Revelation chapter 5 says, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them singing to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever. And we can join in that great crescendo of praise this morning. Let's stand and sing number 784. 784, ye servants of God, your master proclaim and publish abroad his wonderful name. It's been glorious, the rules of the road. A beautiful night, a mighty Christmas day. And still in this time, these pleasures we have, when we are free. God's pride in salvation, good reasons for fear. Salvation to all, mercy to all. of glory and honor, of wisdom and might, of loving and mercy, Let's have a word of prayer. And we come into your presence, O God, our Father, in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank you for those scriptures that tells us that there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Paul talked about the simplicity that is in Christ. You haven't made it complicated for us You have told us that there's one way, there's one truth, there's one life, there's one mediator, there's one name, whereby we must be saved. How simple that is. And oh God, we thank you that this is the one that we proclaim. We proclaim our master. And we do thank you for another Sunday morning that has come round, that we can come to worship you and to sing your praises and to hear from the Word of God and to be challenged by it, to be comforted by it, to apply it in our hearts and lives. And we just look to you and pray that indeed we shall know your blessing today. We thank you for this day. We thank you for this incoming week. And it is a special week in our church, another time of mission, of outreach. And we do pray that you'll encourage the heart of your servant here, Nigel, who will be here to minister your word. We pray that he will be a blessing to us, that we will be a blessing to him. And oh God, we pray most of all that souls will be helped heavenward. We pray that souls will be saved. We pray that this may be the week that they shall be born again. Some from the church here have sat in these pews for years, maybe have been moved in the past, but that's as far as it has gone. They haven't come out and made a clear confession of Christ. We pray that this mission will be a help to them doing that. For other visitors who may come in, we do pray, O God, for your blessing upon us. And we do pray that the Spirit of God will work in our midst. We know that He is the one in the Trinity that convicts of sin, that enlightens, that troubles the conscience. Lord, we pray that the Spirit of God will be at work this week in our church, and even in the weeks afterwards. And so we look to you, God, and pray indeed for your blessing. Those who are gathered in this morning, we pray that you'll bless each one. You know their troubles and their burdens, and we pray that you will address each one of them. For those who will listen in, and are listening in via the internet, and those who will be part of our mission all week as the services go out online, we do pray, O God, that you will bless and encourage them, and that there may be results even that we don't know of, but that you will work in people's hearts and lives wherever they are. And so we just pray that you will bless us, we ask it, in Jesus' name, these things. Amen. Now it's a great joy for me to welcome to the pulpit the Reverend Nigel Kissack. Nigel was five and a half years minister in Donachie Congregational Church until May. and but he's still involved in the Lord's work and we're so glad to have him today and Monday to Friday and next Sunday at our mission and so Nigel throughout the week you'll get to know the folks here and they'll get to know you And they'll probably go on to lead a normal life after that. But we're so glad that Nigel is here to minister God's word. Now, we're going to sing another hymn. And then Nigel is going to read a couple of readings. And then Rodney will give the announcements. So in that order, our hymn first, a firm favorite here. In Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light. my strength, my song. Christ the Lord, my hope is found. He is my life, my strength. And in the midst of strife and strife, all kinds of war, all kinds of peace, when peace has failed, Well, folks, good morning to you. Well, go again. Good morning to you. Good to see you. Now it's very good of our brother Raymond for his very kind words of welcome. I do indeed count it a privilege of being able to come and share with you over this incoming week, and I trust in return that you will support us and encourage others to come along. It's only for Monday to Friday, the weeknights, and then we have our men's breakfast on Saturday morning and so forth, and our ladies' luncheon. But please do indeed, I encourage you to come along And if you know and love the Savior, we encourage you to stand with us in prayer. I'm sure, as we know, many of you have already been doing so. But pray indeed that God will bless and God will indeed work on this week. Now, as our brother Raymond has said, we do thank you for the invitation to come along and to share in this mission. And we do trust indeed that God will bless and use his word. Thank you for those of you who made the effort on Friday night. Although I did insult somebody on Friday night, I tried my best to sort of mend my ways. So if you weren't there, you sort of don't know what that's about. But for those of you who were there, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Now, I don't purposely set out to insult anybody. That's not my intention. But sometimes you let things slip, and you sort of make a mistake. So we're all prone to making mistakes, aren't we? Do you folks make mistakes in Ballymena? That's not so bad. Well, then that's good. We're all in the same boat. So I'm glad to hear that now. What we're reading this morning, if you've got your Bible, we're reading from Genesis chapter 7. And then also we're going to read over together from 2 Corinthians. And we're going to read together a few verses there in 2 Corinthians and chapter 6. But Genesis chapter 7 today, we're looking a little bit this morning at Noah, a little bit more than eight at the life of Noah, and then also, but the theme for today, this morning, is coming in and coming out. Genesis 7 and verse 1, and the Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all thy house into the ark. For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female, and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven days will I I will cause it to rain upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights. And every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. Noah was 600 years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in. and his sons and his wife and his son's ways with him into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Then we're turning over to 2 Corinthians in chapter 6, and we're just going to read together a few verses there, reading from verse 14 of 2 Corinthians in chapter 6, please. Verse 14. The Apostle Paul says, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Balaam? