Book of Colossians - Ch. 1, Vs. 14-20 (01-10-1999)

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Bro. Otis Fisher

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If you'll open your Bibles to Colossians first chapter and the 14th verse
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Paul is speaking about our
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Lord in whom we have redemption. We have it right now.
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Present, passive, perfect. It can never be changed and we have this redemption through his blood, through his very life that was poured out on the cross.
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The forgiveness of our sins as though they never occurred.
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Now verses 15, 16 all the way through 20.
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If you have any questions as we go be sure and stop, stop me because we're going to uncover something here that's very important in the building of your doctrine.
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15, who is the image of the invisible God the first born of every creature?
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It does not mean that Jesus Christ did not exist before his earthly birth, he did.
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Being firstborn of every creature the first begotten of all creation and the thing that makes
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Jesus the begotten is that he was raised from the dead, resurrected.
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In verse 16 for by him, by Jesus Christ he did it.
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All things were created, by him were all things created.
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We're going to see the two words all things as we go through these verses and I think
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I ask you to put a underline under them. But all things means the whole, means everything, thoroughly, whatsoever and whosoever.
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It leaves out nothing, even space itself was created by our
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Lord. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible, invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him.
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Everything is in existence for him.
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We exist for him. We are part of his creation.
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Verse 17 and he is before all things and by him all things consist.
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He is before, stands at the front. He existed before there was ever anything and by him all things consist.
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The word consist we get our word glue. Now we went over this last week
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I know but if you're like me you need to hear it again. Everything Debbie is glued together by the power of our
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Lord. It is he that holds everything in its present state.
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If he should withdraw his power everything would disappear. So it is by him that all things are here and that they operate in the realm of the orbit that he has put everything.
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Nothing exists except by him. He made it and he is in it, his power.
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Verse 18 and he is the head of the body meaning the church, his church.
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Now when we say church as we are reading it here does that mean
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Park Meadows Baptist Church? All right.
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His church has nothing to do with any earthly buildings.
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His people are all over the world. Denominations are man -made.
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There's so much that we think is biblical and it's really man -made and we operate by tradition.
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I just wonder Brother David, I think you're here, or Ed, where's
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Ed? There he is. Either one of you, if we removed all of the things, whether we know about them or not, if just all of the operation of this church that has come to us through tradition, if that was suddenly removed how much do you think we'd still have?
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Can you answer that? The point is, okay,
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Ed? That's exactly right.
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Nothing, as Ed said, nothing should become more important than God's Word.
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The Mormons have elevated their Book of Mormon equal and I really believe myself they hold it higher than our
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Word. That God gave us. That's a problem. They have a problem.
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But the point I'm trying to make is that we, each one of us individually, in some area we believe it to be biblical when it's really traditional.
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And as Ed says, there's nothing wrong with tradition as long as it is not primary or first.
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There's nothing in the Bible saying that we have to meet at 11 o 'clock on each
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Sunday morning or 7 o 'clock each Wednesday night. That'd be under the law.
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So by tradition we meet on Sunday. The apostles started it and we continue it and I think it's fine.
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One of the reasons they started it was so that they would not be mistaken as still operating under the law because the
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Orthodox Jew met on the Sabbath, which is our Saturday.
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All right, the thing I want us to look at this morning though as we go through this, that all things, all things, all things, he is before all things.
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He is the head of the body of the church who is the beginning, the first born from among the dead,
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Jesus Christ resurrected. The resurrection to which we are looking forward started with our
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Lord on that resurrection morning. He was the first. Now, if you're first, or if you have a first means there will be a second and a third and eventually the last.
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That in all things he might have the preeminence. There's a good word, preeminence.
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Who knows, who can give me a simple definition of preeminence? Russell? All right.
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Jessie? Preeminence. All right.
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Debbie? All right.
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Joy? Pre means in front. It's strange, some of the old
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English terms have just reversed. In the Bible we find several times prevent.
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When that was written it meant if I would say, David, I'm going to prevent you from leaving this room, mean
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I'd keep you in here. But when it was written it meant that I would go out before you did.
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Prevent. And there's some other words the same way. So preeminence. Eminence is the authority, the highest, the most supreme, and that is him.
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There is none other. He is the highest. He answers to no one and he takes direction from no one.
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In verse 19, for it pleased the
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Father that in him should all fullness dwell. When our
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Lord was here on earth, we have a record of not all but quite a few of the daily life that he lived.
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If everything had been written down, unless we had it on a chip someplace, you wouldn't be able to get it in the room.
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But he saw to it that everything was written that we need. Now, he did lots of things while he was here.
