[0:00] I shall join together in the worship of God, singing to his praise from Psalm 37.
[0:12] Psalm 37 and at verse 23. A good man's footsteps by the Lord are ordered aright, and in the way wherein he walks he greatly doth delight.
[0:33] Although he fall, yet shall he not be cast down utterly, because the Lord with his own hand upholds him mightily. I have been young, now am old, yet have I never seen the just man left, nor that a seed for bread have beggars been.
[0:53] He is ever merciful and cleans, a seed is blessed therefore. Depart from evil and do good and dwell for evermore. For God loves judgment, and his sins leaves not in any case.
[1:09] They are kept ever, but cut off shall be the sinner's race. The just inherit shall the land and ever in it dwell. The just man's mouth doth wisdom speak, his tongue doth judgment tell.
[1:26] And so on. We can sing these verses. Psalm 37 from verse 23 to verse 30. A good man's footsteps by the Lord are ordered aright.
[1:39] A good man's footsteps by the Lord, the Lord are ordered aright, And in the way of heaven he was, He can't be just a light.
[2:19] A good man's footsteps by the Lord, He can't be just a light.
[2:33] A good man's footsteps by the Lord, He can't be just a light. With his own heart, A good man's footsteps by the Lord, I have been young, God love the Lord, He can't be just a light.
[3:35] Where the Lord, and dwell forevermore.
[4:09] For God's love's church will come to see with not in any case.
[4:28] They are kept ever but cut off shall be the sin that's raised the just in heaven shall belong together with dwell.
[5:04] The just man's power God with tongues be His tongue doth good men tell.
[5:22] Amen. Let's join together in prayer. Ever blessed God as we come before you with praises and our petitions may we be directed by your spirit to seek the things that are according to your will.
[5:48] We may selfishly come with our desires and the reason for our soliciting your help is purely selfish and entirely focused upon our own ends.
[6:08] Whereas those who come before you with the desire of their hearts consecrated so as to seek the things that are to your glory and to desire only that which you have decreed and revealed as such.
[6:37] we need your help so as to know when to come and how to come and what to come for. We pray that you would lead your people so that there would be a unity at a throne of grace.
[6:53] that they would be as one welded in your hand seeking the glory of their God and the extension of your kingdom.
[7:06] that they would be as one not simply in their own hearts but in the in the in the portion of your vineyard to which we belong and beyond.
[7:18] we give thanks for the way in which the it is the desire of your people that your kingdom would come and that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[7:33] The day will come when that desire will be fully realized and that King Jesus will find before him all who are his and holy of that number.
[7:52] We bless you and thank you that that day is fast hastening and while we may not may know not what day or hour will bring we know that that hour is certainly appointed and while it may not be disclosed it will certainly be fulfilled.
[8:16] So as we look to that day may we look to have that preparation upon our souls that would make us ready when that hour comes and your word counsels each of us to be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye know not the Son of Man will come and we pray that you would enlighten our minds as to what is needful for our lives whoever we may be to discover whether our knowledge of our God and Saviour Christ Jesus is of the right sort to discover where we lack and we see how another of old who met with the Lord and who came with that request what lack I yet and the information that he received was not what he wanted to hear and so it is with each one of us sometimes when we come with desires and requests that would only be met by your opening of our eyes to see the lack that is in our lives the shortcomings that mark us out the waywardness of our steps the way in which we often times are distracted by this world and what this world has to offer when these things are brought home to us we we may be disinclined to hear of these things help us to overcome our rebellious spirits to that end we pray your blessing upon your flock we pray that you would bless this little flock that bears your name and that they would know the tender care of that shepherd who leads and guides them in the wilderness who feeds them with suitable fare who ensures that the wolves that may sometimes inveigle themselves into the flock are kept at bay so that's not to do them harm we pray that you would encourage them in their wilderness walk and to have their hearts healed by the one who has the suitable medicines for the wounds that the wilderness leaves upon their very person sometimes we are assaulted openly sometimes these assaults are carried out covertly sometimes the wounds are deep and sometimes they are beyond our healing but we give thanks that there is one who understands the way this world treats your people and we know that because we read it in your word how experientially the
[11:53] Christ of God was wounded in the house of his friends and we pray that you would remind us lest we think that we are above him in being free from these experiences that he was able to endure these so that he could succor those who would have to endure them as they followed in his footsteps we pray for your people with all their very needs temporal needs spiritual needs needs within the home needs within the community within the workplace we give thanks for the all seeing eye of the God of heaven being upon one and all we pray that you would bless our homes our families that you would bless us with spiritual blessings and that we would be suitably entailed with gifts and graces that would have us pursue the path of obedience with diligence and with the full endeavour after new obedience we pray for any who may get need to come to a better and a greater knowledge of