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, 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." We trust and pray God will bless the public reading of his word to our hearts. Thank you. Warm welcome indeed to you all to church this Lord's Day morning and in particular to Reverend Nigel Cusick, to Nigel, our evangelist. today and through the course, God willing, of this week and through to next Lord's Day, too, as we have finally come to and start off our time of mission and outreach together, our Mission 316. And I know already from what Nigel has said that he will be focusing on that particular verse, which has been a theme verse to us and quoted in our literature, and he will certainly be preaching upon it in the incoming week. So you're warmly welcome, and he, too, is warmly welcome amongst us today and this incoming week, God willing. The majority of our announcements for the week ahead focus in and around our time of mission. So if you have patience with me, I'll go through them as quickly as possible. I trust, as we've said before, that you'll keep them in heart and mind. You'll pray about our mission. You'll invite others to come to our mission. You'll come yourself and you'll respond to God's word. through our time of special meetings. God's word is for all our hearts and lives. God's people, believers, we need always to be walking in faith with them and to have our faith rekindled and restored and fired and encouraged. We need that. And we pray that special meetings might do that in the hearts and lives of us all as believers. And of course, it is our very fervent and genuine prayer that unsaved family, friends, people in this community, people in this town at large, will come, will hear, will be touched by the Word of God and the Spirit of God and commit their lives to Him as their Savior and Lord. That's our prayer. That's what we trust for this incoming week and I trust we're all thinking and working and open to our hearts being touched and changed in that particular way through our meetings together. Our service this evening is at 8 o'clock. Remember that tonight and through the week and again next Sunday night, our evening services are at 8pm. And I trust that you'll come along again and bring others with you to our meeting tonight at 8pm. It will be preceded by a time of prayer from 7.30. If you can come along and join in that, you're warmly welcome. And also again tonight and through the weeks, the evening meetings of our mission, we hope to start a short time of singing and of praise in advance of eight o'clock each evening, from about 10 minutes to eight. So if you're able to come that bit earlier, you're welcome to come and come into the house of the Lord and join together with us in a time of praise that will then run into the opening of the meeting proper each evening tonight and throughout the week, God willing. Our meetings then run throughout the week, Monday to Friday, again each night at eight o'clock. Come as often, come to the mall, come to as many as you can and bring others with you too. And as well as Nigel being along each evening to preach God's word, a range of special singers have been invited and they will provide further praise and further music on each of the evenings along with the hymns that we will sing together. There are also some special events Friday of the week at six o'clock here in the church building there's a youth event and all the young people, teens and 20s, that sort of age group, you're all warmly welcome and encouraged to come along to the youth event from six o'clock onwards on Friday night. There'll be different games and activities organized for you here, there'll be food provided for you here and we trust that you will stay on to for the mission meeting itself You might even encourage your parents and friends to come with you for the meeting at eight o'clock, if not to the youth event at six o'clock. But young people, remember that, and we look forward to seeing a good crowd of you along on Friday night. We've also invited the young fellows who are part of our Coaching for Christ team, that they too are welcome along on Friday night. Then on Saturday, there's the men's breakfast at 8 a.m. Now, men, I have to confess, 8 o'clock on a Saturday morning's early for me. Maybe some of you are better risers than I am in the morning, but 8 o'clock on a Saturday morning will require an extra dunt from my good wife to get me awake and get me up on Saturday morning to attend the men's breakfast. We're asked to be there for 8 o'clock a.m. if we can to oblige the hotelier. If you're coming along to the men's breakfast, men, we'll enjoy the breakfast. We'll enjoy our company together. And Nigel will be there again to speak to us. Please put your name on the sheet. And besides your name, add on a number if you're bringing along a friend or friends so that we can gather up the numbers and have the right amount of food ready for the men's breakfast. That's Saturday morning at 8. And then ladies, your luncheon. It was to be 12 noon, it's now 12.30. It's been moved back a little bit for you ladies. 