015: John Roberts - The Bible is the Difference

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Welcome to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. Thank you so much for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help each one of us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post at the start of each week for you to listen, with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to hear.

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   And now, let's hear more about this week's talk. In this week's talk by Brother John Roberts, he looks at four topics that we all face and compares how the Bible teaches us to handle them versus the way the world would have you to deal with them. It is a refreshing reminder of the life that we are all called to live if we want to be part of God's family and partake in the promises that were extended to us through the sacrifice of Christ.

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   Now, this talk was given around 2005, so some of the events he mentions in his talk are from that time period, so they might seem a little dated. However, the topics that he covers are fantastic. The first three topics he covers are ones that I'm sure we've all heard of in classes before.

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   He looks at political turmoil, personal trials, and dealing with death from a scriptural perspective and kind of compares it to how the world handles those same things. However, in his last topic, Brother John looks at how we deal with success, which was a perspective on biblical life that I hadn't considered before, and how we deal with that success in our lives.

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   He also looks at how the ambition that the world encourages in us and sort of drives us for matches up with being a follower of Christ. No matter what stage of life you're in or what worries or trials you may be facing, I believe that you will find something in this talk that speaks to you and will serve to encourage you with the wonderful hope and the confidence that we have in God.

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   We're both really excited to share this talk with you and hope you enjoyed as much as we did. Thank you for supporting the podcast, for the positive feedback, and all the suggestions that people have been sending in. Many of the talks you've already listened to and were posted prior to this one came from suggestions, and we have more suggestions of speakers, topics, and talks that we already have lined up.

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   If you're enjoying the podcast, please share it with other people at your meeting or friends that you think might enjoy it as well. Share either the whole podcast or one specific talk that you think might be beneficial to them. And if you're feeling up for it, maybe try helping someone subscribe to the podcast as well so they can get more Bible study into their week.

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   So now I'll turn it over to our brother John Roberts for his talk titled, The Bible is the Difference. Good evening, everyone. I'm sure that you will have noticed that life is full of choices today, isn't it? There are always decisions that are being urged upon us, from tiny ones, fairly insignificant ones, to major things in our lives.

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   So, do you want tea or coffee? Do you want rooibos or ordinary? Do you want lemon or milk in that? Sugar or no sugar? And so on. And in a way, that's what we want to talk about this evening. We want to talk about the decisions that God asks us to make. The fact that God expects us to distinguish between some things and others.

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    Now, way back in the pages of the Old Testament, God expected his people, Israel, to make distinctions between certain things and others. Will you turn with me, please, to the book of Leviticus, the third book of our scriptures, and just have a look there at chapter 10.

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    I'm going to put some of our verses on the overhead projector this evening, and you'll find that the slides that I have are taken from the New King James Version. So, if that's not the version in front of you, you might find the wording just marginally different, but the sense will certainly be the same.

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    Leviticus chapter 10. And we're dealing here with a section of scripture that has to do with things that Israel can eat and things that they can't eat. And certain things were classified as clean. They were all right to be eaten, and they were all right for sacrifice to God. And certain other things were called unclean.

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    Not that they were dirty, but that they were not to be eaten. And they were not to be used in sacrifice to God. Leviticus chapter 10 and verse 10.

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    And that you may put a difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean. And that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses. So there is God saying to Israel that they have to differentiate in some way between one class of animals that God regarded as clean, and another class that he called unclean.

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    If you come over to Leviticus chapter 11, it's exactly the same sort of thing. Right at the end of that chapter. Leviticus 11, verse 44. For I am the Lord your God, ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy, for I am holy. Neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

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    Verse 46. This is the law of the beasts and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth. To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beasts that may be eaten, and the beasts that may not be eaten.

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    So you can see the idea, can't you? To make a difference. Now, although Israel had quite literally to carry out the laws that God gave them here, and that had to operate in their daily diet, and in the sacrifices they brought to God, essentially, these chapters are about the fact that God differentiates between some men and women, and others.

