[Albert Gunter:] That was the way we became his followers, the way we got saved, it's the way we continue, it's the way and it's the only re the only method by which we will ever stand before him and he will usher us into his presence to stand eternity with him, through his grace... and as we see others, not in a sense of condemnation, not in a sense of self righteousness or pointing the finger, as we see others we can say with that man of old who, as he watched the, the man being dragged, to the, to the gallows, there but for the grace of God, goes I, goes me and there but for God's grace, think of that most, that worse condition that you know, think of that person who has messed their life up more than any body else and er, who has made a total wreck of it, there but for the grace of God is you and there's me, oh thank God for his grace. I like us to think for a little while this morning just what it means to be a Christian, we've been hearing and seeing and been challenged and accepting Christ as our saviour and over the week in Harlow a number made that response and not only in Harlow and in Earls Court but right across the country and into Europe and into Africa as well, through the, through the life link, men and women who have been challenged into accepting Jesus Christ as their saviour and I'd like us to think for a little while this morning just what it means to be a Christian... now obviously as we perhaps know er, and, and, and God work clearly shows to us that it is not in being religion, somebody well said that religion is man's attempt to find God... but the gospel is God's method of seeking out and finding men and so just as the same as you've seen that bridge of life illustration and we try with our planks to get across to God we can't make it, the chasm is too great though the gulf between God and man is, is far too wide and we try our various planks, our planks of being good, of doing nice things, planks of being religious, of being confirmed, of being baptized, of going to church of perhaps attending church, perhaps even becoming a member of a church, the plank of saying prayers... I think you know and God doesn't even hear us, the bible tells us, if I regarded iniquity in my heart God doesn't hear me, he says I will not hear you, the only prayer that God hears from the sinner is God be merciful to me a sinner... and we've tried that plank and it doesn't work, of course it doesn't because that's not what it means to be a Christian, the plank of bible reading, we can read the bible, we can memorise it, it doesn't make us a Christian, Jesus said to some of the religious leaders of his days, you search the scriptures for you think that in them you have life, but you will not come to me, and so it's not being in religious, er being religious or any thing else as we well know, it's something far, far more fundamental than that, those words that Jesus said to Nicodemus you must be born again, that new birth, that new start, starting all over again, and so what happens, what's it all about, what is it to, what is it to be a Christian. You know very often, in fact usually the best way of working things out is to go right back to the beginning isn't it, it, to start off at square one and the trouble is sometimes we want to start in the middle, we want to pick it up where we think we can come in and it doesn't work that way, we've got to go right back to the beginning, and what is it at the beginning, well we look to see how God, what God's plan and his purpose for us is, how God made us, it tells us there in the book of Genesis in the first chapter in verse twenty seven, that God created us to be like himself... and you've got to look in the mirror and I've got to look in the mirror, not just the glass mirror on the wall, but into the mirror of ourselves and realise we don't have to be intellectuals, we don't have to be astute observers, but even the very cursory of glances will show to us that were nothing like it, if God made you and me to be in his image, then something has gone wrong, but that's how we started, that is how he made us and in making us to be like himself that does something tremendous because it gives to men and women, it gives to human kind a status and a responsibility in creation, he did not make you and me like the animals, no matter how wonderful their abilities are, they've got tremendous instincts, they've got tremendous homing instincts, how that tiny bird weighing, weighing less than an ounce can fly thousands and thousands of miles, for the first time and come back, six, nine months later to the very spot where it was hatched out of an nest, now you can't do it, I can't do it, but for all wonders that God has put into the, into his, to his creative to his, in, in his creation, in animals, in birds and in other creatures, he has done something that marks you and I humanity out above and beyond all his others creation, he has given to us a status and a responsibility... he never made any thing else in his image, but he made you to be created in his image... and with that there's that status, were not just a more intelligent animal, were not just something else that God made even, but were that, that peak of his creative genius, the peak of it, the very pinnacle of it, not because of what we are, but because of the image, the pattern that he was using, his own self, created us in his image, so that gave us status but it gives us