Open—B. Imbeau, S. Bambaur, D. Rule
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In 234 we are not of the world which faded away, We're not of the night, but children of day. The change that once found us by Jesus are riven. We are strangers on earth. Our home is in heaven, and soon shall we enter our own promised land. Around his bright room in glory shall stand.
Our song then forever and ever shall be. All glory and blessing, Lord Jesus to thee. 234.
We're not.
Awful.
I believe you're strange.
And soon shall we have turn on.
The sweat.
On the ground to describe.
Glory just stand.
Our sun lagging for after.
And after the soul to be all of you. Oh lovely, oh Lord, glory, oh glory to have you. Have you had his life?
There's a rather perhaps peculiar subject going through my mind and.
We started out the gospel meeting last night with Genesis 11.
God created.
The Heaven.
And the Earth.
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The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, let there be light, and there was light.
We have an issue again.
What should I do to?
My kids have a funny phrase around the house. Got a problem? Just ask dad, he'll kick it.
So I'm not so sure that's an example of that, but.
It does work.
The odd topic that I have has to do with the.
Age of the Earth.
Evolution has been mentioned several times in this conference.
And.
We know there are folks and what comes to mind actually is a group called Answers in Genesis who are taking a very hit on approach to this. And it's not as if I have anything against them because I don't. As a matter of fact, up in the hotel room, I have one of the magazines that helps me to go to sleep when I go to bed. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of night.
Read something that puts me to sleep. It happens to be something from Answers in Genesis.
The supposition of the world is that there are some unlimited amount of years, though as was pointed out last night, they seem to have put a limit to that, but that there's plenty of time for all kinds of things to happen.
And given enough time that lo and behold, you and I will be some sort of end result. Given enough time.
The answer that is given from a lot of folks who are dear believers is that the amount of time is approximately 6000 years give or take.
And everything began 6000 years ago. And that is the opening verse that we have.
And so they go.
Head to head, Needless to say, they kind of poke a little fun at their brethren, namely the brethren who and they they, you know, bring up the topic and they'll virtually quote from from Mr. Kelly in particular, but.
Point out that what was held by those folks in the 1800s was really quite wrong and that they should have stuck with the 6000 years.
Well, do you and I really have a real, you know, concrete number of years answer to this? And the answer is no.
No one really does.
But I'd like to raise some questions. I will might raise more questions than I have answers. And I think that that's OK if we turn to Romans and someone might have to help me find this verse.
But.
It is here we go, Romans 5.
And verse 12.
Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
And the parentheses jumps down, but I think we'll just stop right there.
It says by one man sin entered into the world.
Now I want us to go back in mind. In fact, we'll turn back in our Scriptures shortly. But what was recorded? The first sin in this world?
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So let's go back to Genesis.
Because it's not.
An easy question.
Even though it sounds like an easy question.
But in chapter 3 of Genesis it says now the serpent was more subtle.
Then any beasts of the field.
Which Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yay, half God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees, trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die. Now that last section God had not actually said.
To Adam and Eve, but she kind of added that.
The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, And that refers to all that she said, both the part that came from God, which is ye shall not eat of it.
And also the part that she seemed to have added, which is neither shall ye touch it, but the end point, lest she die. And the serpent immediately gets on that and says, ye shall not surely die. That is a lie. And the last time I checked, a lie is a sin.
And the sin in this world, the sphere of Earth.
Was made not by a human, but by safe.
We take it that Satan had come and come into this animal and was speaking with the woman.
And yet Romans says by one man sin entered into the world.
The serpent was not a man.
So what's going on?
God has created spheres of responsibility, spheres of influence, and spheres of of authority. The earth was created and over this sphere, which is in the cosmic course of things, a very small sphere.
God put humans over that.
And So what truly happens on Earth was going to be the responsibility of these humans, Adam and Eve.
So it's true that the serpent came, or Satan in the guise of serpent came to Aberdeen and told a lie which is a sin.
But he had to get the human to sin, to bring down the structure, the sphere of this earth.
And so by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So sin came into the sphere as a permanent thing through a person, and death likewise.
But the serpent told a lie.
Isn't Lie sin isn't that good enough to have brought down the sphere of the earth? No, because it wasn't Satans domain.
The head of this domain was a human, and the head had to fail to bring down everything else.
If Satan was a Sinner before a human was a Sinner.
To put it rather bluntly, it puts Answers and Genesis out of business.
So let's please turn to Ezekiel.
And.
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I forget which chapter it is.
Someone can call out the chapter about the entire.