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    When we turn to the pages of the New Testament, which we shan't now do, the Apostle Peter learns that that is the case. He has a vision, and is told to kill and eat, and he says, No, no, no, I can't do that. I have never eaten anything which was classified unclean under the law here in Leviticus.

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    Then, later, he learns that he's not to call any man common or unclean. That if God has cleansed them, they are to be regarded as clean. We then begin to see that this law actually has a more symbolic or spiritual application. Although it applied physically and literally to the people of Israel in terms of animals and birds and fish and so on, it applied much more in the eyes of God to some people who were clean, sanctified, holy in the eyes of God, and others who are not.

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    So you see the point. Here, in the early chapters of our Bible, God is commanding that Israel make a distinction in that sort of way. Israel themselves were distinctive. God chose them to be his people. He called them out from the other nations. He gave them his law. Moses said that there was no other people in the privileged position which they enjoyed.

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    As having received the law of God himself. They were indeed greatly honored. And that law was far in advance of its time. Still today, the laws of some countries are based, albeit now loosely, I suppose, on the Ten Commandments. And many laws of hygiene and of social concerns which God gave to Israel.

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    We have only, in relatively recent times, the last 100, 200, 250 years, discovered the wisdom of. My wife and I occasionally visit Nepal. And when we have gone to perform a baptism there, and have had to seek out water that was deep enough in which to immerse someone, we've usually found that that happens to be the local toilet.

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    And you have to pick your way over the excrement on the rocks and on the pathways as you make your way down to the river. And yet thousands of years ago, God said to Israel that they should cover up the excrement. God immediately, by that commandment, was taking away the danger of flies getting to it, and of the germs which they would spread.

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    So that's just one example, one way, in which God laws were so wise, and so far in advance of their time, and in which Israel were distinctive as a nation, called out to be holy because their God was holy.

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    Well, what we want to think about now is the fact that Christians are also called out to be different. The true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is invited by God and by his Lord, by his Master, to make distinctions, to see differences between himself and others. Now, let me quickly add that the true Christian does not see himself as better than other men and women, not of himself.

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    We're not standing here in great pride and saying that we are better than other people, nor do Christadelphians think that. But we do recognize that the Bible calls upon us to be different from men and women around us, to make distinctions in just the same way that God demanded of the people of Israel.

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    And we want to look at that issue in various different aspects of our lives. So what we're going to be doing tonight is looking at the way in which we are called to be different in terms, first of all, of international turmoil. We want to think of what the Bible says about that and how it demands of us that we take a different view, perhaps, from most people around us.

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    Then we want to look at personal difficulties. The distinctions that the Bible invites us to make in terms of the personal difficulties in our own lives. Then we want to look at the rather somber subject of death. What the Bible has to say about death that makes Christadelphians different from those around them.

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    And finally, one that you might be surprised to see on this list, we want to think about success. We want to see what the Bible says that we should do and how we should react to success. Maybe you don't think that's a problem, but we'll talk about that more when we get there.

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    So those are the four sections to the remainder of our talk this evening. Let's begin then with the idea of international turmoil. It's very difficult to live in our world and to be unaware of the difficulties that the world faces. From time to time, a particular problem between nations might be overcome, might be resolved, and there is a sense of optimism for a little while.

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    But when we review history, it's very clear, isn't it, that man is not able to resolve his own problems. It does not lie within the wit of man to solve the difficulties that he encounters. Nations oppress others, they fight against others, and there is constant tension and difficulty. You only need to think about the Congo and the refugee problem, which is well enough known to most of you.

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    Or to the Middle East, where there are always problems. To other difficult spots in the world, Europe might look fairly peaceful for the moment, and the Bosnia and Croatia and Herzegovina problems seem to have been resolved, for the time being at least. But we cannot deny, can we, that the nations are fragmenting all the time into their little ethnic groups.

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    Certainly as far as Britain is concerned, the troubles in Northern Ireland are still not at an end after all these years. The League of Nations was not very successful, was it? Although it was going to be the answer to all the problems of the world, that was succeeded by the United Nations Organization.

