Book of Romans - Ch. 11, Vs. 29-36 (04/09/2000)

Park Meadows Church

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Romans chapter 11 verse 29, For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

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Let me read that from the Empathized Bible. For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable.

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He never withdraws them when once they are given. And He does not change

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His mind about those to whom He has given His grace or to whom He sends

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His call. The call of God is not an invitation.

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It is an effectual call. And it is without repentance.

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No one can refuse this call. It is an imperative call.

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It is irrevocable. The call of God depends not on any human movement.

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He actually changes our belief when He notifies us that we belong to Him.

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He does it all, and I do mean all. For as ye in times past have not believed

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God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief.

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When we talk about the Jews, Paul is addressing the fact that the

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Jewish nation refused Christ. And it was the plan of God all along to offer it to the

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Gentiles. And He worked it by this method. Hey, Otis, when

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I hear irrevocable, I do the fire verse. If it's irrevocable, it means you can't lose it. That means exactly you cannot revoke it.

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You cannot lose it. You have nothing to do with gaining it. You have nothing to do with losing it.

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And He sent it to you and gave it to you of His own, and He is sovereign.

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Now, think back, if you can. Is this on? Yes. Think back, if you can remember when you were saved.

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Think back to a time before you were saved. And if you are honest with yourself, you didn't want to be saved.

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And God made it that way. So there was a time when you were not saved and you did not want to be saved, but then there come a time when you did want to be saved.

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Something happened in between. What was it? Richard? Well, in verse 29.

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All right. Philippians 1, 29.

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Turn to that, please. Fred, would you read that?

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No, it's the same. I can't feel the pages, Brother Otis. Excuses, excuses.

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I'm getting there. I know it's the next one.

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All right. Would you read it,

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Brother Otis? We'll let

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Bill read it. Did you say me? Yes.

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I thought you said Dale. No, Bill. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.

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What does it mean, Bill, that it has been given to you? What was it that was given?

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The belief. And why was it given to you? Because God decided to.

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Or God did it. That's right, but He did it on behalf of who? On behalf of Christ.

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On behalf of Jesus Christ. Now, what was it that Christ did that would warrant

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God giving us this new belief? Well, they're coaching you to say

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He died. And He did that. But I don't think that that's what made

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Him worthy. He was given all of His people prior to His dying.

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Well, that's true. But let me rephrase it then. What did

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Jesus Christ do that warranted God the Father notifying you that you belong to Him?

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I guess I'll agree with him. He died for us. And was resurrected. All right.

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It was the death that He supplied. There had to be a death to break the connection to Satan.

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Cheryl, do you remember that from years ago? Doulos? Sure. Yes. What's your name, by the way?

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Carol. Carol. She hasn't been gone for ten years. I remember the name.

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Clarence, what's Doulos mean? Don't look at Diane. Bonservant.

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There she is. Bonservant. We're together. Number three, just a little bit.

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Brother Otis, would you like me to read the next verse? Wait till I get this mic set.

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Is that number three? Yes, that's it. That's better. Now, I'll back it off just about the width of a pencil mark.

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I remember that Bible study about that.

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It said that it was the person who had the right to be free of the chosen man.

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And they were marked by usually piercing a deer,

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I believe. But they were bound to that person for no longer.

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All right. Now, Fred, read your next one.

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Having the same conflict which you saw in me, and now here to be in me.

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All right. We're placed into him. Romans 6 and 3 tells us that.

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But I want us to look at the rest of that verse. It's good to know that he changed our belief, but he gave us something else, too.

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To suffer because of what he did.

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To suffer. How many of you have really suffered for Christ? How many know someone that has?

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How many of you ever read about somebody that has? Our pastor, actually.

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All right. So never read and just stop at the first part.

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Now go over to Philippians 2, verse 13. David, you have that?

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Yes. For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do, his good pleasure.

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Boy. It's God that does the working in you. I tell you, folks.

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Most of my life I've known that he was sovereign. I just didn't know how sovereign. All right.

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There was a time when I did not desire to be saved. And there was a time that I did desire to be saved.

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And not knowing it, it was God that changed my desire. Verse 31.

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Even so have these also now not believed, but through your mercy that also they may obtain mercy.