[13:18] Christ if not a knowledge of that Christ as Lord and Saviour we pray for them that the eyes of their understanding be opened that their heart would be made new and that the prayer of your people would be their prayer Lord create in me a new heart that they would have that desire to have that renewed spirit within them that they would have that desire to be numbered amongst those who will ultimately be identified as one of yours and that you would increase the number of your people here in this place bringing them from north south east and west as you have promised to do bringing to your food stool with a cry for salvation coming from the depths of their being knowing that only Christ can respond in a meaningful way to their needs be the young be the old they are never beyond the reach of the good shepherd and we give thanks that he brings lambs into the flock that he brings even those that are of great age that he is still able to touch them and we marvel at your forbearance in the lives of each one of us and to that end we pray that you would remember the work that is done in your name here in this place and elsewhere the proclamation of the gospel may prosper the missionaries of the cross may they be encouraged those who labour in dark regions may they have the light of your countenance lifted up upon them where your people are persecuted may they be prevented from being harrowed kept by your own powerful harrow turning the weapons of war arrayed against them against those who bear them we remember the church that is militant as we pray for its prospering we pray that you would preserve all who are part of it remember the world that we live in that is sin sick and it is just so easy for us to speak of this world in such terms but we see the evidence of it before our eyes the corruption that is in the heart of man in the highest disturbance of power just as surely as it is in the highways and byways of our land where there are renegades where there are reprobates where there are those who are careless and indifferent in so many different ways and yet they are no different in the sense that they all have never dying souls within them that need to be cared for and healed whether that soul is the soul of a king or someone that belongs in the very dust we know that you have a care for this world in its entirety and we to that end we come to you and ask for mercy for ourselves and for all who are with us in it help us to wait upon you then as we read your word and as we look to the truth to speak to us meaningfully and in a manner in which it directs our footsteps to yourself pardon sin
[17:19] in Jesus name we would ask it Amen we're going to read from the scriptures of the New Testament from the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians and we're reading chapter five second Corinthians chapter five reading the whole chapter for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens for in this we groan earnestly deciding to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked for we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the
[18:41] Lord for we walk by faith not by sight we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men but we are made manifest unto God and I trust also a made manifest in your consciences for we commend not ourselves again unto you but give you occasion to glory on our behalf that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart for for for whether we be beside ourselves it is to
[19:46] God or whether we be sober it is for your cause for the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know know know we him no more therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature all things are passed away behold all things are become new and all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to with that
[20:49] God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him amen and may the Lord at his blessing to his reading of his word and to his name be the praise we're going to sing from Psalm 84 Psalm 84 we will sing from verse 4 through to the end of the psalm blessed are they in thy house that dwell they ever give thee praise blessed is the man whose strength of art in whose heart are thy ways who passing thorough bake as veil therein do dig up wells also the rain that falleth down the pools with water fills so so they from strength and wear it go still forward unto strength until in
[22:16] Zion they appear before the Lord at length Lord God of hosts my prayer hear O Jacob's God give ear see God our shield look on the face of thine anointed ear and so on to the end of the psalm blessed are they in thy house that dwell they ever give thee praise blessed are they in the hearts of dwell they ever give thee praise blessed is the man who strength the heart in whose heart are they wish with passing thine hope make us feel then into kingdom wells of souls that wind and fall that go the water with water pills so they from strength and weary go still for work and to strength until in time they appear before the
[24:05] Lord have lain Lord God of hosts I pray and hear for Jacob start with me sing God our shield work on the face of thine and my good year for in thy courts one in their sails at the earth and brother in my God I swear I keep adorn and dwell in chains of sin for
[25:10] God the Lord has sun and shield in grace and glory give and dwell with all no good from them that have rightly to live for thou that art the Lord of holds that man is truly blessed who by assured confidence on thee and on the rest for a short time this evening we're going to turn to the passage that we read the second epistle of
[26:24] Paul to the Corinthians chapter 5 and we can read at verse 17 therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new these words are words I'm sure many of you are familiar with and the words which suitably describe to us what a Christian believer is like the apostle Paul describes Christians and he includes himself as a Christian or describes himself as a Christian earlier on he says that he is under constraint because of the love of