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    And we're all aware of how America has recently thumbed its nose at the United Nations and gone into Iraq despite what the United Nations thought or felt about the issues. So we can see, can't we, that international turmoil is a real problem, and it's a problem that's always with us. And there are some people, indeed, who are very concerned about it, to the extent that they are very fearful.

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    Now, Christadelphians look at that subject with the Bible. Open before them. We recognize, as God spoke to the prophet Daniel in the Old Testament, and informed him and the king Nebuchadnezzar with whom he worked, that God rules in the kingdom of men. It's God who controls the affairs of our world. It's God who sets up leaders and removes them, according to his will.

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    God is directing the affairs of our world to a predetermined end. He has a plan and a purpose which is sure and firm and cannot be thrown off course. The particular chapter in Daniel, chapter 4 and verse 17, if any of you want to make a note and look at it later, actually says that God sets up over the nations the basest of men.

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    Now, that might mean that sometimes God sets over the nations the most wicked men to accomplish his purpose. Or it might mean, as some versions translate that, God will set over them the lowliest of men. Ultimately, the Lord Jesus Christ himself is going to replace all the world rulers of our day when God establishes the worldwide kingdom of God under the rulership of Jesus Christ with his throne in Jerusalem.

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    Can we turn, please, to the Gospels, some words of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 21. Here, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to his disciples of those days and informing them what it was that awaited the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. Because of their refusal to accept the word of God and the Son of God.

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    And because of their crowning wickedness, which was about to take place when Jesus spoke these words of crucifying the Son of God. God had determined to judge the people of Israel and remove them as a nation. They would be scattered into all the countries of the world. They would cease to exist as a nation.

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    They would exist only as individuals from then on. And we know well how his words came true in what the Romans did to Jerusalem and Israel in AD 70 and shortly after. Here in Luke, chapter 21, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking about those events and probably also about events which are yet future to our world.

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    When he uses the suffering of the Jews as a prototype of what may yet be to come. These words have been fulfilled, but they may yet be fulfilled again. In Luke, chapter 21 then, and verse 26, Jesus says, verse 25, perhaps we should go back to, and these shall be sign, and there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.

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    For the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

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    Those words are certainly true of our generation in large measure, aren't they? Although they were eminently true of the days just preceding AD 70. Today, we see men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after the things that are coming on the earth, worrying about what might be. What's Iran going to do with its nuclear capability?

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    And what about North Korea? Nations cannot be contained, can they? Even though the United States of America seem to have set themselves up as the world's policemen, people are frightened as to what is going to happen when they think seriously about these things. I used to lodge in the house of a lady who was so concerned about these things that she could not bear to listen to the news bulletins on the radio or television.

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    Whenever news came on, she would immediately spring across and switch it off. She was just so afraid of hearing the news because she said it was always bad news. Notice what the Lord Jesus Christ now says to us in verse 28. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.

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    Now that's instructive, isn't it? Jesus is saying that when we see these things happening in our world, we have no need to fear. We know that they are the signs which reassure us that God's purpose is right on track. That everything is happening according to his will, according to what he has purposed and planned.

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    So we don't need to be fearful. We don't need to go to that extreme of being frightened and switching off the news unable to listen to what's going on in our world. Nor do we need to go to the other extreme which many have gone to in the world in which we live.

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    And that's different forms of escapism. Drugs, alcohol, different ways in which men and women are choosing to bury their heads in the sand and ignore what's going on about them by immersing themselves in pleasure of one sort or another.

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    Now let's be quite clear about this 28th verse. The Lord Jesus Christ is not saying, and Christodolphins do not feel that we have any right to go about saying, well, it doesn't matter to us, we know what's going to happen. Jesus isn't inviting us to put our thumbs in our lapels and be proud about the information that he has given us.

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    But he is saying that we don't need to fear these things, because they are the beginning of what God is bringing about, and they will result in our redemption. They will result in God sending back Jesus Christ, literally and in person to our earth, to establish the worldwide kingdom of God, in a spring-cleaned world.

