Ch4 The God Who is There

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All righty, good morning.
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Greetings, salutations.
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As we get started, I'm going to make a quick disclaimer.
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I lost my glasses, my prescription glasses, they're somewhere on the ground at my son's house in his 10-acre yard.
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So, I'm wearing Walgreens reader glasses, so I see men as trees walking.
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So, I'm thankful I have my wife as my chauffeur, but hopefully I'll get to it.
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So anyway, it's good to see you, shadowy, but at least I do see you, so anyway, let's open up with a word of prayer, and then we'll get to our next chapter in the book of The God Who's There by D.A.
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Carson.
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Hey, Brother Mike Smith, would you open us up with a word of prayer? Well, Holy Father, we use this day to strengthen us as believers, and there are lots of people out here today that they would come under the sound of the gospel and be converted.
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Yep.
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I pray that you would bless our time now, I pray that you'd be with our brother Andy, his vision is weak with these glasses.
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I pray that you would give him the sight that he needs, I pray that you would give us listening ears to hear, and hearts that are ready to receive.
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I pray that you would use this time to grow us in your faith, and to help us to know you better, and to know better is to love.
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We thank you for that, for the Christ in your prayer.
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Amen.
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Alright, so, we are now at chapter 4 in our book, and I hope everyone had an opportunity to at least read through the chapter, and get some thoughts on what is being presented.
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So, just as a basic review of what we did last week, or what Brother Mike did last week, what was the title of the chapter from last week, without looking in your book? The God Who Legislates.
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Somebody said? The God Who Legislates.
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The God Who Writes His Own Agreements.
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The God Who Writes His Own Agreements, and this week is The God Who Legislates.
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Absolutely.
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So, last week we considered chapter 3, which was, again, The God Who Writes His Own Agreements, and that basically pertained to what? What was the main thought that you got from last week as we began to look through that chapter, and what Brother Mike presented? Okay, I'm glad everybody feels that way.
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So, what we did was, what we did was, and Brother Mike brought up, was the whole idea of how God has structured and laid out for us, and remember, we keep drawing the same line, and I think we're going to keep drawing the same line.
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That as we work through, was this, we're going to, you know, we got to get some really good markers.
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This is, but anyway, we began thinking about, in the beginning, when God began to purpose and in the beginning God created the heavens and earth, and we keep drawing this line, right? And then we come to the cross, and then we continue on with this line, and this line basically goes on forever, right? Out into eternity, and this being, at some point, the second coming of Christ.
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But you remember what Brother Mike and what D.A.
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Carson tried to bring up with the God of Righteous Own Agreements was that, as we move through, and this is history, right? We're progressively moving through history, okay? And I think that's the way that we need to look at it, especially as we look at this book.
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The point that Brother Mike made and Carson made was, as God reveals himself, as he begins to disclose himself, he does it in the realm of establishing covenants.
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And I know this is not the best way to do it, but what was the first covenant? And Brother Mike brought it up.
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It was the covenant he made with...
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Noah.
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Noah.
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The covenant he made with Adam is a discussion that we can have for quite a while, but we definitely know that God made a covenant with Noah, right? And then, what was the next one? And this is what Brother Mike brought up last week.
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God made a covenant with who? Abraham.
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Okay, so the whole point being that, as we begin to understand how God has unveiled his purposes, God has been pleased to do it, establishing covenants at different times with different arrangements, but they're all divinely appointed.
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And so, we went from Noah to Abraham, and again, the scale is way off, but there are a couple other covenants, and the one we're going to look at this morning, in this chapter about the God who legislates, is the covenant that God established through who? Somebody said it.
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Moses, right? And as we move forward, what else are we going to find? What other covenants? Just real quick.
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What would be the next one after Moses? Sir? A covenant that God made with David, and then ultimately we're going to get through to Jeremiah and the prophets, and they're going to make another covenant, right? Or they're going to set up another covenant, and that'll be what? The new covenant, right? All I want us to try to think about, and again, remember the premise of the book? The premise of the book was, if you know nothing about the Bible, this book's for you.
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If you know something about the Bible, this book's for you.
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If you think you know everything about the Bible, this book is for you.