[27:30] Christ being constrained by Christ's love and that constraint is something that the Christian knows something about maybe not at all times but the Christian is not somebody who is unaware of being stimulated by or motivated by even compelled by the love of Christ to behave in a certain way and someone has described this constraint to be something like what you would see perhaps in the highlands certainly in America where you see great deep ravines or canyons or passages as if they're carved in the rock and there is a steep cliff on one side and a steep cliff on the other side and it hems the person who is on that road in as it were but understand what they mean by it but sometimes we may think of that illustration and mistakenly think that that kind of constraint is all that there is to it as far as being a believer is concerned because it is
[29:26] I think abundantly plain that there can be other constraints placed upon a person which are in effect in the life of that person without necessarily being the constraint of which Paul speaks here the constraint of the love of Christ love for Christ or Christ's love for them and I think the apostle goes on to make plain that in the experience of the Christian there are certain things that make them Christian and that leaves them so that they cannot but be Christian and the response in particular that he refers to here is the response that is evoked in the life of the person that can only be a new creature in
[30:40] Christ Jesus if you notice in verse 16 he says wherefore henceforth know we know we know we know man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more there is an understanding that it is possible for a person to possess knowledge of Christ that would be alongside the knowledge that the believer possesses and yet that knowledge to be incomplete that knowledge to be lacking Paul himself knew Christ but he knew Christ after the flesh in the sense although there is a variety of different interpretations placed upon that statement I believe that it means at the very least it means this knowing
[31:44] Christ after the flesh is a knowledge of the unconverted mind the knowledge of an unspiritual man or woman a knowledge that does not that has not that is yet to arrive at a satisfactory knowledge of who Christ is and by that I mean a knowledge of him as their personal saviour the knowledge that accompanies faith the knowledge that is necessary in order to accompany to fulfil salvation if you remember just for example Paul himself Paul had the knowledge of scripture at his fingertips but he was no different to the person of whom the scripture spoke the person of which the scripture spoke to Paul was a person that he did not know he did not know him spiritually although he knew him in the flesh he knew him as somebody he wanted to persecute he knew him as someone he thought he understood all about and yet if you read the prophecies of
[33:09] Isaiah for Paul the real Jesus the real Christ the person that he should know for salvation was nothing to him he was like a root out of a dry ground but no the Paul who writes this epistle is someone who is different and to him Christ is different and I think that's the burden of this verse that we need to understand that Paul is speaking of an experience that needs to be the experience of all who would need to enjoy salvation in Christ Jesus he is someone who needs to know
[34:12] Christ so as to leave him no longer what he once was but somebody who is now completely different because of a relationship that has come about courage are those who are able to establish for themselves the difference that there is between a spiritual man and a man who lives after the flesh or a woman who lives after the flesh a child or an old man or woman it isn't you know you don't grow into the faith you can be born again as an infant when the word of
[35:28] God in the hand of the spirit is applied to the mind in a way that may be mysterious and beyond our understanding it can still result in the salvation of an infant in a way that perhaps defies our understanding but something happens they're born again by the spirit of God the truth of God becomes their possession when John writes his epistle he writes the following this is the record that God has given us given to us eternal life and this life is in his son he that has the son hath life and he that hath not the son of God does not have life and that is the bottom line that is what needs to be understood that there is this difference between the man who man and woman who believe in
[36:37] Jesus Christ to the salvation of their soul they have this life in them which the person who does not know Christ as their Lord and Saviour is without John Piper in one of his many books writes it is when a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ it is the creation of spiritual life not the imitation of life it is not to get new religion but to get new life why would you want to emphasize that why would you want to bring that truth to bear upon your thinking because there is this misconception concerning what
[37:37] Christian life is all about that it is something that can be accomplished simply by tinkering with our life a readjustment a realignment an improvement a whole host of different ways of thinking what we can do with our life that we are responsible for but in reality what is spoken of by the apostle here therefore he says if any man be in Christ he is a new creature something completely new the old is passed away and everything has become new and that's really the thing that challenges the person who is a believer the extent to which this truth must be applied across the board because we are constantly faced in our own lives with the evidences of what we were before still rearing its ugly head if everything that is of the old is gone and if everything is new then why do we have to meet these things now what
[39:22] Paul is saying is that Christ has created in us a new nature a new nature and that new nature can only exist can only survive as it is in a living connection with the source of life if you if you think of a gardener creating a plant which is combined with another plant that grafted into each other and essentially if you want this new plant to survive it must derive all its energy from both sources things in order to survive and the other will die and if one dies then what you're left with is the old but in order for this new plant to emerge that is a combination of both must supply nutrients and all the elements that mark it out as it is. I know that's a pretty paltry example of what we have here.