12.30 will be the ladies' luncheon. Again, both of those events are in the Dair Arms Hotel. Again, ladies, like the men, there's a sheet there on the table. Will you please record your name and put a little number beside it, plus one, plus two, or whatever, because you ladies, like the men, you're welcome to bring along a friend. And the lunch is provided entirely free, paid for by the church. It's our gift to you as good members and friends of the congregation. It's also an outreach opportunity to bring other family and friends with you. They're warmly welcome, but just make sure you put names and numbers on those sheets so that we can book and keep the hotel informed. That's for Saturday morning and Saturday lunchtime for the men and the ladies. And that will then, God willing, take us through to next Lord's Day, which would be our usual service at 11.30 in the morning. And again, Nigel will be our guest speaker and evangelist and our closing mission meeting at 8 p.m. in the evening. Two other things. First of all, recordings. All our services, as you know, are recorded. They're also broadcast over the internet through sermonaudio.com. If you're ever at home and you have computer access, you can look it up and follow the service there if you're not able to attend here in person. But we also record the services here on CD. And this is a free service again to you or any family or neighbor or friend. There's a white sheet. a white sheet on the vestibule table. The men's breakfast is a blue sheet, the ladies' lunch is a pink sheet, the CD orders is a white sheet. If you want to order a CD of any of the services, you can record your name there and you can record the particular service you want. Or if you want to take them all, a full set, CDs then just write your name and right beside it full set and we'll know you mean that and we'll get those prepared for you and passed on to you at the close of our special week of meetings. It's a free service to you good people or to any other friend you would want to pass those on to of interest to them at home that they can listen to in their own time and Please put your name on the sheet on the table, order those up for yourself or for others, or speak to William and Darren there at the back if you need further information. And finally, literature. There's special gospel literature there on the table. At the moment on the table there's a mixture of gospel literature, tracts and little booklets that are very informative, very helpful. If you're not a Christian and you're thinking about becoming a Christian, please take one. Please take it and read it. And may the Lord touch your heart as you read it. Or take it and pass it to a friend. Or if you're bringing unsaved friends with you through the week, encourage them to lift one and take it home and read it. Or encourage them to speak to the minister or speak to the evangelist when they're here. Or you do that when you're here, because we want to help you. find the Lord. And that literature is there free to take and read and use and recycle amongst yourselves. Please do. We have further literature. If you come to the Lord, if you become a Christian, please tell us again. We'll pass you on a little booklet that is especially for new believers to help you understand and develop your faith and read God's Word in those early days of becoming a Christian. So please speak to us and take the literature and ask for the literature as the week unfolds. And there remain a few copies of our outreach leaflet and a few copies of our little calendar of events for the week. If you want to take for yourself or for others, please do so. Thank you for your attention. We'll now worship the Lord with our morning offerings. Thank you. you Lord, as has just been played, now is the time to worship. Now is the time to give your heart. Your word says now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. We have to seize the moment now, not afterwards, but now. And we pray, Lord, that those who have thought in the past of salvation, we pray that they will not put it off anymore, but they will seize the opportunity. Now is the accepted time. As we looked at a few weeks ago, the danger of hesitation. Those who observe the winds will not sow, observe the clouds will not reap. How the moment is to be seized. And we pray, O God, that another mission will not pass by. and there will still be those undecided. We pray that a definite decision will be made to follow Christ. Bless those belonging to your church, Lord, who are unwell. Those recently bereaved, draw near unto them, we pray, at this time. Minister, throughout our land today, we pray that we shall be greatly encouraged when we see the kingdom of God being established in people's hearts and lives, and Satan being defeated. And so, Lord, continue with us now, we pray, for Jesus' sake. Amen. And before Nigel takes the rest of the service, we'll sing numbers 708. To God be the glory. Great things he hath done, so loved he the world that he gave us his Son. O come, O come, all ye faithful joyful and triumphant O come, O come, all ye faithful joyful and triumphant And open the night gate, that all may go in. Praise to the Lord! Praise to the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice. Praise to the Lord! Praise to the Lord! Let the people rejoice. For God, King, and Father, through Jesus Christ, so God, to every believer, the promise of God, the highest splendor, and to every nation, the covenant of Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice. From mountain to valley, from tree to stone, laughing with the glory, great things he hath done. And praise for rejoicing, good Jesus, good Jesus. Our Father, our Master, with Jesus we sing. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice. Give Jesus a song, and give him your glory, great things he hath done. Well, again, may I just say a big thank you to you as a church for this opportunity of bringing to you God's Word, and we trust that God will indeed bless our time together. Let's just bow for a word of prayer this morning and ask the Lord to help us and enable us for the task before. Our Father, we do thank thee for him who is the third person of the Spirit of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the living God. And we pray now, dear God, that you would send your spirit. We believe you're here by your spirit, but we ask, dear God, for that special unctionizing and empowering of the spirit of God that we need as we would preach the word of God, as we listen to the word of God, as he opens our hearts to the word of God. Help us, dear Lord, to be receptive and to respond accordingly. Lord, we need you, dear God, and we pray that your presence will intensify We pray, dear God, that conviction will come to our lives, no matter where along life's journey we are, whether or not we have started on the road to life, or whether