Book of Galatians - Ch. 4, Vs. 1-6 (08/13/2000)

Park Meadows Church

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Galatians, the fourth chapter and the first verse, Paul is still speaking.

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We're still listening to him. Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from the servant, though he be lord of all.

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Now last week I gave you an idea on which I'd like for you to write, and that was namely this.

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As you look at the entire Bible, from the Genesis 1 to Revelation last, and you look at the way that it is laid out, we begin with a creation.

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This answers to the conception and birth of a child.

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Then we have the garden, and man put in the garden. This would answer to the innocence of a child.

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Now I want you to go through the entire Bible in that method, looking to see how the very construction or canonization of the

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Bible depicts that of a man, from birth to death.

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Write down whatever you can think of as you study. It'll take you some time. I'm not expecting that before Christmas.

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So it'll give you plenty of time to write, and I think it will surprise all of us how even the layout of the

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Bible teaches us something. Then I had another question.

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How many of you found scripture where absolutely without a doubt it tells you that angels sing?

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You didn't find it? I know some of you looked extremely hard.

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You didn't find it, did you? No one? I think it said beasts, didn't it?

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Living creatures. What did you find as you looked for angels singing?

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What did you find as far as the angels? When they announced the birth of Christ, didn't they sing?

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That's right. There is no place in the Bible that it tells us the angels sing. Now I don't mean to burst your bubble, but it's highly possible that's true.

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Just a side point, there's so many, many, many things, and David and I have talked about writing a book on what the

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Bible does not say. We've grown up with phrases and sayings and everything that we have considered to be gospel when they're not.

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Now the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ from a servant.

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So as the parents raise the child, it's an extremely, extremely important phase, not just for the child, but for the parents.

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I found a very interesting story, a true story, and let me read it to you because it points out a very interesting fact.

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Dr. Hitchcock of Sandwich England. This was back in the 1700s, late 1700s.

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He needed to go to the little village of Plymouth, England. Walking was the only method of travel that he could afford, so he began.

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It was but a short walk of about an hour and a half. That is, if he didn't get lost, and there was a strong possibility that he might get lost.

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As he was approaching some very, very dense woods, the path that he was following disappeared into those woods, and to be sure that he was on the right path, he saw an elderly woman in her yard hanging up close.

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So he approached her very cautiously and inquired if she might direct him to the little village of Plymouth.

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She said, why certainly, sir. You continue right on this path just as you're going until you come into the woods quite some way, and at that point you will find four or five paths that seemingly cross and take off from this one.

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What you do is consider all of them and take the one that you consider to be the best suited to you.

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He did that, and he arrived at Plymouth in the shortest possible means.

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Now, what does that tell us? First of all, I think it's important that we can learn from this story to follow our good instincts.

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I'm talking to Christians. Listen to the Holy Spirit as he us, and if we do that, we'll raise our family the very possible way that is available.

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The key to it is to have good common sense. The greater key is to have this good common sense.

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Lots of people don't have good common sense, but the good common sense is a gift from God also.

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Now, verse 2. This heir, as long as he is a child, is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

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All events are according to the father. They are set from infinity past.

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Here we find the father has set a time in time. He's reached down into time and has set a time even though he himself is not in time, and he remains outside of it.

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Now, why did he do this? Why did he set a time for the coming of our

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Lord? Why did he set a time for the finish of the law? Why did he set a for the beginning of the law?

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Dennis, what do you think? The time is for us?

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Yes. He set times even though he himself is not in time.

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Don't let that confuse you. My question is, why was there a time for any event?

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Anyone else? All right. But the time was set long before there was scripture.

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Certainly the scripture come along and pointed out the fact and that he was in control.

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Bill, what's the purpose of time? We could not exist without time?

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Could we not exist unless we're like we are? Then we are what we are because we live in time.

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You'd have made a good lawyer, Bill. Turn to Matthew 11 26.

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It gives the answer for all of this. Very outstanding statement.

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Matthew 11 26. I want you all to notice that we have

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Greg on the front row again. Greg, read to us

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Matthew 11 26. Is there a better answer?

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We try to get too analytical sometimes. Bill's exactly right in that we would have a most difficult time functioning without time.

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I've always thought of time as that which keeps everything from happening at the same time. Some of you are slower than others,

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I guess. That's right.

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Now go to Ephesians 1 11. And Greg, you read that when you arrive.

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Don't ever forget that scripture reference. Ephesians 1 11 must always be read with Romans 8 28.

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Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. This is what completes the reference in Romans that all things work together.

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He's the one that's working them. That's why they all work together. Verse 3.

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Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

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Now when I first read this years ago, I was very confused on this elements of the world.

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But it's really rather simple. If you can think like a Jew at that time, not that that's simple, but it was simple for them.

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Paul has in mind here the character of the law, the foundation, the beginning of the law, the elements of the law.

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As it applies to both the Jews and Gentiles, to all knowledge of the world, the cosmos is the only orderly material in existence.

