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There will never come a time when the wicked are able to say, ëWe have dethroned Godí.
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There will never, in all eternity come a moment when the wicked can say our purpose has been
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accomplished.
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There is no peace for the wicked, says my God.
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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, Iím David Pick and Colin
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weíre in a series called give yourself a break, how to enjoy
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Godís gift of rest, but what a warning we just heard, God says for the wicked there
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is no rest.
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No rest for the wicked, yeah.
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You know Iíve heard people, and Iím sure lots of our listeners have heard folks
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say ëHell will be a bit of a party and weíll all be free from Godí
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and so forth.
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And unbelieving people like to make light of it, as if there was some kind
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of good that was going to be found there.
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And weíre in Isaiah chapter 57 where God says there is no rest for the wicked.
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In other words, there is never a place of saying ëweíve found fulfillmentí,
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ëweíve found peaceí, ëweíve found joyí, thatís not there because these things
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are only found in the presence of God and through the grace of the LORD JESUS CHRIST.
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Weíre going to look at what is meant here.
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Why is it thereís no rest for the wicked?
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Why is it therefore that real rest, real peace of mind and of heart is found in Jesus Christ
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by His grace and through faith in Him.
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So join us if you can today in Isaiah chapter 57 as we continue the message why the wicked
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never rest.
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Hereís Colin.
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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 find something rather interesting Iíd never noticed before in reading this week.
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You know the name devil comes from the Greek word dabolos and if you divide dabolos up
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itís really two words.
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Dia, which means thru.
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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 ten pin bowling to throw balos you see.
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So the word devil or dabolos means to throw thru.
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Now some of us enjoy going bowling you know the ten pins get set up at the end of the
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lane and then you take the ball and you throw it thru the pins.
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You try and knock down what has been set up.
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And by the way for those of you who are getting nervous thereís nothing wrong with bowling
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itís 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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Itís 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 isnít that a great picture of who the devil is and what heís all about?
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Satanís purpose is to tear down what God has built up thatís wickedness.
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Well now 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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Romans chapter 1 in verse 18,
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The wroth of God is being revealed from heaven against the godlessness and wickedness
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of men who suppress the truth.
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Since what may be known about God is plain to them.
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Isn’t this very interesting?
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God has made what may be known about him plain to the wicked is what Paul says,
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and so they are left with no alternative because the revelation is very clear.
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They have to close their eyes to it, and they have to constantly resist every way in which
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this eternal God reaches into time and speaks to them.
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God has made himself known.
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Psalm 19.
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Heavens declare the glory of God.
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Day after day, they pour forth speech.
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You only need to go out into the countryside to see some reflection of the glory of the
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work of our creator.
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If you want to be God-less in this world, you have to go around with your eyes closed.
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And 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.
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The creation 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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In this month’s Christianity Today magazine, Philip Yancy tells a wonderful story of Ernest
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Gordon, a British officer in the Second World War who suffered appalling conditions as a
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prisoner of war who was set to work building the Berma-Siam Railway.
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He speaks of how each day, Gordon joined a work detail of prisoners to build a track
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through a low-lying swampland.
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If a prisoner, he says, appeared to lag, a guard would beat him to death, or decapitate
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him.
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I mean, this is evil.
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This is as dark as it gets.
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More men simply dropped dead from exhaustion, malnutrition, or disease.
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I think there were 80,000 altogether died in this camp.
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But something was astir in the prison camp, something Gordon would later call the miracle
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For most of the war, the prison camp had served as a laboratory of survival of the fittest,
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every man for himself.
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Men lived like animals, and for a long time, hate was the main motivation for staying alive.
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Recently, though a change had come, one event in particular shook the prisoners.
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A guard discovered that a shovel was missing.
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When no one confessed to the theft, he screamed,
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all die, all die.
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He raised his rifle to fire at the first man in the line.
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At that instant, an enlisted man stepped forward and said, I did it.
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Enraged, the guard lifted his weapon high
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in the air and brought the rifle back down on the soldier’s skull, killing him.
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That evening, when the tools were inventoried again, the work crew discovered that a mistake
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had been made, no shovel was missing.
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One of the prisoners remembered these words, greater love has no man than this,
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than that a man lay down his life for his friends.
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Extraordinary, even in this darkest hole on Earth, God is breaking through.
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And the problem for the wicked is that they can never rest for, even in the darkest place,
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the evidence of this unavoidable God speaks and cries out to them.
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And it may be that in some way you see in your life, even though you’re here at church
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and maybe not quite sure why you are here, there’s all kinds of reasons for coming,
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that the reality is, maybe for some of us, that you’re pushing God’s advances and claims
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upon your life away to a distance and it’s taking an enormous energy to do that.
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And you don’t know anything about rest for that reason.
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The wicked cannot rest, because they cannot avoid the evidence of God, who keeps breaking
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through into this world, even in the darkest place.