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He was born of a woman, so he was as human as you and I. He had no earthly father, so he did not have the sin nature.
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The Holy Spirit caused the conception, and when he come forth from his mother's womb, he could have spoken the world out of existence.
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But he didn't. The reason he could have is because he was God. He is
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God now. Now, unless some of you can explain to me,
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I do not understand how a human being like our Lord could be both God and man, but he was.
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Now, everything he did, and we pick it up at his baptism, all of the miracles, all of the healings, everything he did by the power of the
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Holy Spirit. He did nothing of his own will, and we know he had a will in the garden.
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He, talking to the Heavenly Father, said, nevertheless, not my will, but your will. So we know he had a will.
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He did not have the sin nature, and he did have the
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Holy Spirit without measure. David, what does it mean, without measure?
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Alright. We have the Holy Spirit by measure.
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Debbie, what does that mean? Limited. Now, who do you suppose limits it,
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Richard? Ourselves.
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No. No, we limit how much of it we use, perhaps, but we have it.
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Ed, I guess
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I didn't hear all you said. I said by, just at the point, I've never heard it said that we have the
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Holy Spirit by the limit or by measure. Well, the scripture tells us that. I'm sorry
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I didn't look it up ahead of time. He had it. I always thought that Jesus said, and I can't quote the scripture exactly, but that we have the full that he had done.
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And if the Holy Spirit is a person, and he dwells within me, I have exactly the same access to power to the
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Heavenly Father as his son did. You have the same access through the same spirit.
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The Holy Spirit indwells each one of his children completely, but the power of the
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Holy Spirit is another matter. We can grieve the Holy Spirit.
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We cannot grieve him away. Everything our Lord did, he did by the power of the
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Holy Spirit to please the Heavenly Father. It is given to us by measure, and the reason it must be by measure is that I could not handle all of the power of the
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Holy Spirit, and I do not need all of the facets of the Holy Spirit, because each one of his people have been given, and you can call it a gift, ability, talent, whatever you want.
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Each person that belongs to God has a position in his church.
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Within that position, which will fit your ability, because he gave you the ability also, but he also gave you the power of the
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Holy Spirit to cause you to be capable of fulfilling your potential in that position.
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We do nothing that pleases the Heavenly Father except by the power of the
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Spirit that is within us. He's given us that power. Rebellion Now, we can become rebellious, and the scripture says to quench not the
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Holy Spirit. When you do become rebellious, you are quenching the power of the Spirit.
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You're not quenching the presence of the Spirit, because he will not leave.
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He is the one that has sealed us, and we will remain sealed.
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He didn't apply a seal. He is the seal. So everything our
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Lord did while he was here, he did with the full power of the
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Holy Spirit. That's why I cannot raise the dead. He could. It's not required of me to do that.
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Ed? Well, when he hired a sign, and these signs were given back in those times because he first came to the nation of Israel, and that whenever he talked to the apostles, if you look through the book of Acts, they also were able to raise the dead and to perform miracles, so that the
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Jews at that time could see the signs and see that it was the power of God. But now we're in a different operation or a different dispensation to where we operate by faith, and we do not hold the position that Christ held, but yet we still have the full access to the power of the
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Holy Ghost in the fact that it talks about it in the latter days about the
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Spirit being poured out upon us. And I just, we've made limited in and of ourselves, in and of not of our ability, that in not in our yielding to him.
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I don't believe that God takes our abilities and uses them. I think he takes our inabilities and transforms us into something that is useful, but that whenever we try and rely upon our own abilities, that's when the power of God is quenched and pride is set in and such as that.
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But I still, I just, back to the same question, and I'm not trying to pinpoint judges.
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I have never seen it in the scriptures where God said that he limits the power in and through his children.
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In fact, I've seen just the opposite in the fact that he told the apostles that they would do greater works than he did, and then it's projected in the book of Acts how that they actually did see them raise the dead as Paul did and the other apostles, and they performed these miracles for a sign so that people could see the power of God.
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But yet we operate by faith where we don't, the reason we don't raise the dead today is because we take the word of God by faith, not by sight, so we don't need to see these things, and yet we trust it because it's written down.
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You make the comment, Brother Otis, I think that when we say that the
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Lord had the Holy Spirit without measure, that phrase implies that others have the power of the
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Holy Spirit with measure. That's right. We're not talking about the presence of the person of the Holy Spirit. That's right.
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An example, I think, of what the Bible means is throughout the
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Bible, look at Samson in the Old Testament, for example. I don't know of any other person in history records that had the kind of strength that he had, but that strength was not natural.
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It was the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit in him. But God chose in his sovereignty not to give that to any other man.
