness.
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Think about what post-modernism has been saying in our culture for at least the last twenty
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years.
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There is no such thing as truth, they say, only what’s true for you.
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There is no such thing as right, only what’s right for you.
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There is no such thing as wrong, only what’s wrong for you.
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There is no such thing, they have said, for twenty years and more as good and evil.
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All that there is, are different cultures that define good and evil in different ways
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and no one culture or no one person can say that their idea of right and wrong is better
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than anybody else’s.
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Our culture has been filled with that philosophy.
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We’ve been paying school fees for our kids to be taught this in secular university.
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Now, we discover to our absurd horror that there are communities and cultures who have
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defined good as killing Jews and Americans, in as large numbers as possible with the greatest
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horror and the greatest pain possible.
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More than that, we have discovered that there are communities of people who have defined
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good as including destroying themselves in order, they say, to enter into an everlasting
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reward.
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Now, according to postmodernism that our kids have been taught for these last 20 years and
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that many of us have imbibed in our thinking, nobody can say that that’s wrong.
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So I find it a huge relief – don’t you?
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To turn from CNN or BBC or ABC or whatever it is that you get your news from, to turn
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from all that to the Bible.
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To find that in the Bible we are told of one living God, who created the heavens and the
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earth, is Lord over every culture, even those that rebel against Him and that He is in charge.
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He tells us definitively what is good and what is evil, He defines good and evil, and
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as the Creator has the right to do so for all people in all cultures and in every generation,
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and he is guiding the history of this world on a definite course that will climax on a
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day when He will create a new heaven and a new earth, it will be the home of righteousness
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and evil or wickedness will be outside forever.
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I ask you, can anyone seriously believe that the God of the Bible would receive someone
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who blows themselves to smithereens, taking the lives of innocent people with them into
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the immediate presence of God, and that the God of the Bible would then look them in the
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face and say, well, wasn’t the best choice you could have made, but come on and enter
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my happiness anyway.
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It’s ludicrous.
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So let’s get into the world of the Bible that precisely addresses the world in which we live.
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The wicked will never enter God’s rest.
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There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.
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And that’s what the Bible says to us.
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I trust that we’re absolutely convinced about its relevance.
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Let’s now begin to explore what it means.
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You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and today’s message.
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Why The Wicked Never Rest.
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It’s part of a series called give yourself a break how to enjoy God’s gift of rest and
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if you’ve missed any of the series or if you ever want to go back and listen again, you
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can do that by coming online to our website Open theBible.org.uk or by finding us as a
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podcast on your favourite podcast site or by following the link from the website and
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that’ll be by searching Open the Bible UK and subscribing to receive regular updates
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to the podcast.
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Back to the message now here’s Colin.
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Want to ask two simple questions.
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One, what is wickedness, and two, why is it that The Wicked never rest.
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What is wickedness?
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And why is it that The Wicked can never rest?
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Firstly then, what is wickedness?
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First, wickedness is perversity.
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Perhaps the best definition or description of wickedness would be in Isaiah 5 20 where
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God says, woe to those who call good evil and evil good.
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In other words, God says, there are some people who take the values and the commandments that
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he has given and they turn them completely upside down.
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What God says is good, these folks say is bad, and what God says is evil, these folks
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say is good.
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In other words, there is a perversity that turns everything that God has said and revealed
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on its head.
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So for example, when someone says we can’t have one God giving ten commandments, that’s
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wickedness.
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When someone says, you know it’s okay to believe in God but giving unconditional commitment
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of your life to obeying him, that sounds a little bit extreme.
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When someone speaks like that, that’s wickedness.
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God says you’ll have no other gods before me.
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The wicked person turns that entirely on it’s head and says oh my goodness, that
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sounds like extremism.
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Very dangerous, don’t touch it.
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When someone says making your own decision about another life is good, especially if
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that other life is within you, you need to think about yourself first, that’s wickedness.
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You know adultery can be good, especially if it’s a
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really caring relationship that you’ve discovered.
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I remember a lady coming to me in the church, I pastored in London, she said to me you know
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I’ve been working with a counselor for some months and he has said to me that the thing
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I most need to do to improve my emotional health is to have an affair.
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What do you think?
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And I said to her I think he’s taken what God says is evil and told you it’s good and
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that’s wickedness, that’s what that is.
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Perhaps the greatest example of wickedness in the Bible is Pharaoh.
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You remember God speaks to Pharaoh and he says let my people go, but Pharaoh will not
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So he demonizes the authority of God over his life and he sets himself against God.
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He makes that choice.
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He chooses an opposition to all that God has commanded and so he puts himself in the position
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that can only result in his own downfall.
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So wickedness is first and foremost about perversity, turning things upside down, saying
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what God has called good is evil and saying what God has called evil is good.
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Secondly wickedness is a choice.
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Psalm 52 talks about an evil man called Doeg the Edomite.
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There are some names that make me awfully glad to be called Smith.
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Doeg the Edomite is one of them.
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He was one of Saul’s henchmen who committed a mass murder of eighty-five priests in a
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town called Knob and this is what God says about him in Psalm 52 in verse three.
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You love evil rather than good.
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You see it’s a deliberate choice, you love evil.
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You’re drawn to it, you thought it was a good thing to slaughter eighty-five priests
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that’s what you chose.
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It’s rather like Jesus’ words, you remember he said that men love darkness rather than
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light because their deeds are evil.