[40:57] The new life of which Paul speaks can only be derived from the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, from being in Christ Jesus, from being rooted in him, bound up with him, and that life is nourished by him, sustained by him, encouraged by him, informed by him, and everything else that goes with it.
[41:24] Only he can make this happen. That's what Paul says. The Apostle Peter has a corresponding truth. See that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently he says.
[41:43] Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
[41:54] For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withereth, and the flower that are faded falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. This is the word which by the gospel is preached to you.
[42:13] Here we have the Apostle Peter identifying the source of spiritual life, without which the new life cannot appear or exist.
[42:28] Now, Paul needs to inform us about this. Paul needs to teach us this, because for whatever reason, those in whom this new life occurs, those in whom this new life exists, must inevitably must inevitably coexist in a world where there are those who know nothing of this life.
[43:08] But at times, not just do they coexist with those who have no knowledge of it, and who no desire to experience it, but they must also realize that there are some who may who may portray themselves as possessors of this life, and that life is not theirs.
[43:31] I know this is something that's difficult to teach, or to explain, because I always feel that if you emphasize this too much, that you run the risk of undermining the confidence of the true believer.
[43:54] You run the risk of undermining the reality that there is of a living relationship with Christ, because inevitably, a believer may find themselves fearful that what they are is not what it should be.
[44:20] You know, this passage here is often a passage that's quoted on a question day, and it's quoted on a passage suitable for a question day, because it allows those who are speaking to identify such marks as are prevalent in the experience of a believer.
[44:45] But the fact of the matter is that even when these marks are clear and pronounced, there are always and there always must be counterfeit graces and counterfeit evidences that people may possess.
[45:06] you know, many years ago, and this wasn't a spiritual passion who thought this, it was very much a very dynamic belief that was in society at one time, when society was illiterate and many in the light society had no formal education, there was a strong belief that in order to improve society, all you had to do was improve the means of education so you could educate people and by educating them, you enhanced their moral condition, you enhanced the spiritual conditioning and that was a strongly held view.
[46:05] I remember a former minister, the late Callum Madison saying to us, when he was explaining this, he says, you may take away a person's chains, chains that are binding them because of illiteracy, because of lack of education and if you educate them and if you give them the power to read for themselves and if you enhance their experience of living to the exclusion of the gospel, all you do is change one set of chains for another.
[46:42] Their chains might be rusty and hideous but if all you do is give them chains that are golden, they'll still be chains that bind it because the only way where salvation redeems a person, where a person is given a genuine freedom that only Christ can offer is through the gospel.
[47:16] And while there may be for whatever reason and however it is that a person is attracted to the church or attracted to Christianity or attracted to religions or various descriptions, whatever lies at the heart of that desire, there must be a change brought in the life of a person that only Christ and only God can bring about.
[47:48] That is the point the apostle is making. Paul writes to the Ephesian church, This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind having the understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart.
[48:24] That is the natural condition that must be changed and only God could do that for Paul, only God could do that for any one of us.
[48:36] Writing is first epistle to Timothy. He says, Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying.
[48:50] ESV has it, which promote endless speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. faith. Alongside you can have two people and they are under the same gospel to a degree and yet if one chooses not to believe the gospel by putting their trust in Christ and the other does through the work of Christ in them, that difference will be there regardless.
