Person & Work of the Holy Spirit
Mike Doyle · Nov 17, 2013
Holy Spirit (2013), No. 45
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49264721358

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, we're lesson 22, right? And we're talking about, we're discussing inspiration in the scriptures from chapter 6 of the book that we're studying. And I think we'd Got the question three or four or three. Well, four. We finished three. Yeah. OK. Three.

Three has to do with why should. Well, why? Question two was why was the Old Testament written? And from scriptures that we quoted, it was written for our sakes that we know some things. And then three is why should this principle be applied as broad as possible? And we're reading the word. We should understand it. our learning and our instruction in the ways of God. Now, I wanted to make a point here.

Do you remember in the Old Testament why God got mad at the Jews? I shouldn't say it that way. Why he was disappointed in the Jews. What was the one big thing that bothered him about the Jews? That they didn't go into It wasn't so much that they did or didn't do certain things, what really bugged him was that they didn't know his ways. Do you understand that? They didn't know his ways, which meant they weren't paying attention nor could they care less about who he was and what he did.

Old Testament scripture for our learning, because you don't learn God's ways unless you spend time with them, and the only place to spend time with them is in the Word. I'm kind of astounded with contemporary Christianity, how there's so many tangents, so much going on, so much energy expended, but very few of them have ever sat down and thought about, I wonder what God thinks about this, or what are his ways, how does he do things? Those who are stuck in legal systems don't understand that God's way is grace. Question four, must the Bible be read in its entirety to see its purpose?

I hope not. She hopes not. Let's talk about, here's a brand new Christian. We'll pick on Courtney, I didn't pick on him in a couple of weeks. Let's say Courtney, he's been gone. Let's say he's a brand new believer and he's coming to you for advice on what to do about the Word of God. How would you advise him, or when would you advise him to start? She would start him in Genesis. If you started in the New Testament, what would you say? Gospel of John.

So, Randy. The question that I have is, when you start with somebody like that, do you come alongside them and walk them through it, or do you just set them off and tell them to just... Did you hear what he said? No, not really. When you start with somebody like that, do you come alongside them, or do you just say, here, go read this? You should come alongside them. That's exactly right, you should. I'm marking down your questions. This is more of a practical question, but I've found study Bibles helpful. I mean, you know, are those good?

You'll find like in New Tribes Missions, that what they do is, and Jim McCauley when he worked for, what's the name of that group? that their whole focus is from creation to Christ but they're going in and talking to people that don't know anything about Christianity and it sets up the reason for Christ and who he is and that kind of thing.

I think if you've had a religious background which could be like Catholicism like I came from but you weren't a believer and you became a believer I would focus on like the start of the gospel of John, walk beside you, get into the book of Romans, which I think Romans is the basic survey course of Christianity and kind of lay it out. And then I'd start back into the Old Testament. Because then you can understand some of what's going on in the Old Testament because you're reading it from a New Testament viewpoint. However, if you had absolutely no education in the Bible at all, I would start in Genesis. I would go to creation first.

I'm reading kind of an interesting book a guy sent me now. It's called The Seven Men Who Influenced the World from the Grave. The first one is Darwin. And the second one is Karl Marx and I'm amazed at how Karl Marx gets by with what he lays down. It's just amazing to me that people buy the garbage that this guy wrote and still do to this day.

The one you recommended to me, By This Way, by Cross, for someone that doesn't understand, doesn't have a clue, it's a good book. It's a good seed published by this name, which is Creation of Christ. It's really pretty good. But I think Randy's principle is absolutely important.

If God brings a soul into your life, You don't have the liberty to give them a book until they get back to you later. You walk beside them. The only thing I think that can be an interesting, like Ephesians body truth is that sometimes someone is an evangelist and the Lord allows them to present the gospel and they become believers and then they introduce them to the teacher and they get They develop their relationship with somebody where someone does that. But I've seen too many evangelist type of people where they're like, all right, now that you're saved, go find a good church. Like Billy Graham does that. Go find a good church. How? How as a babe would you know and discern? You wouldn't know. You know what? That's how I came to Holly Hills. Joyce Meyers said, go find a good Bible church. I Googled it. Holly Hills. I have a good name.

I don't like that there's a certain formula, a certain thing. I think God uses everything, everywhere, every time. Whether you, you know, your statement, I say the wrong thing at the right time or wrong, whatever, whatever. God knows about that. You know, I go back. He can use any method as long as it's through the word, that is based on that, he can use anything.