we have been on that road of life, but our hearts have grown lukewarm. We pray, dear God, the spirit of God will stir us up again and cause us to hunger and thirst after righteousness and to be more and more like Jesus. So, Father, to this end, help us now in the preaching of the word. Grant that you will exalt your name And grant, dear God, you will do your work in our hearts and the hearts of those who sit within this house of thine today. For it's in your name we pray it. Amen. Amen. Genesis in chapter 7 reminds us of when this man called Noah was invaded to come into the ark prior, as you will know, and I'm sure as you're well aware, in Genesis 6 is whenever, undoubtedly, early part of Genesis 6 was whenever God said he would judge the earth and send judgment, and we'll look at that later on this evening in a little bit more detail. But what I just want to simply look at tonight is, or this morning, is two simple little themes, and one is coming in, and one is coming out. Because for those, there's someone in the house of God this morning, and the important issue is that you need to come in. And then for those of us who have come in, there's this important, very vital, and very crucial, also important fact that we need to apply to our lives, and that is of coming out. Now that word come, the word come is mentioned in many different times within scripture. For example, you'll find it in Romans 3 and 23 when it says, for the wages of sin, for all of sin, and come short of the glory of God. Jesus said in John 10, he says, the thief cometh not but to kill, and to steal, and to destroy. But I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly. So the purpose of his coming was that we might not just know life, eternal life, but we might have an abundant life, whereby that our lives might be, from our innermost being, from within our belly, there might be flowing rivers of living water. When the Spirit of God so much fills our lives, that we are so much showing forth something of the beauty of Christ and living in his presence constantly. John 14 reminds us of the fact that one day, just as Christ went back to heaven, so he says, I will come again. And I will receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. So time and time again, you come across this word come within both Old and New Testament. The Collins Dictionary describes this word come as to move towards a specific person or a specific place. And whenever we come to the Genesis 7, we see this whole emphasis upon coming in. And really, we want to just break these two passages of scripture, just give them two different little themes. And in Genesis 7, I'm simply calling it an invitation that is personal. And in 2 Corinthians 6, I'm saying there is, I'm just entailing it, a separation that ought to be perpetual. Now, as you know, I'm not a city boy. I'm from the country. Now, do you all understand me? Give us a wee nod. That's good. Because it would be a terrible thing if you went out to church this morning and you didn't understand a word that I said. Now, I have a tendency sometimes of talking fast, sometimes too fast. So if I'm talking too fast, just you indicate. You can shake your fist at me. You can do whatever you want. But I'll get the picture. And I'll try my best to slow down. But what I want to, first of all I want to look at this invitation that's personal. Can you imagine some day as you're, maybe for those of you wives who are working at home, maybe a letter comes through the post or maybe you come home from work and there's a letter through the post and you, like most of us do, we usually had a look at the front and even before it's opened maybe you turned over the back to see if there's any marks where it's from. And maybe on the back lo and behold there's a stamp on it that says it's from Buckingham Palace. And there's this little sense of excitement inside your heart saying, I wonder why Buckingham Palace is sending a letter to our house. But if you turn back to the front of that letter and on that letter your name is not on it, whatever's inside it really has no relevance to you. But if your name is on the actual letter, and you turn over the back and it says, from Buckingham Palace, you open up, maybe it's an invitation to a garden party, maybe in Hillsbury Castle, or maybe it's to high tea with the Queen herself. Well, undoubtedly, if your name's on it, it's just for you. But if your name is not on it, it has no relevance to you. But the wonderful fact is, as you see in Genesis chapter 7, is that for this man Noah, there was this invitation that was given to Noah, and it was for him personally, and for his household. When God said to Noah and to his family, come into the ark, Now you'll notice this, now God didn't say, go into the ark because that was a commission, but it was a coming to the ark, which was an invitation. And they are two different things, because no man can go and tell until first he has come and received. And for those of us who are the children of God, we ought to be applying the commission every day, whereby we are going and telling. And what we are going and telling is that people would come, that they would receive the invitation, that they would come to Christ. And this morning at the very outset of this mission, I want to say to you, Here is an invitation that is personal from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and he is inviting you to come into the family of God. Not under an ark or not under domination or not under a particular church, but into the family of God, into the household of faith. And God is inviting you today to come to him. Now, I don't know this morning as you sit in this house of God how long you've sat. I pastored, as you have already heard from your minister, for five and a half years in a wee place called Anaki, and there was individuals who sat there for years and years and have not yet come in. And they knew it all here, and they can speak about it all here through the way of the mouth, but in the heart they've never yet received. And maybe you knew it all in the head and you can speak about it clearly with your lips, but as yet you haven't received in your heart. And this morning I'm saying to you, here is an invitation personally for you today, that you would come. Now this is of utmost importance, because without Jesus, dear soul, you'll be lost. Without