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Because what the book does is it simply, and very clearly, presents how God has revealed himself, how he's been pleased to reveal himself.
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And this is where, in and of itself, many people get lost.
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In other words, if you were to talk to someone tomorrow, and they don't know anything about the Bible, and you ask them, well, can you tell me what the Bible's about? What do you think you're going to get from them? What would you expect to get from someone? Would you? Sir? Yeah, it's a book of rules.
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Some might say it's a book of stories.
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Some might say it's a book of miracles.
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You would get all kinds of answers.
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I think as sons and daughters of God, we have to be able to explain the Bible without getting, you know, going off the cliff with big theological terms that perhaps even many of God's people don't fully comprehend.
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But we need to begin to explain to people that God has been pleased to reveal himself in a certain way.
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And certainly, these covenants that God has established has been, I'm going to say, has been the framework for what God has done through history.
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And again, that's how you can explain.
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So when you talk to people and people say, well, I don't understand the Bible.
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I don't even know what the Bible's about for me.
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And not only that, but I don't understand how history makes sense.
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How could history make sense? Well, I will assure you, as we go through this book and as we go through what the book teaches, it begins to explain how you can understand the purpose of God and the purpose of history and how history really is within these covenants until we get across to the cross of Christ, the establishment of the new covenant, and then what goes on after it.
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Now, as we move forward this week to, again, chapter four, it's the God who legislates.
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I want us to think about this.
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And the chapter title is the God who legislates.
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And just as you think about that and you think about the title of the chapter that he had last week, which was the God who writes his own agreements.
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Does that not, for lack of a better term, does that not smack of God's sovereignty in all of this? In other words, here's another aspect of how you can explain the Bible and how we can understand the Bible, is not only does God reveal himself through time, through history, through events leading to the cross and onward, and not only does God reveal himself here a little, there a little, along that history line, and not only does God do it in the sense of covenantal establishments, but it also reveals how sovereign God is because everything is underneath his control, isn't it? I mean, just by this, just what we just said, how could anyone not believe that God is sovereign? How could anyone not believe that God's in control? How could anyone not see how, if God is the creator and if God is the one who writes his own agreements and as we look today, the God who legislates, then does that not insinuate that he must be God and because he is God, he must be sovereign? Again, very difficult for people to, most of the times when people want to talk about the sovereignty of God they want to talk about the sovereignty of God and salvation, right? And does man have a free will and all those different discussions that come out of it and you can kind of get bogged down in that kind of a conversation but if you take a step back and you look at it through the course of history and how these events are interwoven into God's purposes, you've got to believe that God is a sovereign God.
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Anyone disagree with that? They think that way because they don't want to know the truth.
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Sure, sure, and what you're saying is so true and we're going to look at it as we go through this.
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It's not that they can't see that truth of God's, let me pose this as a question.
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Would you agree with me that everyone in their heart, in their conscience, and I'm trying to be careful, I don't want to say, I don't want to try to say it in a right way, that man, in and of himself, is aware that God is sovereign? Would you agree with that? Yes, and he knows? That, in other words, I really want to get to the stuff I want to talk about, but I was thinking about something this morning, help me, okay? It just came to my mind this morning as I break the TV.
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And I wanted to think about something.
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Would you agree that man, and I'm talking about men, women, children, people, that people know that there is a designer? Yes, no, maybe so.
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Anybody say no? How do they know that? Okay.
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So I'm sitting in my garage this morning just waiting and I thought about this.
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Don't laugh because I bet you you were sitting in your garage too making sure the cones around the Hellcat were in firm position.
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Anyway, here's what I was thinking.
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I was thinking, okay, let's just say this whiteboard is the world as we know it.
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History as we know it.
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In the beginning, it's blank.
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And then I thought, what happens if I do this? In this blank canvas? What does that mean? You're as sharp as ever, sister.
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But what now has entered into my emptiness? That's why I love you, baby.
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Something, okay.
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But what does that insinuate? If it was blank, and then something was added, that means somehow it's been put into it, okay? And again, this is just my mind and believe me, you don't want to get too far into that because you'll run into big problems.
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So then I started thinking, okay, what if I do this? And then I said, okay, what if I start to do this? My point is, I've taken something when it was nothing, I've inserted something and now it's what? There's a design.