I go back to the guy, Bill Faye. He was a guy into the world, had everything the world could offer. A guy told him one day, he noticed what's different about him. He said, I have a piece that you don't know. Five years later, that came back to him. It wasn't that he walked beside him, he did anything. It was one word, one day, one time. And that was what made the difference in it. Which brought him to Christ. Which brought him to Christ. So, you know, Holly, whether it's Joyce Meyers or whoever. I think, I agree with that because I know lots of stories like that too.

My focus here is on once you become a believer, where do you go from here? You know, and that's what the question really has to do with. Where do you start? You start in the Old Testament, you start in the New Testament, you start in the Gospels. Or do you do?

Because what's the issue today when Bill Faye comes to Christ? What is the issue? Sin and a Savior. And boy, there's nothing like Romans to talk about sin and a Savior. Or John. Or any of the Gospels. What do you think about it? Why would anybody buy into the fact that a man died on a cross, a horrible death, and he happened to be the son of God, and if you believe in that, God will save you for all eternity. That's ridiculous. Who would do such a thing?

So the word of God has to speak for itself. And it's really important. I think sometimes we get outside the word of God because we trust the book. or we trust away somebody or we go to class and learn how to witness. You know what the greatest witness is? It's the peace that's in somebody's heart that somebody else has noticed. That's where it is.

You get too many excuses if it wasn't the right time and I had to be in Genesis. You're so tied up in worrying about things Somebody could be Genesis. Somebody could be Romans. Somebody could be anything. See, in the walking beside them, you'll discover where the best place is to take them.

Yeah, that's what I said. There's no pat answer to that. I think we're individuals. And he works on us. If we went around this room and how we all came to know Christ, everyone's different. And I think there's no pat answer to this thing. Go to Genesis. Go to Romans. God has you with that person, that time, saying whatever. Just a life, your life is a demonstration.

Salvation, the issue is salvation. When there is a circle of influence and focuses, that is where you need to be. Salvation. It sounds like you and I have had discussions about when you wake up that day, And it's like you ask the Lord, you know, what would you have me do today? It's more of a walking with the Holy Spirit. And if that is in line, then you'll know how you're supposed to help somebody along. It's not a formula. It may be different for each person. But if you walk with Christ, and you're in tune with the Holy Spirit...

Yeah. There's two principles, I think, in there. One is that the Spirit of God saves people. You don't. And the Spirit of God grows him up and you don't. So if you're dependent on him, if he wants to use you, fine. If he doesn't, that's okay too. So then you don't get wound up tight like Courtney's describing. You rest and you walk and you live, but you're ready.

I was going to say, I think one of the biggest hurdles is that, like say you're in Catholicism where there's all these rules and regulations and all this stuff, and you say, all you have to do is believe in Jesus and you have eternal life, and they go, it can't be that simple. That's exactly what I thought. I kept telling these guys, you're crazy, it isn't that easy. And they said, yeah it is. It's very tough. It's very tough to accept grace. It's just really tough.

Because we're not built that way. The other thing is that people often don't know the gospel. They believe Christ, but they've never been equipped to understand how simple the gospel is to present it to others. Yeah, and how careful we need to be in presenting it. Forget all that pursue Jesus into your heart nonsense. Present the gospel.

I like to walk along the Highline Canal and there's a house... Oh, me too. I never run into you. I like being run into. Anyway, there's a house that they've kind of not taken care of for years and some people moved in. They have done a marvelous job on it. And when I walked, headed up to the high line, I saw in front, they had, for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So on my way back, I had to stop in. I saw a car there.

And I spoke with them and they were Oriental people. And it was so wonderful to exchange the love of God between just absolute strangers. But my question is this, do you think it would affect other people walking along? Now I know the Lord, but do you think strangers, what do you think? You know what the great thing about Christ is? You can't just pass by. You have to make a decision right now.

When somebody gives you the gospel, You have to make a decision whether to accept it or reject it. Period. When you see something like, for me in my house we serve the Lord, you either accept it or you reject it. The great thing about any message from God is do you buy it or don't. You don't get to be laissez faire about it. Or Scarlett O'Hara, I don't think about that right now. You either reject it or you accept it. That's the great thing about the word of God. It's like that. Okay, next question.

Is the Old Testament a history of things as they are? Did you understand the question? If I was going to write a biography, well, I can't say that, a biography of Courtney. What Rydock says, the characters in a biography described without the least effort of what he might be called dressing up for appearances. Does the Bible do any of that? No, it doesn't.