Jesus, you shall be damned for all eternity. Let me just leave you three simple little thoughts concerning this invitation, where Noah was concerned, and these three things where you're concerned if you want to come to Christ. First of all, Noah had to be obedient to the invitation. Now I know there's an old issue, there's an old matter in all of our lives, no matter who we are, and whether we're living in Balamina, or Tubbermoor, or Cullabagge, or Cork, wherever it might be, there's an issue in our lives that every one of us struggle with. There's an issue called rebelliousness. Because inside us all, there's an old rabble within. Because we don't like to do what we're told. When we were children, we were growing up, and maybe our mother told us not to do a specific thing. Mr. Rebel Within, this wee rebel in our hearts, spoke up. It's like the wee boy was in the back seat of his father's car, and his father says, son, sit down while the car's driving. He says, no, daddy, I'm not sitting down. So he spoke again. Son, you sit down while the car's going. And the wee boy sat down. He says, well, daddy, I might be sitting down on the outside, but I'm standing up on the inside. And in our own hearts, you know, folks, we can be, might look like we're obeying externally, but internally we're as rebellious as we possibly can. But for Noah to receive this invitation, Noah had to obey what God said. And if you want to become a Christian, and you want to be ready for heaven, whether you're a young person or you're not so young, you have got to obey this invitation, and you have got to come to Christ. You've got to obey His Word. You've got to obey what His Word says. When they say the prophet said, come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wood. You've got to come. He doesn't say, come tomorrow. He says, come now. Paul says in Corinthians, behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. He doesn't say, well, look, you can receive Christ another day. He says, behold, now is the time. And you know, the old devil is a very subtle being. The scripture calls him, and he comes at times as an angel of light. But he's such a subtle being because he is some of the greatest tools that he uses, even in the lives of people who attend church on a weekly basis. and he's the greatest deceiver and he's able to deceive people to the greatest of all measures by placing and putting within their hearts complacency and indifference and procrastination whereby, yes, he will whisper in your ear and say, well, yes, what the preacher has said this morning and through the week, what he'll say will most likely be the truth. And what your pastor has been saying for years to you is the truth, but there is no real urgency. You have plenty of time. You don't need to panic about this matter. And indeed, the thing that amazes me is that people would rather listen to the words of a man than they would listen to the word of God. I buy the daily meal and try to buy it. Well, we try between us. My wife and I buy it on a daily basis. The only reason why is because we like to try to be informed a certain degree of what's going on, not just within our province, but wider field. And not everything you read in the paper is true by any means. I don't know if it's usually a pile of nonsense, but you try to sort of keep informed by what's going on. But on the 22nd of August in 2003, the Daily Mail had this big headline. It said on the front of the paper, it says, how the universe will end. And then in brackets it had, but don't hold your breath. So it caught my attention because I thought, well, what's the Daily Mail going to say about how the universe will end? So it opened the page, the specific page it said, and this is what it said. And it says, how the universe will end, and then it says in brackets, or in inverted commas, but there is no need to rush your cornflakes because it won't happen for a few billion years. So what's it doing? Undermine the old devil is using, just like a daily paper, to cause people not to panic, not to have a sense of urgency, not to show a sense of importance. But the fact is that man isn't going to live for years and years to come. I could die at any given second because the fact is that God holds my breath in the very palm of his hand. I am not promised tomorrow. So you're not promised tomorrow. You're not even promised today. One of old said, boost not thyself with a morrow, for no man knoweth what a day may bring forth. And yet we listen to the words of man, and we say, well, look, let's not panic. Let's not rush. This is not a very important issue. What does the Word of God say? The Word of God says, today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. He had to obey the Word of God. Let me say to you, secondly, he had to be willing to leave his old life behind. Because Noah just simply couldn't say, well, Lord, I'm in a bit of a quandary here. I don't know whether to stay. Stay with the people and what they're, I mean, the fact is that these people, though they're going to be judged, Lord, I was sort of a hankering back to what the way they are. And I don't know whether to stay or whether to come and obey your word. And it was very simple. Stay and die, Noah, or come and live. So you say, oh, it can't be just black and white. It can't be just that simple. And I'm saying to you this morning, it is just that simple. Stay in your sin and die without Christ. Come to the Savior and live and know this abundant life in Christ. He had to be willing to leave his old life behind. What did Jesus say in Matthew 8? Matthew says, whosoever will come after me, he says, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now, let me say to you, you cannot have Christ and have the world. Now, there's a sort of a theology that's running about in our countryside and among our province and that, you know, you can, if you are, how will we ever won the worldly for Jesus? And the modern day theology says, well, you've got to be like the world to win the world. No, that's not what Jesus said. I was sharing recently about when I was at, now and again, the wife and me go on holidays. I don't know if you like holidays, but my wife and I had the privilege a few years ago of going to a wee place called Adelboden. And Adelboden's a place called Switzerland. And we'd never been there before. And man, it was great. the