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Okay, let me ask you a question.
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If there's design, does that not mean there must be a designer? Right? There has to be a designer.
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Remember the first chapter? The God who creates.
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The God who writes his own agreements.
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The God who legislates.
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And then what if I started, and we'll end this ridiculous thing here, but what if I started to do this? As you start to look at it and you know, all these different things start coming.
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And I've got to have the mailbox, of course.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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We've got to have a window, right? You don't get out in the day.
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I love coloring books.
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Here's my whole point.
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My whole point is if we were to understand how God has revealed himself, basically it follows a similar pattern in that God at first says there was nothing.
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Then God began and is unveiling himself and the house is becoming clearer and clearer through history.
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Again, my point being if there's design, there must be a designer.
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If there's a designer, then it's up to him to design it the way he sees fit.
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Not up to man.
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Wouldn't you agree? If you're going to build your own house, you're going to build it according to what? Your specifications.
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Now you might copy someone else's examples but nevertheless, you're still going to do it.
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And so as we come to the God who legislates this morning, that's what I want us to think about.
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Whether man will acknowledge it or not, which according to Paul in Romans 1, man, although he's aware of it, what does he do? He suppresses it.
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He denies the truth that ultimately he cannot deny.
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Isn't that what he does? Sure it is.
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He sees that there has been design.
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It forces him to realize there's a designer.
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And if there's a designer then that designer is in control.
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And what man does, rather than acknowledge the designer and pay tribute to the designer, he suppresses it and in turn, in the way he suppresses it, by either he denies its existence or he recreates it according to what he thinks.
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And as you open the chapter and as Carsten makes the point in the opening of the chapter, the God who legislates, if you remember what he said right in the very beginning of the chapter he makes a point how people say that the Bible is too narrow to be acceptable.
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Has anyone ever heard anyone tell them that? That the Bible is just too narrow.
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It doesn't leave enough width to fit everybody into a comfortable position.
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That's what he says in the very opening of the chapter of the book.
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In other words, what people are saying is that the Bible is too narrow and ultimately this design and this designer behind the design, he doesn't really have it right.
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Because we think that it should have a window upstairs.
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And like you said, it has to have hedges and maybe it has to have French doors instead of a regular door.
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Please don't anyone copy this down.
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But my whole point is, that's how he opens the book, the chapter that the Bible is too narrow and it's not able to fit everyone's lifestyle.
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The God who legislates, as we hopefully will see in the next few minutes, the God who writes the rules is not concerned with man's opinion of the rules that he writes.
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In other words, you don't like the color I paint my house? Okay, I do and therefore I'm not changing my color because you think it should be a different color.
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Wouldn't you agree? If your neighbor comes up to you tomorrow and says, I think you should paint your house pink, what are you going to tell them? I don't even want to know what you're going to tell them.
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But you get my point.
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My point is that the God who legislates and the God who writes his rules, as we'll see now, write this from your mind, that's a little more biblical, that the God who writes the rules through this covenant that he establishes through Moses with the children of Israel is one in which he regulates and legislates the rules that are to take place in that covenant as well as throughout history as long as that covenant is enforced.
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So when you think about it that way and I don't want to get into too far of a discussion about it.
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If you think what's going on in our country today and I'll just use our country as an example.
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It's all over the place.
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Are we not in a place right now where it seems like the only way something could be right is if enough people say it's alright and the right people say it's alright.
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In other words, in this whole idea of diversity, and by the way the God who is there has demonstrated the greatest diversity ever, hasn't he? I mean, just look in the creation, you could look in the creatures and the animals, the bugs everything.
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You can look in one another's face.
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God is the greatest the greatest diversity agent say it that way.
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But, in the especially in our country right now, we seem to want to argue that the diversity that God has established is not good enough.
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In other words, God made what? Male and female well that's not good enough no more.
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And God made, God legislates what's right and wrong.
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And guess what? We live in a country right now where that's not good enough.
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Again, my point is I'll say it this way God is not obligated to make the society feel comfortable, is he? Well, that's another conversation sister and probably would take up a bit of time but my whole point is, you see in a sense truth never really changes.
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The God who writes the rules has been the God who wrote the rules from the very beginning.