What those people are in the Bible is what you get. You get no flower, no fill, no perfume, no powder, nothing. My boy Abraham, you know, he believed God and he was accounted righteous and then you read the rest of his story, he's a loser. Look at the stuff that the guy did. All of the people in the Bible. But he had one redeeming trait. Called faith. He believed God.

That's right. That's all anyone's required to do. To redeem. Anytime. Sure. And I love that about the Bible actually because we all identify with certain people in the Bible. Like I really identify with Peter. You know. I really do. He was stumbling over his own feet all the time. You know. So why does the Bible point out all the faults of its characters? Why does it do that?

Well, so we can relate to them and relate to the love of God. Well, it's reporting truth. And the Holy Spirit wrote it and the Holy Spirit knows what's truth. And truth can be believed to not glorify man. That's the real reason. I was just going to add to it also, All this stems from the fallen Adam nature. Even they were subjects to that. To me too it sort of gives credibility because I think if someone were going to invent a religion, they would make all the followers perfect. You know what I mean? So it gives it, to me, credibility. Who would report that? It wouldn't. Right. It's like when I said if you do a biography, you think the guy is perfect. The person is perfect, but it doesn't include all his fallacies. So if you put man in the condition that he's found, I mean, the real condition that he's found.

And then alongside that, here's a sovereign God who's gracious. demonstrates his glory to a much greater degree. Myles Stanford used to say that a diamond is displayed much greater on a black background. You and I are the background. So when God is judging, When he's saving, when he's exercising grace, it isn't thwarted.

You see people for who they are. Because why is the Bible written? I want to ask it a better way. It's designed to magnify Christ, right? So there's nobody that measures up to him, yet it shows his grace, God's grace and his mercy towards us. I was thinking too about the Catholic religion with all the saints. You know, it's kind of like highlight everything good. Like this saint is like perfect.

And you know, if you probably knew him, you'd be like, really? No, that's right. No, that's exactly right. You know, maybe they did some several nice things, but by the time the Catholic Church gets done with them, you know, they never, They never did anything. It's like their whole doctrine on the Blessed Virgin. They believe that the Blessed Virgin was born without sin. How could that possibly be?

Well the emphasis is all on the saint, right? On the what? On the saint. On the saint and not on Christ. And they say the Virgin had to be born without sin because Christ could not have come from someone who is sinful. So what's the flaw in that argument? Because the sin doesn't come through the female, it comes through the male. The sin doesn't come through the female, it comes through the male. Because Adam is the head of the race, not Eve.

That's interesting. Don't break anything. Does that mean we get by with a lot more than I've ever seen. So in studying the Old Testament, what does it mean about man? He's a sinner? He needs a savior. A savior. Now what does it prove about man? He's a sinner? You mean the male person? Based on that principle, isn't Zadarin up above board in writing the Bible and taking gender out of it? What does the Old Testament prove about man? Not only that they are all sinners, but think about this, that they are all under sin. Do you know the difference between being a sinner and being under sin? What does it mean to be under sin?

That it's hopeless. They're hopeless? Well, it's one thing to say I'm a sinner. It's another thing to say I am under sin. There's no way out. You cannot get out yourself. You can't stop being a sinner. Sin is a controlling factor. You see that? And so none seek after God, no not one, all have come short of the glory of God. The conclusion is everybody is under sin. Now I can say well yeah I'm a sinner but I could change my act. I could clean it up a little bit. I could do better. I could become a Republican.

But when you come to the realization that what the word of God, the conclusion for man is that you are under the umbrella of sin, you're stuck. You can't get free. Is that one of the things that people keep trying, keep failing? Sure, that's exactly why. It takes away this whole idea that I can save myself, I can become religious, I can do whatever, and things are going to work out for me in the end. No they're not. Because what's the definition of sin?

Short of the mark. So if everybody is under the short of the mark, and nobody can get to the mark, so all your dancing is futile. You see that? There's no utopia there. I mean, it's a stark realization when you come to the conclusion that, understand, understand, wow, they're stuck. It's hopeless. It is hopeless. And without the grace of God and the Savior, it's hopeless.