responsibility. Only see one way in which we are like God is in having moral and spiritual capacities... no other creature has moral and spiritual capacities, they do not of the potential to worship, they do not of a code er, er, of moral laws, they're not governed by that, it's a case of, of the, might makes right, it's a case of the strongest the one that survives and the weakest goes to the wall... you've only got to look er at a litter of pups and the last one is the one that's pushed to the back every time isn't it, there's no moral law there, those pups and the, and the bitch doesn't er work out, that because that one is weaker it should be getting more, more nourishment, it should be cared for better, it doesn't work like that in any thing else, but God has placed within humanity a moral responsibility and his place within as a spiritual capacity, were more than just animals, were created in his image, so God created us, capable of knowing him and growing to be like him and in his original creation they're in need of, the, the, the highlight of it was when he came down and communicated and talked with Adam and Eve there in the garden and shared his heart with them and there was this perfect commune between God the creator and man his creation, he never did it to any animal, he didn't go and talk to the trees and the plants perfect though they were, he never looked on any of the other creatures that he had made, wonderful though they may be, beautiful in their colouring, and go and talk with them, but he talks with Adam and he shares his heart with him... his purpose is that Adam should communicate with him and walk with him and has fellowship with him, growing to be like him, but you see even though God created us like that, he didn't create us as puppets, it wasn't God up in heaven pulling the strings and Adam did that and Eve did this and that was how it were, God is not a puppeteer and he made as capable of choosing good and evil, he gave us moral choices, because he made us his moral beings and so we could choose to do this and not to do that, we could choose to, to do this and to leave the other undone.... Let me just... it's nothing special, it's only a circle, but if you were to take that for a, as, as an example if you like as a picture of God's purposes for us, you see the circle is, is, geometrical it's, it's, it's perfect, there is nothing that is odd about it, there is nothing er, there's no difference about it, it is perfect and that was God's purpose and God's plan for you and for me, that our, that our time, our being should be perfect in, in harmony with him, you think of all the things in your life personally, and then think of all the things in the, in the life of your com of our community, those things that mar it, those things that spoil it, those things that stop today be the perfect day for you... that's not God's purpose for you... they've all come as a product, a direct result of sin, it wasn't how God intended it, it wasn't how God made it, his plan, his purpose for you and for me was to live and to dwell together with him in perfect harmony for ever, and there representing that, but you know and I know that it didn't stay like that, I don't know how long, but it didn't stay like it for very long because... sin crept in, that circle was marred, it was twisted, that intermit original fellowship with God was broken, let me read you a verse there in Genesis chapter three and verse eight, it's, it's Adam and Eve it says [reading] they heard the sound of the lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord God among the trees of the garden [], for the first time since Adam had first been created they hide from God, they hear him coming, it's the time when God will come, and they hear him that were walking through the garden using picture language, and they go and hide, they're ashamed to see him, they don't want to look upon him, something has happened that perfect circle has been marred, what it was like yesterday, things are different now, there's that unclean feeling, there's that guilt complex, we've done it wrong, we've failed to keep what God's said, we've broken the rules... and when you break the rules, it's not just the rules that are broken is it, you know it and I know it, in relationships, it's not just the rules that get broken, it's the relationship is marred.... So Adam and Eve they go and hide, but it's not just Adam and Eve, but it's every one of us, they're just pictures, they're representatives of you and of me, they are the federal head of the human race, and Paul with his writing in Romans three, and verse twenty three reminds us, and J B Phillips in his translation, he puts it like this he says every one has sinned, every one falls short of the beauty of God's plan, that plan, that purpose that God had, not just for creation, not just for humanity in general, but for you as an individual, that purpose that God had, that beautiful plan, far better than you can could work out, out for yourself... falling short of it, we've marred it, we haven't come up to it, if that circle represented just as a diagram as a picture, God's plan God's beautiful plan for you and for me... still a circle, but dented here, bashed in there... twisted, warped, it's in a sense it's exactly the same as the circle, you know you draw the circle it's a line that starts there and goes perfectly round and comes back to the starting point, it's exactly