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And man has, from the very beginning resisted those rules even as we go back in the garden with Adam and Eve and then on forward.
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So, I wanted to at least present that and lead us into a little bit further of what takes place in this chapter.
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And brother Mike spoke concerning Abraham last week.
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Maybe the covenant that God made with Abraham and basically if this is the covenant that God made with Abraham, what was the main thought? Can anybody think, what was the main thing that came out of that covenant? Yeah, and basically that was the overriding thought was what? Wasn't it promise? Wouldn't you agree that it was promise? Promise to Abraham, promise of a seed to come, promise of being a great nation, promise of being many things and so as you think about it and as we come to it, now we are at the place as we move through the book and as again move through history.
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Remember, this book, in order for it to be worth anything has to follow the designer's pattern.
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It doesn't try to recreate the designer's pattern, it simply tries to explain the designer's pattern.
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So the next step would be after Abraham and the promise made to him, we now come to that place and we'll say this is the covenant that God made with Israel.
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Remember the story? Give me a 10 second rehearsal of how we get from Abraham to this place in Egypt.
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Anybody? I know you can all do it.
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I'll do it.
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Okay.
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So remember what happens? Abraham is sent out and over a course of time the children of Israel multiply and then they wind up where? In Egypt.
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And they wind up being under the hand of Pharaoh because the Egyptians see them as a threat, they're becoming too many and they're afraid they're going to be overrun and so they're put into subjection by Pharaoh and they are put in bondage and ultimately God raises up a man and his name is Moses and we know the story of it and God sends Moses back to Pharaoh and he tells Moses to tell Pharaoh let my people go and we know the story and the plagues and all those other things that take place but ultimately what happens? The sovereign God who has purpose to display and disclose and bring to pass redemptive history he, and I'll use the word, he forces Pharaoh doesn't he? He forces Pharaoh to let his people go and Moses leads them out into the wilderness and ultimately they wind up where? At a mountain.
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Mount Sinai.
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Remember that? Okay.
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So that's where we're going to establish this or at least set a mark where this covenant that God now brings into focus with a nation that he had promised before and now he brings it into focus and he brings them to a place called Mount Sinai.
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And if you remember when God is leading them to this point he made to them a promise that not only would he redeem them but he was going to bring them where? Anybody remember? Ma'am? You said it.
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Promised land.
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Right.
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And it was a land that God was going to establish.
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So again, when people say I don't understand what did God do with Israel there's so many things that God did with and through Israel but one of the things that we could certainly explain to people and understand for ourselves is that God brought Israel out of Egypt to bring them to a promised land that they might enjoy God and if you remember what it was, it was a place that was to flow with milk and honey.
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Now I don't know about you I don't know what a land that flows with milk and honey looks like.
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I would think it's pretty soggy and sticky but nevertheless it was a way of explaining, right? And if you remember something and I think this is worth mentioning when God told them that he was going to bring them into the promised land he tells them that not only is it a land of milk and honey and not only is it a land of prosperity and not only is it a land of promise it's a land that he's preparing for them and there are already people there and God's going to kick those people out in order for Israel to come in does that not again insinuate that this creator great designer that he's sovereign? Just think about that he tells them I'm going to bring you into a land that's already inherited and I'm going to kick the people that are in there out so that you can inherit it.
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Does that not say to us that our God is a sovereign God and that he does whatever he's pleased to do and I just love to say it so I'll just keep saying it God does what he wants, when he wants and how he wants and for anybody to disagree with that is truly just the result of a wrong mind.
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So anyway, God promises to bring them out now he stops at Mount Sinai and this is where God begins to do what? He begins to give them laws, what else? What else was given to them on Mount Sinai? Many of us will, as soon as someone says Mount Sinai and Moses what do you think most people think about? Ten Commandments, right? What else? Wasn't there not other things that God legislated to this people that he brought out of Egypt and brought into this covenant relationship? What else was there? There were rules there were regulations, there were statutes there were judgements.
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In other words, as we begin to see how God is using Israel he's establishing a world view that these people have to abide by and God is the one who's legislating it, right? Remember Moses was up on a mountain and God gives him those words and God gives them those statutes and God gives them those commands and again, Israel is a great example of many things.