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You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and the message today is
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Why the Wicked Never Rest it’s part of our series
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Give Yourself a Break, How to Enjoy God’s Gift of Rest
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and if you’ve missed any of the series or if you want to go back and listen again
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you can do that by coming online to our website
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openthebible.org.uk
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or find it as a podcast on your favorite podcast site
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To find that just search for Open the Bible UK
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Back to the message now were in Isaiah and chapter 57
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Here’s Colin
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The wicked cannot rest because they cannot avoid the evidence of God
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who keeps breaking through into this world even in the darkest place
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Secondly they cannot rest because they cannot resolve
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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
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whose waves cast up mire
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and mud
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I will never forget the morning
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It’s about 20 years ago
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I was attending a conference on the south coast of England
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and having traveled there on my own
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You know how you get into a kind of mood when you’re away for a few days out of routine
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You say,
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I’m going to eat less, I’m going to train more
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and all this kind of thing
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So I decided I was going to get up early in the morning and go and swim in the ocean
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The first light I was there,
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the only soul to be seen on the beach
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In I went, it was a stupid thing to do
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Having got out some distance,
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I started to swim back to the shore
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And after about twenty minutes realized that I hadn’t made any progress whatsoever
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And some of you may know that moment of panic
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where you realize you’re in trouble and there isn’t a soul around
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The force of the tide was pulling me out
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Obviously I survived, but that’s as far as we’re going with that
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Now that’s the picture that Isaiah uses of the wicked
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The wicked are like the tossing of the sea
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In other words, the experience of the wicked is that there are
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forces at work within their own nature
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That are pulling them in all kinds of conflicting directions
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See in the Bible sin is a choice
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But it is also a power and the more you give yourself to it
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The stronger the grip that it will exercise over you
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That is why the wicked can never be free
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The wicked are never free because they are constantly pushed and pulled around by
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raging passions
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That exists within that own nature
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that master them and they cannot gain control over
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the power of greed drives them the power of hate
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Drives them the power of lust drives them the power of envy drives them and these currents that run
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deep and dark within the human soul are
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Overpowering within the very nature of the wicked that is what constitutes the wicked to be so
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These currents
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Isaiah says are
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constantly throwing up new schemes for evil
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New ideas as to what could be done next
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The waves cast up mire and mud
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this
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Is the same as what the Lord Jesus said in Mark and chapter 7 remember from within
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out of men’s hearts
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Come evil thoughts and immorality and theft
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And murder and adultery and greed and malice and envy and slander
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These things come from within a man Jesus said
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Now the wicked are like the tossing sea
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It never rests at always stirring up some new evil
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The muck of the human heart is always being driven out into the open
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Now Paul knew about this
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You remember for many years before he came to Jesus Christ and was mastered by the Lord Jesus
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he was consumed by a passionate hatred of
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Christian believers that drove him to make murderous threats murderous threats
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Later he wrote about his experience in Romans chapter 7 he looking back is able to say, you know
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When I want to do good I find evil is right there with me. It’s a current that’s inside of my very nature. I
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Find myself he says like a prisoner
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To a law that seems to be working itself out in my very nature and my members
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The ends up by saying, oh wretched man that I am who’s going to deliver me from this
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Something’s going was going on inside me. He says at that time that I
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Didn’t understand and I couldn’t overcome
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Now this is the Bible’s picture of the wicked
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They can never rest
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Because they cannot avoid the evidence of God who keeps reaching out to them and they keep pushing him away
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They can never rest because they cannot resolve the inner conflict that arises from deep dark
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currents within their own nature that push and pull them around and
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Constantly foam up new ideas for doing what displeases God
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Thirdly they cannot rest
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They cannot rest
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Because they cannot change their condition in eternity
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Verse 21 of Isaiah 57 there is no peace says, my god
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for the wicked
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And notice these words right in the middle says my god
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This is the declaration of almighty. God and
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And the ultimate reason why the wicked will never have peace is that God says so
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Contrast that with the beginning of Chapter 57
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Just look back at verse 2 one more time those who walk uprightly God says enter into peace
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They find rest as they lie in death
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But there is no peace we’re now being told for the wicked
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God has said they will never rest
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Now the point here is very simple
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If a man or a woman spends their entire life resisting God
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That will not end or change at death
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See what happens at death very simply put is this
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when you die
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What’s at the heart of you becomes the whole of you if
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you are a true believer
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Although you will have many conflicts and temptations and struggles and failures and all the rest of it
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At the heart of you, if you are a true believer you love God
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The reason you love God is that you have been born again by the Holy Spirit
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You are a new creation at the heart of you
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Conflicts and whatever your failures at the heart of you, you love God
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And when you pass death
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Pass through death
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everything else
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will fall away from you as a disused Shell and
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What is at the heart of you will become the whole of you when we see him
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We will be like him
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We will enter rest