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    So that's why Jesus says that we can afford to be different. And the difference is the Bible, and what the Bible says. The difference is this message from God, which reassures us. When these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads. We don't need to be depressed, we don't need to be disconsolate, we don't need to go around with our heads bowed, so concerned and anxious for what is likely to happen.

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    There will be a time of unprecedented distress. Jesus himself said so. We shall not prove him wrong. But Jesus says that we should endure that with our confidence and faith intact. These are the things that God is bringing about as part of his purpose. So can you see how we are called upon to be different in that way.

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    But perhaps international turmoil is not your problem. Perhaps you feel that by and large the problems are many hundreds and thousands of miles away and what matters to you much more are the personal difficulties of every day. How to pay the bond and the bills. How to make ends meet. The redundancy which looms on the horizon.

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    Perhaps your problems revolve around the children. Their schooling. Bullying. The influence of drugs. The crime. The friends that they choose and keep. Perhaps you worry about how they will do in their education. Whether they will be able to get jobs at all when they leave school. Or perhaps your worry is that you don't have children.

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    Or even a partner. Perhaps loneliness is your difficulty. There are all kinds of personal difficulties which men and women face in our world. To see what the Lord Jesus Christ says about those I would like you to come back please to Matthew's Gospel and chapter 6.

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    Here the Lord Jesus Christ is assuring us of God's care for us if and when we belong to God. Matthew chapter 6 has a lot to say about this sort of issue and we shall have to select our verses fairly carefully for reasons of time. In verse 19 Jesus says lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt where thieves break through and steal.

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    Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal. Jesus is saying that our hearts should be in heaven. It's there that our hope is. It's there that our treasure is. The things that we count most precious as Christadelphians as those who have read and looked at the word of God are the things which belong to God and his purpose centered in our Lord Jesus Christ.

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    Jesus says that our confidence if it's in God is not misplaced. Look further down this chapter at verse 20. Therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment?

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    Behold the fowls of the air they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? So Jesus is urging us not to be over anxious about the cares of daily life. Where the next meal is coming from. What we're going to wear.

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    And Jesus says down at verse 31 that in fact most men and women are concerned about these things. These are the things that tend to crowd out the more important things from their hearts and minds and from their lives. This is what he says in verse 31. So Jesus there says very clearly these are the things that take up the time and attention of most people after all these things do the Gentiles see.

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    And he says our calling is to be different. But oh sorry for your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. So the Lord Jesus Christ is asking us to readjust our priorities.

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    to have a different set of standards and values from the world around us. To recognize that if through belief in the scriptures and baptism into the Lord Jesus Christ we have become members of the family of God and belong to him. Then God cares for us. He will take care of those daily necessities.

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    He does not say notice that he will supply all our wants. There is a difference isn't there between needs and wants. But he does say that he will provide those things that we need. And that we should therefore not be like other people constantly seeking after these things. We should put the kingdom of God first.

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    His righteousness following his ways. Seeking to keep his commandments. Looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to establish that kingdom here in the earth as we said earlier.

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    So there is another way in which as true Christians we believe that we are called upon to be different. And the difference is the Bible. The difference is what God has put in his word and what the Lord Jesus Christ said to disciples on this occasion. All these things he says, all these other necessary things will be added to you if you have the faith and the trust in God to put him first.

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    There then is the second way in which we believe we are called upon to be different from men and women around us. Our third category you may remember was the somber subject of death. And here I would like you to turn to a little letter buried in the pages of the New Testament, the letter which the Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, the first of those two letters in fact.

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    1 Thessalonians and chapter 4. There are many verses that we could turn to to demonstrate the points we have to make this evening and we have restricted ourselves to just one or two verses in each case for reasons of time. Here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 the Apostle Paul is writing to Christians of the first century, Christian believers, and he is urging them again.

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    to make a distinction between themselves and other people, to recognize that there is a difference in the hope which they have from the hope which most people around us have or maybe don't have. The fact is that somehow or other, sooner or later, all of us are affected by death. It may be someone else's death.