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So wickedness is not something you slip into.
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It is a definite choice.
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The wicked have chosen like Pharaoh to set themselves against God.
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They love what God hates.
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They value what God condemns.
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So from that I think we can put together a simple definition of wickedness that it is
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A perverse choice to live in opposition to God.
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Wickedness is a perverse choice to live in opposition to God.
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And of course it draws its very nature from the character and life purpose of the devil
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himself.
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I found something rather interesting, I’d never noticed before in reading this week.
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You know the name devil, comes from the greek word diabolos.
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And if you divide diabolos up, it’s really two words.
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Dia, which means through, and balos, which means to throw.
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By the way Balos is where we get our word bowling.
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For those who like to go 10 pin bowling?
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To throw.
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Balos, you see.
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So the word devil, or diabolos, means to throw through.
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Now some of us enjoy going bowling, you know, the 10 pins gets set up at the end of the
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lane and then you take the ball and you throw it through the pins.
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You try and knock down what has been set up.
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By the way for those of you who are getting nervous there’s nothing wrong with bowling,
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it’s a very good thing to do.
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I could sense some nervousness about where this illustration is going.
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It’s only an illustration.
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I once scored 300 myself and it only took five games to do it.
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But isn’t that a great picture of who the devil is and what he’s all about.
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Satan’s purpose is to tear down what God has built up, that’s wickedness.
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Why then if that is what wickedness is do the wicked never rest?
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Three reasons from the Scriptures.
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One, the wicked never rest, because they cannot avoid the evidence of God.
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Paul makes this very clear in Romans in chapter 1.
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The wicked have taken the stance of opposition to God, but the God they have chosen to oppose
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reveals his glory in a thousand ways all around them.
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And so they have to relentlessly keep pushing him away.
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That’s chapter 1 in verse 18, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against
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the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth, since what may be known
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about God is plain to them.
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Is it very interesting?
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God has made what may be known about him plane to the wicked is what Paul says.
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And so they’re left with no alternative because this revelation is very clear, they have to
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close their eyes to it, and they have to constantly resist every way in which this eternal God
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reaches into time and speaks to them.
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God has made himself known.
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Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God.
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Day after day they pour forth speech you only need to go out into the countryside to see
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some reflection of the glory of the work of our creator.
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If you want to be godless in this world you have to go around with your eyes closed, and
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that, Paul says, is exactly what the wicked have chosen to do.
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They suppress the truth by their wickedness.
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And some people have to spend an enormous effort to keep God at a distance, the creation
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speaks about him, your conscience speaks about him.
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The fingers of a tiny baby speak of his creative glory.
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And even in the darkest places, something of God may be revealed in a thousand ways
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to the wicked.
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Secondly, they cannot rest because they cannot resolve their inner conflict.
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Look back in Isaiah chapter 57, please, and verse 20 and 21.
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The wicked are like the tossing of the sea.
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Powerful picture.
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The tossing sea that cannot rest whose waves cast up mire and mud.
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Thirdly, they cannot rest because they cannot change their condition in eternity.
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Verse 21 of Isaiah 57.
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There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.
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Now notice these words right in the middle.
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Says my God.
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This is the declaration of Almighty God.
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And the ultimate reason why the wicked will never have peace is that God says so.
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You’ve been listening to pastor Colin Smith on Open The Bible
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And today’s message called Why The Wicked Never Rest
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focusing today on what wickedness is
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and next time we’ll look at why the wicked can in fact never rest.
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And if you missed any of the series
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or if you want to listen again
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come online to our website openthebible.org.uk
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or find us as a podcast on your favorite podcast site
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Search for OpenTheBibleUK
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Open the Bible depends on your generosity
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to stay on air and on the internet
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and as you set up a new regular gift of five pounds per month
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or more this month
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we’d love to send you a copy of Chris Lundgaard’s book
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The Enemy Within
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straight talk about the power and defeat of sin.
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Colin, how does this book help us if we’re feeling discouraged
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with our battle against sin and temptation?
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Well the book is wonderfully helpful
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because it’s really clear and it’s really well written.
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I mean for example
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Chris Lundgaard pictures the heart as being like a haunted house
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I mean his description of this is absolutely brilliant
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going down into a basement where there are hidden monsters that lie there
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the haunted house of your heart
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he paints that picture so vividly
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the things that we fear might be lurking
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in the basement of our own interior life
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I mean that’s vivid and compelling
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but then he says this
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the Holy Spirit takes the horror out of the horror show
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now that’s wonderful
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You see he describes the problem realistically and compellingly
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and then he points us to where our hope lies
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the power of the Holy Spirit
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he’s like a blazing torch
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Brought into the haunted rooms and he ferrets out the monsters
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this is great writing from a clear biblical understanding
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that really connects with the battles
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that believers face in our lives
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I found it wonderfully helpful and encouraging
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and I think anyone who reads it will find the same too
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So Chris Lungar’s book The Enemy Within
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is our gift to you this month
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if you’re able to set up a new donation
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to the work of Open The Bible
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in the amount of £5 per month or more
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full details on our website
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openthebible.org.uk
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For Open The Bible and Pastor Colin Smith
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I’m David Pikk
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And I hope you’ll join us again next time
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If God is really loving
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he would never send anyone to hell
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That may sound comforting
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but is it true?
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Find out next time on Open The Bible