wee place. We got this wee apartment and you opened it. I don't even think I shut the curtains because they live like in stories. So there's one family is in the bottom apartment and then there's another family in the middle apartment and then we were in the top one. Man, there was these double door things with wonders in them. I forget the name. Patio doors, that's the word. And I'd say on the side of the bedroom. And you used to lie in bed and just look out onto the Alps and there was snow. And this was in September or August time, July, August time. There was snow on top of the mountains. And man, it was beautiful every morning just looking out onto the snow. But I was walking up out of the boat and sleeping one night with Kiaris and me. And I was doing the usual manly thing. I was holding her by the hand. And she asked, never a bad thing. I was like, fear in case you run away, you know. I didn't want her. I want to keep her tight to me. And I was walking up the street. I met these young people. And sometimes we're very quick to judge, aren't we? But I'm with the young people and they were typical young folk and they were very casually dressed and all the thoughts. I wonder, I wonder if they're Christians or not. And I automatically just assumed that they were non-Christians. I don't know if there were any, I don't know, honestly, I don't know if there's any difference, for I never spoke to them. But I asked myself as I walked by them, I wonder how we would ever, if they're non-Christians, I wonder how will we ever won them? And this wee thought came to mind. It says, will I won them by being like them? Or will I won them by being like Jesus? And that night the Lord just impressed in my heart as I walked up the main street, the only way you'll own them or anybody else for me is when they see Jesus in you. And I don't know, maybe you have been dabbling with the world. And maybe you're a Christian and you've been playing and you've been hankering and there's things that you've been doing that have been far from pleasing to God. And the Lord says, now would I tell you by being like that you're not being like me? And by being that, you'll not want men for me." And for Noah, he had to be willing to leave the old life behind. Let me say to you, thirdly, not just he had to have obedience to what God said, he had to be willing to leave the old life behind, but he had a faith in God's Word. He had to believe what God said. And this morning, if you're to come, you've got to believe what God says. Without a doubt, you've got to believe it. His word is his promise. His word is his bond. Like, for example, years ago, and I better not tell you all my wee stories in the first morning with you, for you'll be corn-fed up by next Sunday night, won't you? But whenever, a few years ago, there was a horse market started in Moneymoor. It started up out of the blue, and they shut off the main street. And I was originally born in Moneymoor. And for those of you who know Moneymoor, there's only one street, one way in and one way out. if you blink and through it you sort of miss it or else there's just a sharp bend on her but other than that you'll drive into the orange hole but you don't want to do that. I remember going up to watch the horse market this Saturday and I watched the men as they made their, they sort of bartered between themselves, one man was selling and the other man was buying. I don't know if there's any horsemen, but they're a bit like cattlemen, like farmers. There's nobody as poor as a farmer. You know that now, don't you? There's nobody as poor as a farmer. Well, I don't know what the horsemen are like, but anyway, the horsemen, the one boy, he was buying, and he didn't want to buy what the other boy, what the man was selling, was trying to sell at, and the two of them. But they came to agreement anyway. And to seal the agreement, it was very simple. They just held out the palm of their hand, and one boy, he spat on his hand, and the other boy, he spat on his hand, and the two of them clumped their hands together, and that was it. The deal was done, and neither of the men would go back on their word. Now, I want to say to you something this morning. It's very simple. Men do go back on their word. Men do break their word. Because men are sinners. Men make mistakes. Men do let people down. But let me say something to you. You see, whenever God makes his word and God gives his word about something, God never, ever breaks his word. And he says, if you come to me, I will in no ways cast you out. Tell me this morning, sinner, Will you come?" An invitation that is personal. But we also read this morning from 2 Corinthians 6, and I simply call this separation that is perpetual, because just as God said in Genesis 7, come in, in 2 Corinthians 6, God speaks through the Apostle Paul, and he says through the Apostle Paul, come out. So what was in Genesis 7 was God saying, come into the family of God and then in 2 Corinthians 6 was God saying, come out of the family of God. No he wasn't. He wasn't saying that at all. In Genesis 7 was God saying, come into the family and in 2 Corinthians 6 he was saying, come out from the world. And really what God was saying through the Apostle Paul and really what God was saying primarily through Paul to the Corinthian church was look, you're in Christ and when you're in Christ you've got to separate yourself from worldly things. You've got to be not a person who's identified with worldliness. Your life should be different. And we mingle among working class people and we listen to their language and we hear their innuendos and sometimes, well, every time it disturbs us, at least as Christians, it ought to disturb us, it ought to sadden us. And yet the fact is, what God's saying, well, you're in the world, I want you to be different. I want your life to be different. You see, separation is like grace, it's ongoing, it's constant, it's never-ending. And that word perpetual simply means, it means, that's what it means, it means ongoing, it means constant, it means never-ending. So this separation, while I'm in Christ, I'm constantly, I'm constantly ought to be correcting myself by the Spirit of God and by the aid of His Word and by self-control, I ought to be constantly endeavouring to shape my life and let God shape my life according to what His Word teaches. And when I'm failing