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    It may be the death of a loved one, someone very close, who we miss desperately. We feel that bereavement keenly, and it may take a long, long time to get over that. Or perhaps our concern is our own death, and what happens at death. Do we actually know what happens after we have breathed our last?

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    Do we care? death? What is the answer to the confusing array of teachings, many of them from so-called Christian churches, about death and the afterlife? Well, the Bible makes the issues very plain and very clear.

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    The fact is that death, according to the Bible, is unconsciousness. we have no memory, no knowledge, no thought processes, nothing. When we die, we die. We go into the ground, and we know nothing more. Our bodies, if we are there for very long, will mold and corrupt and become dust, until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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    For those who are in Christ, those who have accepted the teaching of the Bible and recognize its call to be different, there is a hope. Jesus will raise the dead exactly in the same way that he was raised. And after judgment, those who are pleasing in his sight will be given eternal life.

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    They will share his life, not just an everlasting life, with a life that brims with virility and energy and youthfulness and strength and health. A life full of purpose, of pleasurable work, of enjoyment in the company of those who are righteous, and helping the Lord Jesus Christ to fill the earth with right values, wholesome standards, sound principles.

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    rules. For those who do not have this hope, then the future is indeed bleak, because the Lord Jesus Christ will not raise those who have not heard of him, and those who are responsible to respond to his teaching and have not responded, will die again, and that eternally. But here the apostle Paul is concerned with sincere and true believers, and he's reassuring them that for them, death is really only a sleep.

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    When we die in Jesus Christ, we fall asleep. We know nothing more, just as we don't know anything when we are fast asleep, until Jesus comes, and he will waken us up. God does not forget those who are his. Here then in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, the apostle is talking about this. And he says, down at verse 13, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep.

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    You see his term there, and his use of that term. He's not talking about those who sleep in bed in the evening, he's talking about those who have died, but died in Christ, died as faithful believers in God and his word. I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

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    You see again, the call to be different. There are others who have no hope. And we are called upon here to be different. We don't have to sorrow as they sorrow. Of course we miss loved ones when we are bereaved of them. And of course we sorrow that we shall have to carry on without them.

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    But that sorrow is mitigated by the fact that we know that for them death is not the end. Jesus will raise the dead at his coming. So the apostle goes on to say in verse 14, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

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    So that's what's going to happen. Jesus is coming back to raise the dead. He says in other scriptures that he has conquered death himself and he has the keys of the grave and of death. He is the one able to unlock the grave and loose the bonds of death and let men and women out.

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    Restore them not only to life but to that eternal life which he has, which he enjoys. That we might be, as scripture says, participating in the divine nature, partakers of the divine nature, sharing the life which the Lord Jesus Christ now has. So even death isn't the somber subject for us that it might be for most people.

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    We don't need to sorrow as those who have no hope. The Bible calls upon us to be different. Let's turn then to that fourth of our headings which you remember was the rather unusual one of success. And here we need to go to that chapter, a portion of which our chairman read for us.

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    Paul's letter to the Philippians, just a few pages before Thessalonians, Philippians chapter three. You may think that this is an odd thing to include upon the list. Would that you were successful, I hear you say? Maybe it's not a problem. But handling success can be a problem. Dealing with ambition, with peer pressure, with the way in which the world forces us into its mold, trying to resist the drive for continual improvement in educational standards and in qualifications and in skills.

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    Handling the money that comes with success or the status that often goes with it. How do we view these things? How do we handle these things? All of us will have seen people go off the rails, as we say, I'm sure, as the result of success. And we've seen already in Matthew chapter six and the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, how that the advice of our master to us is that our heart should be where our treasure is.

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    That we should have priorities that put heaven first, the kingdom of God first, God and his plan and his righteousness first. These are our priorities, not success, money, status, or the things that lead us there. Here in Philippians chapter three, the apostle Paul is giving us a first-hand account of his own experience.

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    He was remarkably successful in his day. He would have had the equivalent of a first-class honours degree at one of the best universities in the land. He was certainly admired and respected by his peers, and well in advance of all of them. He had Roman citizenship and all the benefits which that conferred.