Understand. What's the positive? That's the negative purpose. What's the positive purpose of the Old Testament? Redemption through the work of Christ. What's that? To point us to Him. That we may know Him. Now think about this. If the real negative aspect is the conclusion as we all understand, what's the positive aspect? Redemption through the work of Christ. Yeah, redemption. Oh wow, there's a savior. There's a way out. There's a way out. And that's really the positive side. Right out says, even the salvation of man through the work of Christ. And in the Old Testament, the examples of that were the coverings of skins for man's nakedness. You know when God presented the skins to Adam, where did they come from?

Not Wal-Mart. Where did they come from? He had to kill them. Their blood was shed. Yeah, it had to be a blood sacrifice. Abel's sacrifice, the shedding blood of the Passover lamb, the deliverance through the Red Sea, all suggest what? Redemption. All of that would suggest redemption, which they were pictures of what was really going to happen. What was going to happen when the Savior came.

So, Reitauf says this is kind of interesting. Randy talked about types before. He said these types of redemption are not thrown in as haphazard. but are placed in the pivotal points in the history of individuals and of the nation. The reader has a growing conviction that to have to do with God, one must approach him by sacrifice. To be shielded from judgment, one must have the blood sprinkled. To pass out of bondage into liberty, one must enter into the witness of death. That's a pretty big pill to swallow, isn't it?

Ninety two. Ninety two. Towards the bottom. Towards the bottom on ninety two. So question. Are you counting? So didn't Chris say I didn't come for sacrifice, but for mercy? Well. I don't want sacrifice? The book of Hebrews says that God said that he was sick of the sacrifices. Because they didn't cover the sins, they didn't solve the issue. You see that? And talking about the Lord Jesus as a high priest, I think Burns probably talked about that in the book of Hebrews. The deal is, is that sacrifice and death are the way out of this under sin.

I've had people come to me and say, boy you Christians, all you do is talk about death. Why is death so important? Here's a better question. When God said to Adam, don't eat of the tree, but in the day you do, you will surely die. In dying, you will die. Why that? Why wouldn't God say to Adam, okay I'm going to give you a test and if you screw it up it's okay, we'll have some changes around here. But he didn't say that, he said the result of missing the mark is death. How come? Separation from God? Yeah. Why separation from God?

Because he cannot look upon sin. He can't deal with or function with or negotiate with or have fellowship with sin. The only remedy for sin is death. That's the only remedy. It isn't 40 years of hard labor. It isn't a $1000 fine. It's death. True question. If all Christ did on the cross was pay the penalty for your sins, that's all he did, do you have the right to be in the presence of a holy God? Well, you have to die. I have to physically die? No, the old man. That's right. Boy, you get to star today. If only it would just sink in. No, that's right. That's the right answer.

You can't go into God as a saved sinner. There's no such thing as a saved sinner. You're either in Christ as a new creature or you're soul under sin. Do you see that? That's why positional truth is so important. So important. That's five. Okay, last one. So as far as us offering sacrifice, to God. Isn't that backwards? Isn't it like that God sacrificed his son? Isn't he the one who made the sacrifice for us? So us even trying to sacrifice anything seems like it's...

Well, there's a couple of categories there. God gave the Jews the mosaic system. Right? Which included the law and then some remedies for sinning. Didn't he? He gave them remedies to cover their sins over. Right? He didn't get rid of them. He covered them over. Sacrifices, the annual... Or the daily or whatever. You know, each sin had a certain animal or whatever that you would take or you would buy and the priest would sacrifice it. Right?

Covering. Covering. But when John the Baptist sees the Lord Jesus, he says there's the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Take them away. That's different than covering. Can you use different words than covering? Say that again? Use different words than covering the sins. I should use a different word than covering? I don't understand necessarily what that means. How about visa? Now what God did in anticipation of the work of Christ which was going to take away all sin from all time.

He gave them this system where when Moses said look you need to put the blood on the lintel of your door or the top of your door and the angel of death will pass over your house and your oldest son will die. passed over because the blood of something that had died had been placed on the door.

Does it mean that he's not looking at it or he's ignoring it? He didn't ignore them but he didn't accrue them to the people he passed over them waiting for Christ to come. I understand the price card but I thought the Old Testament how the sacrifices worked then. God is just not looking at him or he's ignoring him? I don't know if he wasn't ignoring him or he doesn't ignore sin.

Covering works. It's like, you know, here's the sin and you cover it. And it's not visible at that time, but it's not a problem. Yeah, you cover it and it goes over the top of it. Yeah, it's just like the blood over the lentil or the man or whatever. He went over it. He doesn't see it. It's still there. It's just different from propitiation. Right. And removing or taking away. So how is it different that God can't see sin? If he can't see it anyways, why would he cover it? It isn't that he can't see that it's happened. It's just that he can't have anything to do with it. And that's his economy too. I think that's how he set it up. the covering and then he set up that system for a covering.