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For God hath concluded, there's a good word, in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

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Now, God has concluded. Diane, what does the word mean?

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You can ask my husband. I know the spiritual things. Don't ask me the word.

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She is looking at Clarence now. Concluded. Finished.

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Finished. Finished? Well, yes, in a way. Incompletion.

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Conclusion. Society. Myth. Shut them all up together.

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There's a place to that. There's a place to that. You all push. Push just a minute. Great. Concluded.

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He put an end to it. All right.

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You're all correct. It simply means that he shut up on all sides, all people, and they were all in unbelief.

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He made it that way, that all human beings come in in unbelief.

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Now, why do you suppose he would ever do that? Why would he have all in unbelief?

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Now, I don't mean the original cause. I'm looking for the reason why he would operate that way.

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The first thought that comes to my mind is that if you were to come in in belief, you would not need him.

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But if you come in lacking, then you have a need for him. All right.

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Joey? I think it's all to show his mercy and grace.

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All right. It says, concluded all of them in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

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Now, please don't read that as salvation upon all. It doesn't say salvation.

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It says mercy. There's a vast difference. If it had been the other way around, if everybody had come in in belief, then

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Virgie would have had to do something to cause certain ones to not believe.

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Well, that's operating in the negative. God's not like that. He always operates in the positive.

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So we're going towards something, and it's God that we're going towards.

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There is a divine necessity that pervades and controls all of freedom of man.

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There is a divine purpose in mastering all of the seemingly random actions and thoughts of the wills of the humans.

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Know this. God subordinates sin to his purpose, but sin is not a subordinate element in his purpose.

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Do you understand what I'm saying? Sin is not one of the elements by which

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God operates, but he uses sin to bring about his will.

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Even the wicked have been brought into the world for his purpose.

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And know this, that every person on earth is doing the will of God.

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Now, we cannot explain most of it, but the wicked are doing what they were ordained to do just as we're doing what we're doing.

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And it is because the wicked is here that we grow. If they were not here, we would not grow.

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There cannot be love unless there's hate. And God hates the workers of iniquity.

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You've probably heard most of your life that God hates sin but loves the sinner.

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I defy you to find that anyplace. He hates sin, all right, but he doesn't love the sinner.

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When you put an ER on the end of it, you make a noun out of it, and you have turned it into a habit.

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Now, you've also heard Christians say, well, I'm just a sinner saved by grace.

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Don't ever say that. That's the same as slapping God in the face. Because he said, what did he say about us,

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Debbie? We've always belonged to him, that we are a peculiar people, that we are a righteous, royal priesthood.

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We are something to God. Now, we have to be in Christ to be good.

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We are nothing of ourself. Paul said, I'm the greatest sinner of all, meaning he was at one time.

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But I can do everything or anything in Christ. David, do we understand

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God? No. Clarence, how much do we know about God?

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Not very much. How much? Kind of what he's revealed to us.

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Just what he has revealed. Now, Richard, has he revealed everything?

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No. Do you think he ever will? I don't think like that.

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I don't think that we'll ever know completely. Go to the book of 1

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Corinthians, please, to the second. The second stands in the 14th verse.

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Bert, would you read that to me? The second in 14th? Right. But the natural man does not receive the things of the

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Spirit of God, for they are foolish to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually fixed to serve.

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Lord, the I'll get it in a minute. The knowledge of God is foolishness to the unsaved.

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But then it says that they are spiritually discerned.

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Then, Diane, are the unsaved not spiritual? No, they have a spirit, but it's not

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God. Right. The verse that came to me was, when he says the spirit is conserved in the

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Father, the devil, that's the spiritual person. Okay, their spirit is of Satan.

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Right. But to understand the Holy Word, you have to have the spirit of the

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Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, then dwelling in the Holy Spirit. And it is impossible.

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Well, let me ask you this way. Bill, can you go to school long enough and study enough and take the right courses to understand the spirituality of the

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Bible? No. Why? Because that's not how you obtain the spirituality of the

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Bible. Why can you not do that? Because it's going to be revealed as it's revealed.

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All right. By God, it's not going to be revealed by how hard you read. Then a

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Christian can study the Bible and still not learn anything, right?

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I don't think that's so if he's reading it in a Christian, if he is in a

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Christian attitude when he's reading it. But if he just reads it like a textbook...