the same as that, but it's been pushed out at the edges, it's been dented in here, it's not recognisable now as that same circle, although it's what it is, and you see what, what has happened is although we've sinned, although we've come short of God's plan, God hasn't destroyed the whole thing, he could so easily just taken up the human life and crumple it up and thrown it on the heap, said finished with them, can't be bothered, I'll start all over again with new people, I'll have a new creation, well he did have a new creation, but he kept that same creation, he said I'm gonna work on it, I'm gonna do something with it, I'm gonna restore it, I'm gonna ransom it, I'm gonna redeem it, I'm gonna make it again, not just like it was, but I'm gonna make it even more wonderful and more beautiful. And so though we have all sinned and that circle, that perfect purpose of God for you and for me has been warped and distorted out of all recognition, the potential that God had for you and for me, it's been dis it seems to have been destroyed because of the warping and because of the impact of sin. What's happened it's the world again to use J B Phillips translation this time the Romans twelve two, that, that the world the precious around us has pushed us here and is as dented at there and it squeezed us out of the mould, the purpose the pattern that God had for us, into its own mould, a warped mould, a distorted picture, that has what has happened. As I said God didn't leave it like that, because God did in Jesus Christ what we could never do for ourselves, you see you and I at times we felt that I, I want to be different from that and we, and we pushed against one of these pressures and so that we pushed it out a wee bit, but as we've pushed there it's come back in somewhere else and as we've stopped pushing and we've gone to another bit so that first that has become, has come back as it was and we spend our lives perhaps running around trying to get the circle back again, it's an impossible task, we can't do it, we spend our whole lives in the frustration things and we, and we start blaming on things, if only that situation was different, if only those circumstances were different, but it's far, far, far more fundamental than that... and we've gotta come to the place where we say well I can't do any thing about it, I've tried my hardest, but I can't do it, and that's where God comes and says hang on a minute I'll do it for you and that's what he did in Jesus Christ, he did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, the bible tells us that Christ is the perfect image of God, it's in Colossians one fifteen and just er full verses further on in verse nineteen it says [reading] in him all the fullness of God, in Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell []... and so in Christ God's son, God dealt with the problem of sin which had caused that twisting and that warping and that distortion, your life and in my life, that which spoiled his image in us... he created us in his image, but you've only got to look at people today, you've only got to look at ourselves, see, where is the image of God, is that what God is like, jealous, filled with anger, bitterness, envy, is that what God is like, unclean thinking, is that what God is like... that's not his image, but he created us in his image perfect and what Jesus Christ did on the cross, is to restore that image, that original image in you and me, to recreate us in the image of God, so in Christ God dealt with the problem which spoiled his image in us and he has to do it because of fundamental thing, he's gotta do it from the centre, you know you can get an apple, an ordinary apple and you can polish it up and you can have it so that it's bright and glistening and the red is almost you know it, it, it, it almost dazzles you the shining on it, it's got a real good polish on the skin, but inside, there's a grub, and all the polishing in the world doesn't get rid of the grub, and you see that's so often what we do, we polish and polish away on the outside, that's gonna make us better... but it's only skin deep because inside the grub is having a field day, he's having a party of all party's, he's got an whole apple to himself and the grub of sin in your life and in my life is having, has a field day and we polish the outside and we try and make it look good and we be we become presentable and there like the apple on the market stall it looks good, it looks tremendous until you take a bite out of it and you see in the bit that you've bitten there's a, there's a hole going through and you wonder where the grub is, is it in the bit that's left or in the bit that you've eaten and this is just like sin you see in our lives and so God in Christ he didn't deal with the outside bit, he didn't bother trying to make our conditions better, he didn't bother trying to work on the outside, that's the difference between the gospel and social work and there's nothing wrong with social work, it's just that it's going, it's coming from the wrong end, it starts on the outside, it will educate people if we give them better housing, if we give them better circumstances, if we give them better wages, now all these things are right and that we should have them, but that doesn't make any difference, you see, the person is a sinner, all he becomes if you educate him is an educated sinner, if you give him a huge pay rise all he becomes is a rich