It's not that it's taken away, it's just covered over for a period of time. It's like the Holy Spirit indwelling for a period of time in the Old Testament. I think it came and it went. This covering is a temporary covering of that sin. The sin is still there. You just referred to the Holy Spirit as an id. I was just going to say, I don't think that covering would apply unless God had that sacrifice already in place.

Christ is a lamb slain from the foundations of eternity. That's exactly right. Because God is eternal, there isn't any time. Now in time-space, Jesus becomes a man, goes through the 30 some years, and he's sacrificed on the cross. But from eternity, he was in place before Adam was, if you can say that about eternity. The difference I think is between atonement, the sin pays penalty to create atonement with God, that's the covering concept, versus propitiation, which is complete satisfaction of any and all debt, and now there is eternal unity. That's a good point.

Does everybody know what the word propitiation means? No. I don't think so. It's one of those 25 cent Christian words that you'll hear. You guys will use it if you want an impression of how smart they are. All that means is satisfaction. That the work of Christ satisfied God about the sin issue. All the debt, all the insult, all the guilt, all the penalty, everything was satisfied. That's what propitiation means. Where atonement means to make payment for.

So is that what you meant by visa? Yeah, what I meant by visa was that God used a credit card with those Jews that they were charging all these sins until the time of Christ. Yeah, you know, they still had the balance. But they didn't have to pay the monthly deal, you know, until Christ came. Because only God could pay the family for sins.

So... Hey Mike, just a question on that. In that covering part, I was thinking about it from God's viewpoint, did he do that so that he could have a relationship with them? That's a great question. In the covering of sins, like in the Jewish system, did God do that so that he could have a relationship with the Jews? Maybe so they could have a relationship with him. It's both ways. God desires relationship with us a lot more than we desire relationship with him. I think it was primarily to differentiate Israel and keep Israel separate and keep them conscious of their contract with God and their covenant with God and not because Christ was the only way to deal with it setting up the system as something for relationship It's always by faith. So by making the angle system somehow tied in for relationship it sounds like faith by works or salvation by works. Think about before Christ the relationship that man had with God.

The closest any man could get to God was the high priest once a year through the barrier into the mercy seat on the day of atonement. That's the closest any single man ever got. One time a year the high priest got to go in and he couldn't go in without blood because this curtain into the Holy of Holies couldn't be penetrated and nobody could go behind it, all that stuff that was back there, you know, the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat. One man once a year got to go in there. Nobody else did. The Jews could get fairly close, you know, they could be in the inner court and that kind of thing, and the priests could be around fairly close, but they couldn't go in.

And that's where the Shekinah glory was, which is where God was. Now, when Christ dies, what happens to the veil? It rips from top to bottom, which means God did it. Oh yeah, it was like this thick. It was huge. So what does that represent? Man going in or God coming out? Man going in or God coming out? We could go in. We could go in? We have access. And God could come out.

It represented both. Because when you get to Hebrews, what does Hebrews 10 tell you? That the blood of Jesus boldly go into the holiest of holies. Why was it so important? to God to keep the genealogy in the Bible the way it is. Everybody hear the question? Why is the genealogy of Christ so important?

I think probably the best answer to that is so that the prophecies about the Messiah would be fulfilled through David. And in John chapter 1, in the beginning was the word, that means he was there before the beginning. And the word was God and the word was with God. And so when Christ comes, all of the Old Testament prophecies about him are fulfilled. He had to be a Jew. He had to be because all of these people in his lineage were prophesied all the way down. It couldn't be this guy over here. It had to be. Abraham himself wasn't a Jew. Abraham was not a Jew. Abraham was not a Jew. Who was the first Jew? Jacob. Yeah, Jacob was the first Jew. I'm moving on.

What does Ephesians 1.10 tell us of God's ultimate purpose of the Word?

Ephesians 1.10 says, With a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth, in Him. What's the ultimate purpose?

Our need for a Redeemer. A Redeemer. Anybody else? To make His Son the center of all blessings. When He says things in heaven, summing up all things in Christ, what does that mean? That's a lot more than just a Redeemer, isn't it? He's the living word. He's the living word. Summing up all things in Christ, what does that mean? That eventually it comes to every knee bowing down to Christ. Every knee bowing down?