[49:31] I often quote, well, let me quote to you the words of Thomas Boston.
[49:43] Now, Boston was very simply, he was somebody who was, I'm sure in his own day he was considered to be a very strict believer in the truth of God and the need to apply it.
[50:01] But it was his opinion that there can be counterfeit holiness and feigned faith.
[50:14] Why such should be in existence, I'm not sure, but it is. And T.W. Tozer is very scathing, perhaps from what he sees in, he was looking at the church and he was seeing within the church, he was comparing it to those who were involved in sport, and at times, he was saying, there is hardly any difference between their engagement in sport.
[50:50] They follow the same rules, they play the same game, they use the same ball, they follow the same guidelines. At the end of the day, the game is over and they go off happily congratulating each other for the game that they played.
[51:08] And he said, unfortunately for some who are involved in the Christian faith, their involvement is no different to the kind of involvement you have on the sports field.
[51:20] And this is what he says, there's a danger of treating religion the same way you treat a game. We build reputations upon our world skill, gain as a reward the applause of those who have enjoyed a game, but the emptiness of it is apparent from the fact that after the pleasant religion's game, no one is basically any different from what he had been before.
[51:50] The basis of life remain unchanged. The same old principles govern, the same old Adam rules. Now I have not said, he said, that religion without power makes no change to a man's life, only that it makes no fundamental difference.
[52:12] The creature is changed, but he is not a new creature. Now as I said, there is always a fear when you treat this topic and suggest that there may be those who formulate an alliance with the Christian faith that is not genuine, that you will in some way disturb the peace of those whose relationship is a genuine one.
[52:55] There is that danger, no doubt, but I would rather that danger exist and be identified as a danger than to allow any person believe that they are not what they should be.
[53:16] Believe that they are possessors of new life when they are not possessors of new life, when they are not new creatures in Christ, when they are not subject to the transforming power of the spirit which the new believer must be.
[53:40] Now what we need to emphasize, and you can look at this for yourself, if you are a believer who feels timorous because of what is suggested, look at what Paul is saying.
[53:55] What he is saying here is that there is a change wrought in the nature of the believer that is identifiable, that you are able to discern for yourself if you are a believer that you are not what you once were, that by virtue of the work of Christ in you, you no longer live the life that you once lived.
[54:27] And the only reason for that, the only explanation you can give for that is by understanding that you could not do this in your own power.
[54:44] When Paul again continuing his explanation in Ephesians 4, he says to the reader there, that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and through holiness.
[55:15] holiness. Now, I don't think that that putting off and putting on will be something that you willingly engage in without a genuine relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
[55:38] The change that is wrought in a person by virtue of the work of the spirit of Christ in them is what makes a person a new creature.
[55:50] And everything is new by the spirit of God. It is a change of will. It is a change where the person is made willing in a day of his power.
[56:07] What could not be done before is now done with ease. I don't know how to explain it.
[56:18] But I have heard plenty people say that they were confronted with the gospel and it was virtually an impossibility for them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of their soul.
[56:35] Virtually an impossibility for them to do it. Until the work of Christ in them made what was an impossibility something that they could not but do.
[56:52] And I can't explain how that difference comes. But I do believe that it is a difference that is worked in us by virtue of the work of the spirit in us.
[57:06] I'm sure that if there are Christians here tonight and there are that when you were a new convert full of seal for Christ one of the first things you wanted to do was bring that Christ into the experience of others.
[57:33] and you were still burning hot for Christ and you thought I need to bring this person to Christ I need to bring Christ to this person's attention.
[57:49] It was as if you were convinced that by your endeavour by your energy by your conviction by your powers of persuasion you were going to bring that person to a knowledge of Christ and you had so easily forgotten how difficult it was for you to believe in that same Christ that you were going to try to make others believe in.
[58:18] But that's not to say that you cannot recognise evidences that are irrefutable of the old things being passed away and the old things becoming new.
[58:39] How does your conscience fare with sin? I'm not saying that the conscience is something that is something that you can rely on but I am saying something about the conscience is that the conscience that is quickened is a conscience that disturbs you when you engage in sin.