sinner, if you put him in a palace all he becomes is er a sinner living in a palace, it doesn't make any basic difference to the person. He didn't use it this time, I remember a number of years ago here in he used an illustration of the pig, you know you can polish the pig up, you can clean it, you can scrub it, you can oh de cologne it, you can do all sorts of things with it, you can tie a nice pink ribbon around it and you can put it in a palace, but it's still a pig and it lives like a pig and you can cl and no matter how clean you've made it, it'll soon find some dirt to wallow in and the ribbon might make it look nice in the show ground but it doesn't make any difference to its nature and so it is with us and so Jesus didn't start on the outside, but he starts at the inside... he deals with the route of the problem, in One Corinthians chapter fifteen and in verse three it says [reading] for I deliver to you as a first importance [], this is the basic thing, he says to them this was the first thing that I said to you because it was the most important that Christ died for our sins, according to the scripture, what ever else Christ gives to us, what ever else he does for us, what ever else the gospel produces, the basic, the most important, the fundamental thing is that Christ died for our sins. One of the accusations used and levelled against er against Christianity against the, the evangelical message, against things like the, the mission of Graham and, and others is that it, it doesn't meet the needs the, the material needs of people... but if you deal with the persons spiritual needs, if their sins are forgiven, those problems that are causing the material problem, it's amazing how there are dealt with as well, the best way to sober up a person, the best way to deal with a person who's an alcoholic, the best way to deal with a person who is a drug addict, the best way to deal with a person who, who commits adultery is not by telling them the wrongs of those things, it's not by trying to, to, to do, to, to, you know, to, to counsel them it's presenting the gospel allowing Jesus Christ to come into their lives and to forgive them, that will make the person sober quicker than all the counselling in the world and Paul says I brought you the most important the fundamental thing, that Christ died for our sins... Paul again when he's writing to the Romans in chapter five and verse eight he says [reading] but God demonstrates his own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us [] so God did in Jesus Christ what we couldn't do for ourselves, so all of you have sin, so all of my sin, and he came and he died on the cross and as he was dying there was that transmit there, for he wasn't dying for his own sin... buy he was dying for your sin and for mine, it was all piled on him and so when we except what Christ has done, when we come to that place and yes I believe that you died for me, that my sin was laid on you, now what happens is that our relationship with God is restored, that, that chasm, that, that gulf that we've been trying to get across with our good works with our church attendance with all these other things, suddenly we are, our land with a bridge across it, there's no longer a barrier there, there's no longer a great gulf there, Jesus Christ has bridged it, that broken relationship has restored... and from this relationship the basis of that relationship we have the power to become as God made us.... If you want in Colossians chapter one in verse twenty seven, it's, it's given again very simply, again can I use J B Phillips, he puts it like this, he says [reading] the secret is simply this, Christ in you [] yes he says Christ in you, bringing with him the hope of all the glorious things to come, so what God does... he comes in to this situation that's marred that's warped, that's twisted and he comes in by himse, Jesus Christ comes into it, he becomes the central point, the focal point and that circle, it starts to get dealt with, that marred twisted like, it doesn't happen being like that, we knew creation straight away, we don't have to work at that, but he, as we allow him to dwell in us and to work out his purpose, he restores that relationship with God and God starts to fashion us, he starts to work on us and bring us back into how he originally created us. He re-introduces us to his perfect plan and purpose for us. There's, we, we've been struggling and trying to do ourselves and all we have to do is to allow Christ to come in to our lives, because he died to take away the sin, he dealt with the route cause of it, Christ in you, the hope of glory.... And so we've got to desire to have our broken relationship with God restored, you see we need to receive what God offers in Christ, the fact that Christ died for our sins does not mean a thing to us until we say yes I accept it for me, I believe you died for me, I receive it, I'm linked into it, you see your house can be, let me give you a very simple illustration, your house is linked up with er Eastern Electricity and there is so many er I dunno what, what the what it is, but there is the power there, the there are, there are kilo watts of power on tap in your home, but in the winter you're cold, when it gets dark outside, it's dark inside... the cooker, the electric cooker doesn't work, the fridge is not operating the food is going rotten, you can't watch a programme on television, why, because you