to do this, I'm failing to be Christ-like. When I'm failing to do this, what I have become? I have become a worldly Christian. A worldly Christian is not to hear, so don't be thinking by any means, a worldly Christian is someone who's gone back into some of what we class as more serious sins. A worldly Christian is when I'm letting prey take over my inner being. A worldly Christian is when I'm letting jealous, when I'm jealous of another brother or sister in Christ because they are doing so well and I am doing not so well. A worldly Christian is when I have envy. When I am covetous. A worldly Christian is whenever I'm not as close to God as what I know I should be. Because I have let things into my life that are far from pleasing to Him. You see, separation from the world, without separation from the world, there cannot be true fellowship with our God. And just as there's an urgency to come into the family of God, so there's this urgency to come out from among them and be separate and touch not the unclean thing. You say to me this morning, well, how can I be different? A man called John Phillips, he's written a number of commentaries, and John Phillips says, there are unclean books, movies, television programs, daily newspapers, there are impure stories, suggestions, there are unclean practices which are excused by the unregenerate as alternative lifestyles. In fact, we are living in a filthy world And we are commanded to separate ourselves from its dirt, its defilement, as far as humanly possible. And folks, this is God's standard for my life as a child of God. It's not an option. It's not an added extra. It's a command. Just as I am commanded by God to come in, and God's saying, look, if I want to be saved, I've got to obey his command and come. Just if I want to please him, I've got to come out. And when I feel to come out, I feel to please him. Now, let me ask you, Christian, do you not want to please your father? Do you want to please the one who's loved you with an everlasting love? You say, more than anything, well, in return, I'm saying to you today, very simply, obey his word and follow his practice. There's three things I want to leave with you today, just very simply, as to how we can be different or how we can come out, first of all, by our conduct. It's important that we, how we as God's people, live our lives before the world. It's important that we set an example by how we conduct ourselves. Now, let me deal with a very practical issue, and that of a forgiving spirit. Because some people have this fanciful idea that they can be Christians and not forgive another. Some people have this idea that I can be in fellowship with God and hold an unforgiving spirit in my heart. Now I don't know what Bible they're reading from, but it's not the Bible that I read. And it's not the Bible that we read this morning. And it's not the Bible you carry to church today. And I don't know, maybe you have been injured in your lifetime and it's impossible, I think it is virtually impossible to be a Christian and live for Christ and not be injured or not be hurt. And undoubtedly, I would say to you, whenever you are a Christian, there are many times you will get hurt. It's not an easy life and sometimes you get hurt from the most unexpected sources. But the fact is, What hurt we receive on earth is nothing compared, and I don't mean that in a disrespectful term, or I'm not belittling your hurt, but it is nothing compared to the hurt that we caused in God the Father because of our sin. It's nothing compared to what it cost God the Father when He punished His only Son on our behalf. It's nothing. And yet, even when they spat on the Son of God's face, when they cleared his throat on him. Now I don't know, I have, I suppose down through my lifetime, like us all, we have had few insults along the way. I would say the most degrading insult that any man could ever have was whenever someone clears their throat on another man's face. And yet this was what they did to my Jesus. When they took an old whip and they scourged his back and left it like a ploughed field. When they ripped the hair from off his face. When they plaited a crown of thorns and they drove them in upon his brow. When they mocked him and said, Heal, King of the Jews. And all these things was happening and when they kneeled on the cross, And then we hear these simple words from the mouth of this Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. All these things have happened to him personally now. And yet through it all, he even knew in death that he must forgive. He had to forgive, because he was God the Son. Let me ask you, as you come to the house of God and as you sit and you profess to be a believer, maybe as you listen over the internet this morning, tell me, is one of the reasons why you're not as close to God today as what you should be and you could be, is because in your heart of hearts, you know that you're holding something against another. That you're unwilling to forgive them, you're unwilling to leave it with God. And let God sort it out. What does Paul say in Ephesians? Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, forgives you. Warren Wears, he writes about a bitter spirit. He said, Bitterness refers to a settled hostility that poisons the whole inner man. Bitterness leads to wrath, which is the explosion on the outside of feelings in the inside. By our conduct, that's how we can be different. Not just by our conduct, but also by our conversation. You know, by our conversation, what our words, how we speak, can portray just really what Christ means to us, the unsaid. Do you remember when Simon Peter, just before Christ was crucified, in Matthew 26, it says of Simon Peter, it says, your speech betrays you. He denied him with hosts and curse. Now this was the man who'd spent three years with the Savior. This was the same man who said just prior to the cross, Lord, do all men forsake you, Lord? I never forsake you. I never deny you, Lord. I'll stand by you, Lord. No matter what, it'll be me. And yet here at the fire, as he mingles with the people, he says, your speech betrays you. You're one of these men. You're a Galilean. I wonder when we go to our workplaces on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I wonder when we're within our own homes and with all the doors shut and it's only our family, those people as