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We can look at Solomon's wisdom. The wisest man who ever lived, that was obviously not natural wisdom.
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It was, and God chose to give that power to him, but not to any other man.
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So when we're talking about without measure, Jesus Christ is the only man who has ever had all of the facets of the power of the
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Holy Spirit. That's what Otis is getting at. That's exactly right.
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There's not a limit on the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us that we're free to covet the greater gifts, which means we could pray to God if there were something that we felt we, some area of ministry that we really had a strong desire to do, but we felt inadequate to do it.
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The Bible gives us leeway to pray and ask the Father to give us the power to do that.
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That's the way I understand it. Well, you're right. We will be given whatever powers necessary to do whatever we're appointed to do.
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All of our ways are ordained of God. We cannot change them. He ordered every step of all of his people.
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So the thing I'm getting at here, it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.
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He was God. God has no lack, everything.
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Our Lord said, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. Not in image form, but he said, if you have seen the work
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I've done, you've seen the work of the Father because I do only his work. In the 20th verse, and having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him,
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I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. Now I want us to look at this verse in detail.
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Very important. And having made peace, that means there is no discord.
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There is nothing except what is absolute in his righteousness.
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Peace with God is the most wonderful feeling you can ever, ever have.
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Do you ever think, if those of you that can remember the moment of your salvation when you knew that you belonged to him, how good you felt?
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Remember that? One reason for that is you hadn't had time sin yet.
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All right. Made peace through the blood of his cross. He shed his blood.
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He poured out his life. The life is in the blood. We would not have been able to witness the pouring out of life because it's invisible.
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So it's in the blood. And he made it that way for that purpose. We can see blood.
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It has within it the life. If there is the presence, when there are two things that demand the presence of each one of them, and if you have the presence of one, then you must know that the presence of the other is there.
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We can see the light bulb, that it is burning.
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We can see that. We cannot see the electricity, but we know that it must be there or we would not be able to see the light.
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So we know that when we see the blood, we know his life was in that blood, even though it was invisible.
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So he gave his life for his people to redeem them unto the heavenly father.
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We have always belonged to him. We were his before there was ever any creation.
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And since God is not a man and does not make decisions to pick one path better than another, we've just always been with him in thought, in heart, not in existence of physical shape.
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Now, reconcile, to bring back to his former state, meaning that at one time,
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Brian, it was different than perhaps we see it now.
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This creation is groaning under a curse because of sin.
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We're studying Genesis in two of the Bible studies, and we this week will get to the beginning end of this curse on the earth.
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Now, it's cursed and it is not producing like it once did.
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We have a problem, or at least I do sometimes, of thinking of inanimate objects as responding to anything.
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Well, they respond to the one that made them. God can talk to a tree or the moon or the stars.
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He's told us so. And they obey. Nature obeys him.
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And we're told that the creation itself is groaning like a woman in travail waiting on the rapture of the church.
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It will get a new body, just like we will get a new body. He reconciled all things unto himself.
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By him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. Everything has been reconciled.
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He, having made, past tense, it's already done. He has already reconciled everything to him.
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Simply because we do not see it doesn't mean that it's not done. Everything is immediately in his presence and it's the same as finished.
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Everything he's ever said will do exactly what he said it would do. Sometimes I make a statement that I'll do something and I don't follow through with it.
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Well, God's not like that. What he says comes to pass. And he has said that he will redeem his people.
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In Matthew 1 27, he shall call his name
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Jesus, for he shall save the people of him from the sins of them.
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That's an imperative statement, Richard. That's not going to change. He says, that's what
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I'm going to do. Well, he's doing it on his own time scale. So everything, everything has been reconciled to him.
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He has the same as said, everything will, well, let me go back.
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When he first made the creation, and it was in a state of perfectness, and Adam and Eve were placed in it.
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Adam first, then Eve. We do not know how long they existed before sin come.
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That's kind of beside the point. But before sin come, everything was perfect.
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The way I read the Bible, there was no lack. Adam had work to do. The Lord walked with him in the garden every evening.
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And that must have been something unexplainable to walk with the
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Lord and to talk with him. But everything changed at the time of sin.
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Now, Adam sinned because he wanted to. We do what we want to do.
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Now, when I was about 12 or 13, you could not have convinced me of that. But in retrospect,
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I see that it's absolutely true. Because even though I didn't want to do something or thought
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I didn't, I didn't want the consequences of not doing it. So really,
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I wanted to do it. So I did it rebelliously, but I did it. So man does that which he wants to do.
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That's the only way God can judge man. And Judas betrayed our Lord because he wanted to, even though it was predicted and prophesied that he would.