haven't plugged into the source of the power, it's as simple as that, you can't blame the Electricity Board, it's not Eastern Electricity's fault... it's your fault because all the plugs are out of the sockets and it doesn't matter what the Electricity Board does short of blowing up your house, they can do nothing for you... and it doesn't matter what God has done in Christ until we as it were to also plug in, it doesn't mean a thing to us, but the moment we link in, that's the change, the lights come on, there's, there's heat there, the stove works, the, the radio, the television, the record player, they're all operating, the freezer's working, the situation has changed, we needs to receive what God offers us in Christ... and John one in verse twelve it says [reading] but as many have received him, to them he gave the right, the authority, the, the power, to become children of God, even to those who believe on his name [] and this of course is what making our commitment to Christ is, it's receiving him for ourselves, it's plugging in, it's saying yes I haven't got that power myself, I am not able to do it I need you to come and do it for me, I accept that you have that power, you have that authority, you have dealt with my sin and I receive it for me, we trust Christ to save us from sin and commit ourselves to his kingly ruling our lives, we are as the bible says then, born again, new creations, we are made alive in Christ, I give you one verse in Colossians and in chapter three, verse four... it says [reading] when Christ who is our life is revelled, then you also [] no sorry verse, verse three, verse three, sorry [reading] for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God []... but you say that's all very well that, that brings me into the place of becoming a follower of Jesus yes I've accepted him, but what about all this pressures here, Christ I, I'm willing to receive them and to make the centre of my life, I've received that he died for me, but what about all those things that's twisting and marring and distorting my life, that's rubbing me, my life can be more, God wants it to be, well that's the great thing when Jesus comes, he doesn't just come and sit down and that's all there is to it, but he comes in by the holy spirit and as Christ is the centre of our life so he, as we submit to him and to his authority as we become obedient to his word, doing what he tells us, what he says for us, then the power of his spirit in our life starts operating, God the holy spirit, cos that's how we become Christians, we are born again of God spirit and God Christ was in us, not the man who walked here on Galilee, he is a man in glory, but he comes into your life and into my life by the holy spirit and he gives us new spiritual resources which help us to overcome those influences of evil that are pressing in on us and trying to, to, to, to distort our lives and depress it into its mould, those things that have spoiled our lives, he gives us spiritual power and spiritual resources over them. The holy spirit gives us a new prospective on life and it, it, it deepens our relationship with God, we don't have to try and make, make a success of our new Christian life by ourselves, you know it doesn't matter whether you've been a Christian for a week, for a day, for twenty, for fifty years, if you try to do it one day by yourself you are guaranteed failure, there is no way you can do it, it doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian or how short a period, you can not do it, if the great apostle Paul, he could, he said I can do nothing of myself... he said I am not sufficient, for all my learning, for all the wonderful visions I've had, for the knowledge that God has given to me, that I've been able to write these great apostle's, he says that I cannot do it myself, I can't live this Christian life myself... and the tremendous thing that none of us, no matter who we are, we do not have to try to make a success of our Christian life on our own, it's a partnership and God is the senior partner in it, he doesn't expect us to do it by ourselves, listen to what the, the, that, the same apostle Paul says when he's writing to the, the Gelation Christians, in, in chapter two, verse twenty, listen to what he says there, he says I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life which I know live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and delivered himself for me, he said I don't do it by myself, why not, very simply cos he can't, he didn't know how to, he didn't have the power to do it he says but the life I'm living, I live by the power of Christ who died for me, who gave himself for me and who now lives in me now by the holy spirit... Paul again when he's writing to the Philippians, in chapter four and verse thirteen, he says [reading] I can do all things, oh how arrogant of you Paul, how boastful you are [], oh no he didn't just finish there did he, he says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and writing to the Romans in that tremendous eighth chapter of Romans and verse thirty seven... he says [reading] in all these things, in all the problems of life, in all the difficulties and all the temptations, in all the pressures that we are called to go through [] he says, [reading] in all of these things we overwhelmingly concur [], we are triumphant he says, how, through him who loved us. So he has given, God gives this power within, power