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One of them, you might look at it from a positive that they're an example of people who trusted the Lord but at the same time they're an example of people who what? Didn't do what God told them to do rebellious people.
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So when you think about that and you think about how God legislates and by the way, there's another term for the Mosaic Covenant.
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Anybody know what it is? It's probably others but what's the other main way in which the Bible depicts that covenant that God made with Moses on Mount Sinai? This is, you know, some people theologically might argue it.
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Sister? The Old Covenant.
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Would anybody disagree with that? That the Old Covenant truly was that covenant that God established with the children of Israel and the reason I say that is why? Because that's what God says in the New Testament.
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So basically, just in case you knew nothing about the Bible the Bible is basically divided how? Not equally but it's divided between the Old Testament and New Testament or the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.
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Again, people might have some real issues with what I'm saying but since I'm saying it right now they can't stop me.
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But if you think about it, that's basically what is established.
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So the God who legislates at this point he's working with and through this nation of people that he has promised to bring into a land and he gives them the rules and regulations for that covenant.
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Now, as we move forward in the book and in time and as we work through this we'll see that there's all the covenants.
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Again, as Brother Mike brought up there's the covenant that God makes with David which is, again, used by God.
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Ultimately it gets to the New Covenant and then I would say and I think Brother Mike would agree that as we get to this this will have rules and an ethic that has to be followed and I'm not getting into that right now but so will there be under the New Covenant.
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And we as a body of believers, we are New Covenant believers aren't we not? Unless you want to believe you're still under the Old Covenant and if you're under the Old Covenant you're doomed.
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Think about it that way.
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So God gives them laws God gives them statutes.
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The God who's there is the God who legislates to man how he is to live.
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And again, nothing has changed.
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So, very quickly, think about it again today and I'm going to use this one topic because it's so glaring.
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This whole thing with I'm just going to say it.
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I read yesterday and I don't know if you saw it in the news about in California they had a big riot and it was about a transgender woman who exposed herself to kids and women at some kind of festival, some pride festival.
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It just boggles my mind how God who's there has legislated that he made man and he made women.
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Male and female.
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And we are trying to rewrite the rules.
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And you can't.
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You can't because God is sovereign.
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You can't do it.
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Now, you could try to do it but as you think about it and as of hopefully we have time this morning, when God legislates his law under the Old Covenant it's not possible to break without penalty, is it? So think about it that way.
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If God has created male and female, man and women and even as Jesus said, what God has joined together let no man put asunder.
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You might try to rewrite and re-legislate.
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It ain't working.
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That's like me going and writing to the President tomorrow and saying, well I'm going to write a new rule for taxes that anybody over my age doesn't have to pay taxes no more.
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I can do that until next April 15th.
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Right? And then I'm going to find out that that doesn't get it.
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Then you can start writing prison letters.
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Then I can start writing prison letters.
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You're right.
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I can probably write a book in prison.
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Thank you, brother.
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But, you get the drift.
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I hope you get it.
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Any of you young people.
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Listen, to some people the Bible seems just like a book of threats.
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All God has ever done is threaten but that's not the case, is it? The God who created, the God who designed, the God who sustains, the God who prepared a place for enjoyment is the same God who legislates.
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And that God who legislates is the sovereign and he does not and will not put up with men's opinions of what he legislates.
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And I'll say it this way.
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Do you remember that parable in the New Testament about the workers in the vineyard? Remember when it says that the landlord went out into the marketplace and he found somebody and it was early in the morning and he said to them, you want to work? I don't know what the translation says you want to work, but that was the point, right? You want to work? Okay, go out there, I'm going to pay you this much.
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And he goes out in the morning and I remember a couple hours later he finds another guy or two and he says, do you want to work? Okay, you go out and he goes on and on and on until finally almost at the end of the day he finds someone.
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He says, do you want to work? Yep, okay, go out.
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Then it comes time for them to be paid.
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And you remember what happened? They all got paid the same, right? And who was the one that was complaining? Was it the guy who was hired last that complained? The guy that was hired first and what was his reasoning? It's not fair.
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That's not right.
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And you remember what Jesus said? Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? See, the God who legislates, he owns it all.