close. I wonder, does our speech betray us? A conversation. When we're mingling with people that are ungodly and godless and have no thought or no desire for things of God, I wonder, does our conversation, does it show them that we belong to Christ? Or does it make them think, well, they really don't know how we stand because they don't know if we are a Christian or not a Christian because of how we talk. But I want to say to you that this separation is perpetual not just by our conduct and by our conversation, but this separation is perpetual by His cleansing. Because it's irrelevant to me what sins or what acts that you have done as a Christian that have been displeasing to God. But what is relevant and what is important to you is that when we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Because even though we, and even though this morning maybe as you sit in the house of God and as the Word of God has ministered to your heart, you know you have not been what you ought to be. I've had those times in my life as a Christian. when I've had to bow my head in shame and say, Lord, this is not what you want from me. This is not how you want me to live. I've known in my life when, as a Christian, and even as a preacher of the gospel, when my heart hasn't been as on fire for him as it should be, when I haven't loved this word as much as I ought to have loved this word, whenever I haven't prayed as much as I wanted to pray. So don't think this morning, because I'm coming to you as your so-called evangelist, that this is some sort of a perfect being, because I am far from perfect. You speak to my wife, and she'll gladly tell you of my flaws and failures. And there's nobody who'll tell you better than my ways that I'm far from a perfect being, I can assure you. But this is what I know, that even when I have sinned, I have an advocate with the Father, and his name is Jesus. And he desires more to restore you, even as a backslider, someone who's become lukewarm at heart. than you even desire to return to. And what does he say? He says, just come today. See, the only way I can walk in the light, I know this cleansing, is by obeying His Word. If I fail to obey His Word, then I'm not walking in the light. Now, I'm not a well-educated fellow by any means, and don't come looking at me for knowing how to show asking me to give you, tell you about my GCSEs or GSEs, whatever they call them things, for I have none of them to my name. But know this, that whatever it says in this book, whatever God asks me to do, that's what He wants me to do. There's no questions asked. And whatever He says in this book for you is simple now. He wants you to do it. And if you don't do it, you're not walking in the light. And if you're not walking in the light, then it's simple now. You cannot know that constant cleansing through the Word and through His blood, by His blood. As we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, And the blood of Jesus Christ, God's own blood, it cleanses me from all my sin. Let me finish with this illustration, or a little quote, sorry, by a man called C.H. Spurgeon. He says, do you want to flame with fervent love for God? Your love will be dampened by the dealings, by the drenchings of a godless society. You may be a babe in grace, but you cannot become a great Christian, a perfect man in Christ while you yield to the principles and business practices of worldly people. Even small inconsistencies are dangerous. Little thorns make great blisters. Little moths destroy fine garments. A little frivolousness and disobedience will rob your faith of a thousand joys. If you're a believer but are compromising your faith, you do not know what your loss by your conformity to the world. It cuts the tenets of your strength and makes you creep when you should be running. Therefore, for your own comfort's sake and for the sake of your growth and grace, if you are a Christian, be a Christian. Be a marked-out Christian. Be a distinct Christian. And this morning, as we just bring our service to a close, let me ask you, firstly, are you a Christian? And secondly, what kind of a Christian are you? It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what your pastor thinks. It doesn't matter what your wife or your husband thinks. It matters what God thinks. That's what matters now. That's what God has impressed in my heart. This is all that matters now. What God thinks of me. Is that important to you this morning? If it's not, I trust and pray. that it will become all that will really matter. Let's just bow for a wee prayer. We thank Thee, our Father, for Your Word today, and we do believe that it's the entrance of Your Word that give us light. Now use Your Word. to speak into our hearts and glorify your name. Amen. Amen. We are closing hymn. And number 770 in our hymn books, will your anchor hold in the storms of life, when the clouds unfold their wings of strife, when the strong tides lift and the cables strain, will your anchor drift, our firm remain. Let's stand as we worship the Lord, please. Here and e'er, O in the storms of life, and the floods of war, there is hope, strength, and the strength I take. ♪ Thy word with your word be made ♪ ♪ Behold the Word that feeds the soul ♪ ♪ Spread fast and sure by the way of God ♪ ♪ Chastened to God is now on earth ♪ ♪ Proudly we're happy in this Savior's love ♪ Lord, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Lord, make her happy in this Saviour's love. Make her anger cool with the thoughts of death, let the waters close to you. me. We love and adore the King's good soul. Spare not a child like the altar. Pass him to God, we cannot know. Our Father, we pray that today men and women, young and old, would anchor their lives in Thee. And Lord, we thank You that when we're anchored in Thee, we can be safe in Christ and we can be certain of heaven. We ask You as well, Lord, for those of us who are Thine, Lord, challenge our hearts through your word and continue to quicken us and church our lives that we may earnestly desire to be more and more like your son, so when people meet us, it may be said of all of the disciples, sure these men have been with Jesus. May it be so, and for thy name's sake, take us to our homes in safety. As we look to thee for this mission, may you pour out your spirit upon us and upon this community for your glory. In your name we ask it. Amen.