of the holy spirit, the indwelling Christ, in you and in me, so I've got no advantage over you, and you have no advantage over me and the person who's been a Christian for fifty years hasn't got an advantage over the Christian who's been a Christian for one day because that same power that raised Christ from the dead, hear that, the same power that God used to raise Christ from the dead, that is the same power that dwells in you and in me, that's what the bible says. If that power was sufficient, the holy spirit, if that power was sufficient to raise Christ from the dead, you not think he's able to exert that power in your life and in my life to make us live lives that are pleasing to God, of course it is... so we don't do it ourselves, just let me in closing mention one other thing, this relationship we have needs to be maintained, you know for any relationship to grow, one needs to spend time with the other person, I don't give a lot of credence to the saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder, it does with somebody else, it's true, it does not make it grow fonder of that person... the person is you know who you, you heard this story so often, like particularly like going back during the last war, folk who were separated sometimes for, for, not just for months but for several years, there they were in concentration camps perhaps, in prisoner of war camps, separated for years, they come back home... they've got to get to know each other all over again... you see that a relationship on a human level as well as in our relationship with God is dependent on, on association, it's dependent on companionship, it's dependent on spending time with the other person and in our relationship with Christ this is achieved by, by prayer, by knowing and understanding God's word, by having fellowship with other Christians and fellowship with other Christians is not just meeting them and passing the time of day with them, oh that's fellowship but it's far more than that is required, there's the fellowship in worship, we worship together, of course I can worship God at home... of course I can do it, so can you do it and we, we should do it, but there's that re, there's that need, that requirement as God's people we come together to worship him in a corporate act, in the sacraments, in, as we mentioned in, in earlier on in taking the bread and the wine and remembering the lords death, there's a sense in which I can do it by myself... I don't believe it's God's purpose unless there's no other alternative... but to do it together with God's people, with God's family... the fellowship of being together in our witness and in our service, this is the whole purpose of, of, of, of the church family, that we do things together, that we are together and then obedience to God's will. Let me just, just show you a little thing here just enclosing, just linking it up there, there it is, it's, it's a well known little picture, it's a picture of a wheel where there in the centre the hub is Christ, you see... when the hub has got to be the centre otherwise the wheel does not run true and there with Christ is the hub, the centre of your life, the centre of my life, and you and I our lives our selves, there on the outside, were the rim and there's those spokes that hold it together and make it run true... the spoke of, of the bible, God's word allowing him to speak to us, the spoke of prayer, our communion with God, our praying to him, the spoke of obedience following him obeying him, bringing our lives into, into line with what he says in his word, he says if you love me you will keep my commandments, that's why we've got to learn and get to know them from his word... and then the spoke of fellowship... somebody as likened them to prayer, being like air, our breath, the bible being like food, giving us nourishment and strength, fellowship, it's the family situation and in just as in a nature family there is, that is the place for care, it's the place for support it's the place of sharing, it's the place of love, where it should be, so God's family, and then the final one their obedience like exercise, keeping fit, it's the callisthenics, it's keeping the muscles toned, obeying what he tells us in his word, well that's what it means to be a Christian... bringing ourselves into line with him and allowing him to re-fashion us in his image and it's a process that's going on all the time, Wesley and his hymn talks about us being used and the scripture being changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place there, like him, John says when we see him, we shall be like him, but we shall see him as he is and that's God's purpose for you and for me, to be like him, and the moment we come to him and respond to him, the process starts and it goes on, day in, day out, night in, night out, week in, week out, over the years him changing and fashioning us into the image of his son, because that's how he created us originally, he created to be like him and in this new creation, we were singing we are a new creation, it's to be like him. Let's sing that, that little song we sang earlier, let's sing it again in closing shall we, that we are new creations in Christ... what it, it's number one seventy nine, I am a new creation and whilst we sing it were gonna take up our morning offering, one hundred and seventy nine then.
[speaker002:] [singing] I am a new creation, no more in condemnation []