[59:09] I know it's perfectly possible for us for a Christian to cauterize their conscience by engaging in sin and persevering in that sin so that instead of working for you it works against you.
[59:26] But when the Christian is newborn that conscience is sensitive to sin that conscience is awakened by Christ.
[59:37] there's a hatred of what sin is what sin has done there is an embarrassment even and shame shame for your sin you know some people think that the experience of repentance is something that you have initially no it's an experience that belongs to the believer that they have all their days if you're like me if you're a believer you will find yourself reminded of sins that were part of your life which is way in the past and they're still remembered they're still stirred up and you're made to feel as embarrassed about them as the day that you were guilty of them there is a hatred of sin a hatred of evil there shall change to in your life in your character you are you are whether you are aware of it or not whether you you are fearful that this is not there or not there is a progress in
[61:04] Christ likeness you know Paul writes again we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of Christ changed from glory to glory we can understand that to mean it's as if you are standing in front of a mirror and what the mirror reflects is the glory of the Lord and as the spirit of the Lord works in us we become more and more Christ like and reflect that glory we may think that we're nothing like Christ and in many respects we are never going to be anything like him in this world but he that has begun a good work in us we are told he will continue it until the day of
[62:11] Christ Jesus when we will be like him without any shortcomings now Paul is reminding us that it doesn't stop here it's more than just being born again by an incorruptible seed it is a change wrought in your entirety however much you may think otherwise the American theologian is quite emphatic about this change Charles Hodge he says old opinions old views and plans and desires and principles and affections old are passed away but there are new views of truth new principles new apprehensions of the destiny of man and new feelings and purposes fill and govern the soul that is what is true if you're a new creature in
[63:28] Christ the old things are passed away the old things are become new and we need to nurture what is new and stifle what is old and understand that this is possible because we are in Christ if any man be in Christ this is true they are new creatures they are not simply reformed they are regenerated they are not simply a work of renovation it is a completely new work and that work is God's and he that began that good work in us as we said will continue it until the day of
[64:30] Christ Jesus don't delude yourself if you think you're as good as one of these new creatures if you're not one of them however straight a line you follow however closely you model yourself on what you conceive a believer is like it is an illusion if it is not based upon a relationship with Christ a relationship with Christ because the scripture tells you and me that Christ in you is your hope of glory nothing less than that I mean it is to the shame of the church and there may be some in the church who are not the way they should be maybe they are born again maybe they have a new life in
[65:34] Christ and yet there is too much of the old in evidence when it should have passed away and those who are in the world are not of Christ creation have a habit of I wonder well if I put it like this and you can apply it to yourself have you ever had a person who is not a Christian point out to you a Christian and they say to you well I would like to be like him or I would like to be like her more often than not what they will say is look at John and you want me to be like them they'll always pick out the ones who are not walking as they should to give evidence of credence to their own walk
[66:39] Christ wants us to believe in him to save our soul by believing in him we are united by faith too and as we are in him we are new creatures and as we are new creatures what is old is gone what is new is given strength and purpose and it eventually takes over so that nothing of the old will ever emerge may God give us an understanding of how this works let us pray help us oh God to understand where the apostle is coming from he is coming from a position of darkness and ignorance and enmity and all that marked him out as an opponent to the grace of God and he was changed to be a beneficiary of that grace that grace came into his experience and convicted him of his need and converted him from the way in which he lived his life and as a new creature in
[67:58] Christ he delighted in declaring to all who would listen what that Christ was about and what he meant to him we pray for your help in so doing hear us and pardon sin in Jesus name amen we're closing psalm 10 psalm 10 and we're singing from verse 16 down to verse 18 three stanzas the Lord is King through ages all even to eternity the heathen people from his land that perished utterly O Lord of those that humble are thou the desired didst hear thou wilt prepare their heart and thou to hear wilt bend thine ear to judge the fatherless and those that are oppressed sore that man that is but sprung of earth may them oppress no more these verses the
[69:02] Lord is King through ages all even to eternity the Lord is King through ages all into eternity the he the people from this land are patiently k oh to hear the
[70:03] To horror the The will be paid, the heart unknown to hear.
[70:23] The will be paid, the heart unknown to hear.
[70:53] The will be paid, the heart unknown to hear.