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I suspect that that's the case. No one will learn anything of the Scripture except if they reveal to them.

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I've said over and over, I can teach you nothing. I never have and I never shall.

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I can expose you to a lot of facts, but Marian, I can't teach you a thing.

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It's such a joy for a teacher or a preacher as he stands behind the pulpit and watches the faces of the congregation and all of a sudden one of those faces seems to just explode, just lights up under some kind of physical movement, especially to the eyes.

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And what has happened at that very moment is that the Holy Spirit has just revealed something to that person.

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Now, that would prove he's here, wouldn't it? Well, I've seen that any number of times.

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And it is great. But remember, the Holy Spirit does it, not me, not

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David, not even Richard. Brother, don't you think that's the reason the

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Pharisees became so hardened that their view is that they were reading and studying the

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Bible just as diligently as they could, but without the proper attitude, without the proper spirit?

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Well, why didn't they have the proper spirit? Well, they wasn't given to. Wasn't given to. Would not the teacher and would not the preacher be the vehicle that the

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Lord used to bring that person to a point to where the

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Holy Spirit would run and work within them to reveal that truth? We're all just an instrument of God.

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Whether we sit here or stand there or prepare a meal, we're all an instrument of God to be used by him.

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And you're right. I would hope that I have said some things that helped people understand, helped them prepare their mind.

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And what you said is exactly right. But at the same time, I want everybody to understand that there's none of this of Oldest Fisher, so don't ever quote him.

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You quote the Bible. You can repeat what I say as long as you don't put my name on it.

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For those, don't you think, that that's where we get so much sidetracked and we put so much faith in what an individual says and what the

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Holy Spirit's revealing to us? Exactly. Oh, that's so true. And as McGee would say, that's where the rubber hits the road.

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And we just go, we think he's the greatest preacher and everything.

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I said some time ago that when, you remember when

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Harvey was here and he played the piano and the trumpet, everybody was congratulating

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Harvey and thanking him that he was so wonderful, and he is, and that was a great feat.

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But it would have been just as effective to go and congratulate the trumpet and the piano.

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Because Harvey, the trumpet, and the piano were nothing but instruments. Do you understand what

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I'm saying? Now, I like for people to, well, everybody likes to be patted on the back and a little flattery once in a while.

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But don't get me wrong, that's not the reason I'm here. The Lord put me here for a greater reason than just be careful.

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Don't completely stop, but just... Isaiah 55, verse 8.

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Greg, would you read verse 8 and verse 9? For my thoughts are not yours, and my thoughts are yours.

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Now, Greg, what does he mean that you can't think like I do? This is

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God speaking, by the way. Well, I certainly don't have a much greater being than myself, so I can't do what he does.

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How much knowledge does he have? All of it. He knows about everything?

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Does he know? I believe you're right.

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Now go to Numbers 23, 19. Did I see

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Russell back there? Yes, sir. Russell 10. Russell, would you read verse 19 of Numbers 23?

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God is not a man that he should lie. He is a son of man that he should repent. Has he said he shall not do it?

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Or has he spoken and shall he not make it good? All right, back in the book of Genesis.

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It must be along the second chapter someplace, where he says, let us make man in our image.

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Somebody find that. 26, it's

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John 1, 26. And God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

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All right. It surprised me one time, and I'm discussing it, and not me, but God.

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And there was a summer school teacher, been teaching 30 years, come up to me after class and argued with me, because it says that he made us in his image.

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How would you explain that? Well, he made us in the

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God of the Spirit. So we had to be made in the image of him which is spiritual.

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All right. And it says here, God is not a man, that he should lie.

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Great, does that mean he cannot lie? Be careful.

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No, it doesn't mean. If he did, he wouldn't be

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God, would he? No. Can't God cease to be God? Could God make someone absolutely equal to himself?

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Could he make someone higher than himself? So God is

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God. He's not a man. He's not one that lies. He's not one that would repent.

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Now, I know through especially the Old Testament, you have several places where it's, but I urge you to look up the word.

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It doesn't say God repented. It said he had repented him. Brother Otis, I once heard a sermon that impressed me very much when the pastor said that, asked if anyone knew the three things that were impossible to God.