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Is it not lawful for him to do what he will with his own? And who are we to resist him? Just as much as who was the guy who was hired at 9 o'clock in the morning to complain about the guy who got hired at 3 o'clock in the morning? And I thought about it real quick.
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So I had, before I retired, there's a shortage of drivers in the country, I'm sure you're aware of.
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Anyway, I had to hire a driver up in Macon, Georgia.
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And I couldn't, we can't find drivers so we put on sign-on bonuses.
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So there was a $5,000 sign-on bonus attached to something that we'd hire in Macon.
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Macon's not the easiest place to find drivers.
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So finally someone hired on and I asked another driver who's in Macon to train the new driver to show him how to take care of what we need to take care of.
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And after the first week, I guess the new driver told the old driver that he got a $5,000 sign-on bonus.
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Well guess what? I get a phone call from the guy who's been working for me for five years.
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You know what he says? He says, I'm quitting.
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I said, you what? He says, I'm quitting because you gave him a $5,000 sign-on bonus, but you never gave me a $5,000 sign-on bonus.
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And I said, you're going to quit because I'm giving it to him because of the need that's here.
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And he said, yeah.
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And you know what? He quit.
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How are you about giving five grand? I'll tell you why.
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They would have to squeeze me to death to give that dude five grand.
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But my whole point is, again, see that's the way the world thinks, right? And that's the way they think about God's rules and God's laws and God's commands and God's statutes.
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That it either has to be welcoming to all and accommodate all the variables of life or it's not fair.
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Well, guess what? As I say, God's not concerned whether things are fair in people's minds.
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Alright, so, as we go through that and we're starting to run out of time, I just wanted us to get just think about this.
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Of those ten commands, what was the first command? And I don't need it exactly and don't give it to me and King James but what was basically, what was the thrust of the first command that God gave? Sir? Yeah, you shall worship no other gods.
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There is no other gods.
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You cannot worship any other god.
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God legislated that with rightful reality because he's the creator, because he's the sustainer, because he's the one that prepared it all and so he says that.
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And if you think about it and not only, if you think about it, as you consider how history unfolds and I'm not just talking about biblical history now.
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Listen, even world history, if you want to divide it up, world history and biblical history, they run parallel because it really is the same thing that's going on.
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God has said, I made you.
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God is saying, I sustain you.
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God is saying this is the rules to live in my world the same way my house has X amount of windows and this many doors and if you don't agree with it then you must pay the penalty.
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And people don't like the idea of penalty, do they? And that's why so many people want to try to regulate the God who legislates.
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We want to write our rules and if our rules are bizarre, that's okay because they're our rules.
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Ultimately, let me summarize it this way if there is not a God who legislates then there is no truth.
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If there is no standard of truth then what? Then there is no truth.
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In order to have truth you have to have a standard right? It's got to be that way and so when you think about it, all the history and even through the redemptive flow of things, that's the constant issue with Israel isn't it? And the other nations God says you shall love me, shall have no other gods before me.
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What does Israel do? Moses is up on Mount Sinai and what are they doing? They're worshipping another God.
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Make a golden calf.
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What do the other nations do? They create their own gods.
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What do people do today? It's the same thing.
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The same truth that God laid out on Mount Sinai is the same truth that still is binding today.
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He is the Lord and there is no other God and you shall worship him and him only.
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And what have people done with that? The same thing that the children of Israel did on the bottom of the mountain.
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They said no we'll just make a golden calf out of it.
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Now we don't have people running around with golden calves unless you go to South America and maybe you'll find some weird kind of worship there.
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So you get the drift and I know this was more of a narrative.
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I want to close really quick because I haven't read a scripture unless anybody say I didn't take anything from the Bible this morning.
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I want you to turn very quickly if you have your Bibles Amos chapter 4.
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I'm just going to read it to summarize well anyway this passage came to me of how we have the God who is there the God who legislates and we have those that basically tell God and I know people would get mad and are going to get mad because I say this.
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There are multitudes of people who tell God you go to hell.
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I'm going to do what I want not what you want.
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I don't care what you say I care only what I say and I wanted to read this.
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I'll read it without comment and we'll close.
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Amos chapter 4.
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It has to do with Israel and it has to do with Israel not submitting and loving God with all their hearts.