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This phrase, elements of the world, was a Jewish phrase. And it simply meant the law.

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All of the elements of the law. And they were certainly subject to the elements of the law until something else come along and we'll see that in a moment.

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The rudiments of the principles of the Jewish religion. Now this morning

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I want to have a little demonstration. And I want to, well

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Greg you're up here you'll suffice. Come up here.

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We have here a Webster's New World Dictionary. Now would you agree that the words to the

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New Testament are in there? Yes. All right, open it and read something from Romans.

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Why? Do you see how this represents the law?

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Everything was there for the gospel, but we could not read it or understand until it was put into words and phrases that we understand.

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The gospel's not new. It's in the Old Testament. And every word of it's in that book.

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Okay. So this is like the law. Now they could understand the part that was meant for them to understand.

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They knew there was something else. The writers several times mentioned that there was a mystery that was hidden.

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Well, the church was in the Old Testament, but it was hidden. In the New Testament it's revealed.

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Same words, same spelling, everything, but it's put together different.

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The law and the gospel. The could not understand it.

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Any questions? Now you know the difference between the gospel and the law.

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The apostle intimates that the law was not the science of salvation. Could you be saved by the law?

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Can you be saved by the law? So it was not the science of salvation, was it?

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What was it? Why did the law come? All right.

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How did it do that? All right.

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Then are you saying that man did not know that he was sinning until he saw the law that told him that?

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I think so too. The law come along so that we would know that there was a need for salvation.

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There was a need for something else that was not available in the law. So we have the elements of the gospel, or the alphabet of the gospel, if you please, in the law.

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Fourth verse, but when the fullness of time was come, there's another reference to time.

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God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law. Now, please remember, while Jesus was here on earth, he was operating under the law, not the gospel.

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Made under the law, but when the fullness of time, let's talk about that for a little bit.

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Fullness of time, sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law.

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In this one verse, he utters many, many things. The first thing that you see, when the fullness of time was come,

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God sent forth his son. What's the very first thing that you see? That Mary was pregnant, and she was in the fullness of time, in the nine months that it took for the baby to be born.

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Alright, that's true. Has anybody seen? It was also in God's plan for it to occur at that time.

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I think the fullness of time refers to when all the promises in the Old Testament were included in the prediction of when

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Jesus would appear. That was complete. It showed in that one statement that all the things up to that point had been completed before he appeared.

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Alright, so not only the nine months, but everything up including the nine months, the birth.

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So the fullness of time, something cannot be full until it is full, can it?

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So something is not finished until it's complete. So everything up to this point now is complete.

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Finished. The law was completed. Does it say anything to the fact that we're not sons by nature?

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He sent forth his son. We might be brothers.

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He took on him the flesh that we have. The same flesh, but it was different than us.

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Diane, in what way could you, in a very few words, sum up the difference between Jesus and you and I?

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He is perfect and we're not. What great difference,

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Russell, is there between Jesus when he walked here on earth and you and I?

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Alright, so he was

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God -man. I don't believe Russell would fit that category. None of us would.

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Jesus come as Adam did, innocent. Adam chose to sin.

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Jesus chose not to. Jesus never took on the sin nature. Adam did.

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The maid of a woman tells us that he was human, but as Trudy pointed out, he's also

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God. Now, Virge, we know that statement.

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We've heard that phrase forever. That Jesus was God -man.

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Jesus the Christ. But I would defy you to explain that term where I can really understand it.

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How could a man be God? Can you? Can you explain?

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I don't think anybody can. That's right. You know, he has told us that the just shall live by faith.

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There is no other way to live. He has made that gulf in between our complete knowledge and what we have here, and it has to be bridged by faith.

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There's just no other way that you can do it. You can study forever, and you'll still have to use faith.

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That's right. He regulates as to who receives the faith.

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All right. The time is said to be full when all parts are passed and ended.

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Therefore, Christ could not have come sooner or later because all of the parts had to be completed in God's timetable, even though he's out of time.

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He functions in time. He sent forth his son. His son came immediately from God himself, made of a woman according to the promise.

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So he did this to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons.

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That we might be adopted into the family of God, and that we would be sons with his son to redeem them.

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Since it was them that sinned, then it had to be them that the remedy applied to.

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Now, the entire creation was under a curse, was it not? Is it not?

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The entire, all that man's ever seen and everything he has not seen, is operating under a curse.

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In fact, it's less than perfect. And it's due to what? What has put,

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Roger, what has put all of this creation in a lower state than...

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Sin. Was it the sin of the creation? No. It was the sin of man.

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Then why is the creation cursed? You're calling man this, so it's not that we are created for the creation as it were.

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Everything is effected by it.

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Creation is perfect in my stand. Alright. Think for a moment if fallen man had been left in a perfect environment.

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Well, even more than to punish man, which it certainly does, but it was done to draw man back to God.