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One of them being that he could not tell a lie, he could not not be

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God, and he could not remember a forgiven sin. Is that statement correct?

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Yes. The three things impossible to God. Yes, sir. For him to remain God. It's always impressed me very much that those three things in that sermon.

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Just like our Lord Jesus Christ. Could he have sinned? No. I think

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God. You remember when he was talking to the disciples and he made the statement that the adversary comes or something to that effect, and he has nothing in me.

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You remember that little word? David, what'd that mean? He's no part of it.

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But he does have something in you. That's his sin nature.

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Christ did not have a sin nature. That's why he had to be virgin born. Because as much as it pains me to say it, the sin nature is transmitted by the man.

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But I've known some evil women, too. Nine years.

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Yes. Verse 34 in Romans.

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For who has known the mind hath been his counselor.

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For who has first given to him that it shall be recompensed unto him again.

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Name one thing. Just one thing, Roger, that you have really given to God.

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Nothing. You sure? I haven't given anything to him that he doesn't already have.

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Has anybody here given anything to God? It's not obedient.

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Of course. It's not obedient to the scripture of giving back.

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Can you give that to God? Which God? It says who has first given to him.

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In other words, who has ever originated something he could give to God. Nobody. Name something in our world, in the products you use, wear, eat, that does not ultimately go back to the earth.

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No one speaking. I think we've answered that one. By your side.

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Good answer. Now, if we could give

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God something, then that would put him in the role, if it made him owe us something.

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If we could give to God that he would put him in a position that he would owe us something, then that would make him a servant of us.

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But that cannot be. So, is it true that he does not react to man?

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Yes. Absolutely. And so he doesn't owe us.

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He never owes us anything. Never. Never shall. So that's where the true mercy and grace comes in.

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Absolutely. That's where it truly is a gift. Yes. That is the true gift.

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The only real gift. Let me give you my definition of that again.

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The only real gift that can ever be given is from a person or being that has absolutely no need of anybody.

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Never has, never will. So that makes the gift of his son even more precious.

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One scripture says a free gift of God. Don't mumble.

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That's what it says, isn't it? What? Don't mumble.

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Don't mumble. Why do my children say I talk too loud? They say I don't talk too loud enough.

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Is that not what the scripture says when it says a free gift of God? That's right.

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That's absolutely right. And that's the only time you can use the word gift in its true meaning.

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Now we say gifts at Christmas time. They're really not. They're just presents. Remember this.

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God is the cause of the first cause. Greg, what's that mean?

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Everything exists simply because God decided to make it exist. My wife's hair is muffling what you say.

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Everything exists simply because God made it exist. All right. And everything after that works on cause.

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And he is the cause of the first cause. Romans 11, 36.

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For of him, through him, and to him are all things to whom be glory forever.

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Amen. Amen. All things flow toward God.

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Everything is for his own pleasure. I know that's a little hard sometimes to grasp.

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But he's told us that over and over. What is it?

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433. 435. 4 what? 435. 435.

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Daniel, 435. Somebody look at it. Bill, read it to us.

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And all the inhabitants of the earth are imputed as nothing. And he doth according to his will in the army of heaven.

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And among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, walk thus now.

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Can we not question God? We can question

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God, but we can't challenge him. That's right. You can want to understand more of why things happen.

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Proverbs 16, 33. Go to that one. Richard, read that to me.

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The lot is cashed to the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is the poor. Does everyone understand that verse?

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Does everyone not understand that verse?

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There's got to be one way or the other. Let me go through it just to be sure.

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The lot means destiny, your lot in life. Cash means it is fixed and set forth.

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In the lap, the best explanation of it is grandma's apron, as she would gather it up to put eggs or something in it, and then close it together to keep the dust and dirt out.

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But the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. So our destiny in life has been put in motion.

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It has been fixed. It was fixed before there was ever, and it is closed, sealed.

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No one can get to it, not even you. And the way it unfolds this morning, because even though you made the decision to come,

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Russell, everybody goes through this life making decisions, not knowing that it was ordained they do that before there was.

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All things are for him, from him, by him, through him, to him, and of him.

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All things originate with him, come out from him, and all things center in and are brought to completion and to end in him.

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And we'll end the study this morning with that. 12, next week.