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Because his purpose in us is fulfilled his project in us is
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Completed and everything that we have set our hearts upon to be like Jesus will be complete
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That is the rest of the believer because the work is done
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But the wicked have made a perverse choice to live in opposition to God
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At their heart whatever else goes on in their lives at their heart
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They have set themselves against God and
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When the wicked go through death everything else falls away like a shell and the heart of the wicked
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Becomes the whole of the wicked so that they enter into eternity
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In opposition to God
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And that of course is the final reason why the wicked never rest
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Because having chosen
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opposition to God they have set themselves a purpose that by definition can never be fulfilled a
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project that can never be completed in all eternity
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That is the hell of hell
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There will never come a time when the wicked are able to say we have dethroned God
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There will never in all eternity come a moment when the wicked can say our purpose has been accomplished
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There is no peace for the wicked
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Says my God
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God
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Now I don’t suppose for one moment that
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if
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there were some folks
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Doing a gallop poll as we leave the service shortly
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Who asked the question? Do you think that you’re wicked? I don’t think any of us
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would say yes, I
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Think if gallop asked all the way across America, they’d hardly find anyone who says I’m wicked
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But maybe you have recognized a little reflection of yourself this morning
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That you have resisted and maybe even now are resisting the claims of God upon your life
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You want to be your own god
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You want to write your own rules? You’re just looking for God to bless, them
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as
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God has reached out to you in many ways. You’ve put a lot of energy into distancing yourself and keeping him away
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You’ve begun to experience an inner conflict that you cannot resolve there are things going on in you that you say
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Oh, of course, I could stop doing that. I could change but you know you can’t
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and that’s why you haven’t and
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And the last thing you want to do is to spend eternity in
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That war that is going on inside you right now
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And God has an invitation for you a
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Choice that you can make and with this we’re going to come to prayer together
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Turn back one page, and I’m simply going to read this verse because it is God’s own word in
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isaiah 55 and
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verse 6 and 7
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This is what God says
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Isaiah 55 6 and 7
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Seek the Lord
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While he may be found
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Call on him while he is near
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He’s near now
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Let the wicked forsake his way
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See the future for the wicked is clear
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If you don’t want that future, there is only one way for you to go. You must forsake the way of the wicked
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Let the wicked forsake his way and the
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evil man has thoughts
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let him turn to the Lord and
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And he will have mercy on him
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to our God
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Where he will freely part
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You’ve been listening to pastor colleen smith on open the bible and perhaps as you listen you realize that you’ve never
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experienced that rest which colleen speaks about and you feel he’s been calling you into a
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Relationship of the kind that we often talk about here on open the bible
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You’d like to know more about how to enter into that relationship by the saving grace of God
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And if so, I hope you’ll seek out a trusted christian 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
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The pastor or simply members of that fellowship tell them about your journey to discover faith for yourself
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you’ll find they’ll be ready to pray with you to help you make that step or if you’re not yet ready to make that step
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and still have questions
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There made well be a bible study course or a home group or an alpha program that you can join
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Don’t forget if you ever miss one of the series or if you want to go back and listen again
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You can do that by coming online to our website open the bible.org.uk
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Or by finding us as a podcast on your favorite podcast site search for open the bible uk and subscribe to receive regular updates
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Open the bible is listener supported. It’s your generosity that keeps pastor collins teaching on this station and online
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Thank you
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If you already give
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regularly if that’s something you’ve been thinking about doing if
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You’re able to set up a regular gift to the work of open the bible in the amount of five pounds per month or more
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This month we’d 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 familiar with chris lingard
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What can you tell us about him?
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well, chris lungard has done a brilliant job of describing the battle that Christians have against sin and
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Pointing us in the direction of how we can prevail in that battle
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You know the Bible speaks about this very clearly especially in Romans chapter 8 in verse 13
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We’ve got to put to death the misdeeds of the body by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us
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That’s the ongoing battle of the Christian life
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I
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Think one of the most insightful writers in all of human history on this
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was a Puritan writer by the name of john owen he wrote on the battle against sin in a
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profoundly helpful way
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You’ve got to know what sin you’re up against
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You’ve got to find where it’s lurking in your heart
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And then you’ve got to be ruthless and giving it no quarter in putting it to death
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That’s Romans chapter 8 and verse 13
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But the problem with John Owen
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Is that he was a 17th century?
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Puritan and he wrote hundreds of pages that are quite difficult to read and the genius of chris
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Lungard is that he has taken the insights of John Owen some of the richest
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insights into the battle of the christian life in history
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And he has put these in clear and contemporary and compelling terms
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And that is why this is such a wonderful book
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It is brilliantly titled the enemy within straight talk about the power and defeat of sin
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Anyone who wants to prevail in their battle against sin should read this book. It is wonderfully practical
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Wonderfully encouraging and wonderfully helpful. Well, we’d love to send you a copy of this book
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It’s a thank you for setting up a new donation to the work of open the Bible this month
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There are full details on our website
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Open thebible.org uk
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For open the Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pick and I hope you’ll join us again next time
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What kind of life do you have to have lived to be able to say at the end of it
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I have finished my work. I have kept the faith
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Find out next time on open the Bible