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Which was necessary, to be drawn back to him, he had to do something.

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And that something was to curse the world. Now, don't misunderstand

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Bill when he said he had to do something. There was nothing to surprise God, it had already been planned.

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And that's what Bill meant. I just want to distinguish before we explain the connectedness between God and Jesus, that man.

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And the fact that we always come to the point that we have to say we can't rationalize it the way we have to accept it.

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Do you think that's part of the curse, that we're limited in how far we want to go?

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Perhaps not work either. Another reason for the curse on man is that man will have to work.

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Sure. Man's made to work. And by made to work,

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I mean he's put together in a fashion that it calls for work. If you work hard all your life looking toward retirement, unless you have looked beyond retirement, you'll possibly die within three months.

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Don't do that. You start something now that you really, really enjoy doing, a hobby, whatever, because by the time you retire, it could be a full -time business.

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I know from experience. I know from watching my father. He had nothing, and he was dead in a very short time.

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Man's supposed to work. Work just as long as you possibly can.

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Go to Romans 8 .20. And Greg, I'd like for you to read 8 .20,

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8 .21, 8 .22, and 8 .23. All right.

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Creation was made to be fallen by God.

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Verse 6. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his

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Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Now, I have a demonstration this morning

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I've never used before, but I couldn't get it out of my mind.

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And I don't know if you all can see that hand back that far or not. Okay. We have the works of a clock with its pendulum.

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Now, it says, the indwelling Holy Spirit. My words now, the

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Holy Spirit is a feedback control. To control how much we comprehend of the

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Holy Truth. Without the Holy Spirit, you would run wild.

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Without the indwelling Holy Spirit, we would get too much or too little of understanding.

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The Holy Spirit is what interprets, is what reveals, is what teaches. The Holy Spirit.

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The Holy Spirit is like a governor. Do you understand the words of a governor?

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Not the political office. But that that regulates the speed.

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It's not going to run very long. Because it's on level. But it'll do to show my purpose.

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Now, the pendulum is equal to the Holy Spirit. Verge is letting that hand move only a certain amount in a certain length of time.

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It's regulated. That's the way the Holy Spirit works in our life. Very silently.

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But he teaches us that which we need to know when we need to know it. Now, we have to study.

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It's not going to happen without it. Without the Holy Spirit, let me show you something.

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I said I could. It's not exactly like the woman.

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Now, without the Holy Spirit, our clock is wound one time.

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He wound this clock once. Our life, representing the clock, is wound one time.

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When it runs down, it's the length of our life. Without the

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Holy Spirit as a governor, as a control, that would possibly run down within five minutes.

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Five minutes in a ratio of, say, 80 years, Bill, what length of time would the five minutes be?

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None. The same as none. So the purpose of the

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Holy Spirit in our life is not only to keep us alive, to keep us ticking, but to regulate as to what speed we go.

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The hand shows where we are in life. The last hour.

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The first hour. The sixth hour. Middle age.

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Whatever. And its purpose is to show us

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God to regulate our life so that we learn constantly, all of the time, but only that which we need and comprehend.

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And the length of the pendulum is the one that does it. Man has nothing to do with that part.

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And when it runs down, you graduate. All right, we have just a few minutes now.

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Are there any questions from anybody? With the

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Holy Spirit, you see what is supposed to be.

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Without the hand, you can look back over time and see the thread. Without the

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Holy Spirit, there is no sense of it. That's right. Absolutely.

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And that's because the time has been regulated to where you can see the Christ sharpening or getting to the full in Christ's name.

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That's right. Without the Holy Spirit, it would be almost like without time.

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All right, that's a good observation. Also, the Holy Spirit was watching us talk.

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Beating to us when we needed him. Could it not be that we would take so much in that we wouldn't absorb it?

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Sure. We study and learn.

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Just think, if you get the entire lifetime of influence of the

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Holy Spirit crowded down all within one minute, you'd explode.

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You just could not handle it. Any other comment, observation, question, argument?

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This may be for a lad. The computer the other day, and forever, they tell you what to search.

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Well, this one had to do, and all you had to do was to put in your birth date and whether you were, and I pressed the button.

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And it says, oops. You left us. You had a nice day.

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That's good fruit. I think. Anything else?

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All right. We read, to redeem them that were under the law, that we,

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I was looking at the document that we read, and kind of got a reference to Matt, to 2028, when it says, even if the

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Son of Man came not to minister to them, but to minister and to give his life as a ransom for many.

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He didn't say all. Just like he didn't say, he said, damn and leave.

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And he didn't add all there either. I think it's so good that you all are learning to pay attention to the little words.

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The little words teach doctrine. Many is certainly different than all.

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Wes, Dan, and Greg, would you dismiss this, please? My prayer is to thank you for brotherhood.

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Keep him speaking to us strongly. I know he has his problems. I believe that you're over him.

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Thank you for this great place for me to be. And shut out the rest of the world.