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He didn't know that. He operated out of an evil heart. And he betrayed our
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Lord. So having made peace, when he shed his blood, it was not just for his people.
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It was for the whole creation because he reconciled everything.
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Well, that's more than just people because there are other things. So he reconciled everything.
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And I want what I want you to get in your mind this morning, and we're not going to go beyond this.
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But this week, I want you to think about that it is true, as he has said, he has reconciled everything to himself.
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Everything. Because everything was under a curse. It still is, as far as we're concerned.
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God sees the end from the beginning. And everything he has reconciled by the blood of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Any questions? We're going to stop here.
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Yes. The power of the
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Holy Spirit. Yes. Not the presence of the Holy Spirit. Let's not get confused.
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You know, when he breathed on the disciples before he went away and commanded them to receive the
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Holy Spirit, they did. But he then told them to wait in Jerusalem until the
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Spirit came with power. So it is the same
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Spirit. And I'm glad you found those scripture. It is the same Spirit.
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Please don't understand me. There's not two Holy Spirits. There's one. We have the
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Holy Spirit indwelling his people. Or you wouldn't be here today.
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Because you wouldn't even want to be here. It is the seal. And it is by that seal that we'll be able to present the earnest of our salvation.
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He is the earnest. That's the down payment. That's part of our salvation of eternal life.
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And we'll be able to have that with us when we approach the Lord.
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So that guarantees that we are his. The power of the Holy Spirit makes it possible to exercise your gift.
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Without the power of the Holy Spirit, you could do nothing. Now, we really can do nothing of ourselves that pleases
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God. It must originate with him. He doesn't take anything from man. We're sinful.
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We cannot conjure up something that is pleasing to God. Or Richard, we could have come up with some plan that he would have saved us.
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But we can't do that. So, thank you. We have the faith necessary to carry us through every task he has for us to do.
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We have the ability to do it or he would not have given it to us to do. He makes no mistakes.
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He doesn't use fillers just to take up time. You have the ability.
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You have the power of the
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Holy Spirit to do this or he would not have sent it to you. So all
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I ask you to do is study the word and I'll say this. Don't ever, ever believe anything because Otis Fisher tells you.
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Don't do that. You study the word and if you are still in disagreement, let's talk about it because I don't want to teach anything that's not according to the word and I never intend to do that.
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But understand, I'm a student just as much as you are. I don't know any more than you do.
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So I'm learning as we go. I hear things for the first time sometimes, Debbie, and it's quite an experience.
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But this power of the Holy Spirit is one of the highest marks of a gift of God to his people.
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Never think you can't do it because you have the power of the
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Spirit. You have the ability to do it and if he had not brought it to you, you could maybe claim that you couldn't do it.
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But since he brought it and he brings everything and our time is up, every event in your life is ordained of God and he makes no mistakes.
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Any other questions, quickly? Yes? I'm glad you made that statement.
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That's right. That's right. That's right.
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We get the power as we do what he tells us to do.
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And like Ed said, whatever task comes to us to do, we have the full power of the
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Holy Spirit to do it for that task. Not the unlimited power of the
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Holy Spirit as our Lord did, but within the confines of your ability, of that that he has given you to do, you can do it.
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All I want you to know is that you do it by the power of the Holy Spirit, not in your own power.
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It comes from, well, repeat it again.
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But isn't it, isn't the measure of the power that we receive, okay, let's see, the power that we receive from the
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Holy Spirit, isn't it based on our individual measure of knowledge and wisdom that we have perceived and that we have learned to understand at this point in our life?
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Because everyone grows more. So then, therefore, we may have, as we grow in the Lord, we may receive more power.
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All right, that's right to a certain degree.
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We have full power of the Holy Spirit within the confines of whatever he's given us to do. Now, we may not believe we can do it.
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Our faith may not be at the point yet where I can operate in that fully. The source, though, for me to do that is there.
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But as I grow, as I study, as I meditate, as I spend time in the word,
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I'm saying me, I mean every one of you, the more time you spend in the word, the more you'll be able to efficiently use the power of the
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Holy Spirit concerning any task in your life. You're right.
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Absolutely. Because a brand new Christian does not have the understanding that you all have.
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So we could not expect him to do what or believe or operate as you do.
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But you were there once and you didn't understand. Now, don't worry about things you do not understand.
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And I'll quit with this. Just don't worry about that because you now understand things you used to not understand.
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So that means that sooner or later, according to his time scale, I'll understand this.
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But Richard, we like to get caught up in things I don't understand and I want to figure it out.
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And then I know something you don't know and on and on and on. Just be patient where you are.
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It'll come. David, would you dismiss us, please?
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Lord, we thank you for your word and you teach us.