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    Status and money were certainly in Paul's view as a young man. And they were almost certain to come his way. Until the apostle Paul had his Damascus road experience, that's become proverbial today, hasn't it? Until he met the Lord Jesus Christ and learned the truth about him. And now he tells us in verse seven of Philippians three, what difference that made.

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    He says, But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ.

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    Those words are quite telling, aren't they? The New King James version uses the word done, some use the word refuse, but you get the idea. Paul is not saying there were some things that he had to give up for Christ and what a sacrifice it was. You don't give up the rubbish, the garbage, the refuse.

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    You're glad to get rid of it, you're glad to put it out. For the municipality to take away. Paul isn't saying this was a sacrifice that he had to make, he's saying that compared with the knowledge, the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ, there was just nothing else that made sense, nothing else that he could reasonably and logically do.

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    But put Jesus first, and count these other things as hindrances, really, things that needed to be thrown out. What things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ, they were going to get in the way, he says, they were going to stop me following the Lord Jesus Christ, obeying the word of God.

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    Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done that I may win Christ. Can you see once again then how for Paul, and for the true Christian believer, those who would follow in the steps of Paul, and more importantly in the steps of our Lord Jesus Christ, priorities have to change.

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    Standards and values have to be reconsidered, re-weighed, re-adjusted. We are called upon to be different. And that's just another way in which the Bible asks us to make a distinction between that which most of the world is chasing after, those things which are of value, which are regarded as important and of great gain to most people in our world.

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    They would consider us crazy, wouldn't they? They would certainly have considered the Apostle Paul crazy, to throw away those opportunities and benefits that he had. But that's what the Bible is asking us to do. To recognize the infinite way in which these things are better.

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    Can we finally then turn to one last scripture? What we've been saying tonight is an ideal. We're not claiming that Christadelphians always live up to these ideals, but they are the ideals that the Bible sets before us. And we are conscious that the Bible makes a difference to our lives, and that difference is a is the Bible standards.

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    The difference between Christadelphians and other people is what the Bible says, what the Bible demands of us. We don't always live up to it, and we're not proud of our attainments and our achievements. We're not going around with our thumbs in our lapels saying, well, we know all these things. We're not better of ourselves than other men and women.

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    But we are different. We are called to be different. And one day, by the grace of God, he will make us better than we are now. He will make us as Jesus is, beyond sin and temptation. Perfect. In his second letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul sums it up in this way.

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    2 Corinthians chapter 6. Here is the difference that we recognize has to operate in our lives by the influence of God's words. 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and a verse there, and the argument of the apostle Paul actually goes straight on into chapter 7. 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 17. Wherefore, says the apostle, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord.

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    And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. There it is again. A very clear call to be different, isn't it? Come out from among them. Be different. Be separate. Don't touch those things that God says are unclean.

99. 42:14

    Now we've met that word before, didn't we? Right at the beginning this evening. It was what God asked of the nation of Israel, that they should put a difference between some animals and birds and fish and others. Some were clean, some were unclean. God is saying that the things that belong to this life and this world are regarded by him as unclean.

100. 42:37

     He's asking us to make a distinction, to make a difference, to come out and to be different, as influenced by his word and as believing in him. And if we do that, he says that he will receive us. He will be our father. He will take responsibility for our care. He is true to his promises.

101. 42:56

     He will fulfill all that has been said in this word of God. So in chapter 7, verse 1, as we said, the argument runs straight on. The apostle says, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. We have to re-examine our lives. Look at what our values are.

102. 43:21

     See what standards we have. And bring them into line with what the word of God is telling us. Christadelphians? Different from other men and women? Yes, indeed. Indeed. Whilst we're not perfect, the difference is the difference that the Bible makes to us when we take it seriously and try and put these principles of scripture into operation in our lives.

103. 43:49

     So having these promises, therefore, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Now there's an invitation that we believe is well worth all the time and energy and effort that you can put into following it up.

104. 44:14

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105. 44:36

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106. 44:56

     Thank you for listening. God bless, and talk to you next week.