More than that. More than that. Come on. More than that. Well, Rite Out says his son is the center of all blessing. There you go. Do you realize, of course, that Jesus himself is the new creation. I didn't say he created the new creation, I said he is the new creation. So it's really important that you be in him. Especially a guy like me who's a realtor, location's everything. You're either in Christ or you're not. And if you're in him, everything sums up in him.

You see that? It's hard for us with our little sin natures to look at this focus on the Lord Jesus Christ and not to think it's egocentric. Right? I mean, those thoughts go through my mind. Well, come on. But if you know the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the way it needs to be. Because we're going to be centered in the one who isn't egocentric. Because he's the one that gave his life for you. Are there contradictions in the Bible? No. Why not? The answer is no. Why not? Because it has a divine author.

It has a divine author and a divine controlling mind could not have secured, if it wasn't a divine controlling mind it couldn't have secured such a result. There aren't any contradictions. None. None, none, none. Why are quotes in the Old Testament then sometimes not exact verbal quotations from the New Testament? Why are quotes in the New Testament sometimes not exact verbal quotations of the Old Testament?

There were fresh and added truths to be revealed. Wonderful. Did everybody hear that? Because there were fresh and added truths that needed to be revealed. She gets a star to get one. You got. So I spin it. Actually somebody brought this up. The example that he gives is this. For thee a psalm sacrifice and offering you don't desire my ears has thou opened. Verse 6. But then sacrifice and offerings you would not but a body has thee prepared for me.

Hebrews 10.5.

In this place, here in place of the open ear obedient to the least whisper the spirit gives an added fact. appropriate to the New Testament, which is the incarnate Son of God, His whole earthly life was one perfect act of obedience. I don't know what page that's on, but does everybody understand that? When there's quotes from the Old Testament, sometimes they're not verbatim because there's truth added to them. Because sometimes I'll look in the New Testament and it refers to the Old Testament. I go back and there is a little difference, yeah. Yeah, but it's because it's added. It doesn't contradict and adds to the revelation. How do we know that the Bible is the complete revelation of God?

This is Colossians 1.25 where Paul says, for I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me. Isn't that interesting? I mean, when I first read that, I thought, well, that Paul, he's pretty braggadocious, isn't he? And I'd ask the question on Wednesday night. And of course, they all got suckered into it.

Who's the ultimate and final authority of truth? And you say the Bible, I say wrong answer. No. Who is it? The Apostle Paul. He says so right here. He says, wherefore I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill or complete the word of God. He's the man. He's the man. So don't call me up and give me some Deuteronomy dance, because I'm going to take you to Paul right away. Because he's the final guy. He's the one that got the last of it. Even more than Christ did, right? Didn't Paul complete what Christ began? Yes he did. Yes he did.

Is that a hard one for you to swallow? You can tell. I'm trying to absorb all that. What do you think about it? If you take Paul out of the New Testament, let's take him out, get the scissors out, what do you miss? A lot. Do you miss the body of Christ? Do you miss grace? Do you miss identification? Do you miss position, condition? You miss intimacy? The rapture? The heavenly position of the church? Yeah, but God would have used somebody else if it wasn't Paul. We're bringing it back to man. He could have used Joe or somebody. What was your reference on Paul?

Colossians 1.25. Thank you. OK.

Is it Colossians 1.25? So they were just finishing the ministry already begun by this in the Old Testament by the Lord himself. You know what? We're going to make it.

What does the author say must happen in order to understand God's humanity? Completely believe in his divinity. I'll keep you over for one and a half minutes. What's the author saying must happen in order to understand Christ's humanity? The word was made flesh. He says it's got to be absolutely clear in the soul. It is worse than foolish to speak of his humanity, if he isn't divine too. Am I right? Anyone who denies in the fullest sense his deity is unworthy to say a single word about his humanity. So the first thing you have to understand is the word is God. The fact that Christ is 100% God and 100% man is really one of the most dividing between true Christianity and the cults?

Oh sure. Where would you go at it? That's right where you want to attack. Because if I can get you worried about that, then I still own you if I'm Satan. So the fact that he's God, he's the word of God, is the understanding we must have in order to understand his humanity. Good, you're up next, right? I think it will be Randy. That's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your word. Old Testament and new. How we thank you for your spirit that teaches us and to know that his job is to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to us. We pray in his precious name. Amen.