The King attire Here we go 28.
Ezekiel 28.
And verse 11.
Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of Man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say to him, Thus saith the Lord God, thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was I covering, and you can read that list.
I.
And these things were prepared in the and the day that thou was created. Very important.
Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so. Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire that was perfect in my ways, from the day that thou was created till iniquity was found in thee.
Until iniquity was found in thee.
Where was Satan when iniquity was found in him? Well, we don't really know exactly in terms of geography, but he was in a heavenly sphere.
He was the anointed cherub that covereth Covereth. Blood covers God.
And.
That he was upon the holy mountain of God.
So somewhere out in the spheres of.
Guess the universe. We're not even. It's hard to define where things are, but out there Satan sinned. It doesn't say what exactly provoked that sin necessarily. We know that the result of it and perhaps.
And perhaps the motive of it was to simply be better than God, that he was going to exalt himself.
Now in the book of Luke we have a verse where the Lord Jesus says I saw Satan fall from heaven. That's an exact quote, but it's close.
And actually that verse is.
A future reference.
It took a lot of time to convince me of that, but.
Finally kind of saw that it's Christ referring to seeing Satan fall from the heavenly places, of which we know he is at now based on Ephesians, and that he.
Will be cast out of heaven in a future day. And really in Luke there, it's in reference to that.
But obviously in time past there is a time that he fell.
He wasn't necessarily cast out of the whole heavenly sphere.
At that point. But he certainly fell. He fell into sin.
And he has been an enemy against God ever since. And so when God established the earth.
Okay, hold on to that. When God established the earth. But wait a minute.
Saint was already around. You're saying I'm saying then.
Was there like a different creation?
For their two creations.
And this is where we get easily hung up.
Because apparently there is one creation.
And it must or.
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But this way when?
Satan fell. It had a ripple effect through God's.
Created universe and it affected Earth.
And it left Earth in a situation of being without form and void.
Apparently I have not done an exhaustive on this, but apparently those two words, especially being used together, are always in reference to judgment in the Bible.
So it was not simply God was creating the earth in a process kind of way, and one of the steps was darkness and without form and void. And then God took another step and made it with the trees and the plant life and the sun and so forth.
Without form and without form and void is apparently not part of that six day creation process.
It was an event.
That we assume.
Was created by Satan.
Now why do I say assume?
There's no direct exact arrow pointing in your scriptures from Ezekiel chapter 28 with a little arrow that goes and points to Genesis.
And yet we know. We have learned, through rather unfortunate experience, that sin brings destruction, chaos. We've learned that in our own lives. We've learned it in the wars that we fought, that we fight. We've learned it in our cities. We've learned it in our lives, our own households, that sin brings chaos.
We've just learned that we almost don't have to be taught that.
And so the assumption is, if suddenly the earth is found after God has made a creation, the earth is found without form and void, Something had to happen.
That using those words, which are very strong words, is not how God brought it into existence to start with.
It was disrupted, it was ruined, it was affected.
And so that.
Chaos came in.
God then set things right again in the earth in the six days that we have in Genesis.
And he set man in it as the head over it.
And there were watchful eyes, no doubt all of the angelic hosts were marveling. We know that that there was appreciation for God's creation by the angels. There's a a verse that kind of indicates that in Job.
And for them to do that.
For them to exalt over God's works, they had to be there, which means they had already been created.
And one of those pairs of eyes that was watching.
With Satan.
He saw a grand opportunity to mess up what God had renewed in this universe.
And he was right on the project.
Yeah, half God said.
I would just like some of us to ponder that, especially some of us that are younger.
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I do think that a lot of the things that are presented are very admirable and are good, and I'm glad somebody in this world is addressing the issues of the flood and so forth.
But put everything.
In context of all of scripture.
You know, it's got to make sense.
That Satan was there already and told the first lie.
It has to rattle our minds somehow or another.
And at least tell us.
That some schemes that are presented to us cannot exactly be correct.
And that's all right.
I'd like to.
Just mentioned.
That.
The discussions of the flood that are brought forward, I don't know if they're all exactly historically true or not, but I think that they are on the right track.
I mean to find soils in rather flat layers all the way from the Middle East into the all the way across to the eastern part of the United States. I mean, you know, you've got to have something.
That spread those sentiment. Sentiments, Yeah, sediments across there, I mean, yeah, really.
There was a flood.
And it changed things dramatically.
And I'm thankful for people that are looking into it.
You know, I was reading a rather.
Interesting, but is certainly a magazine of the world.
And there are some findings of things over in China.
And.
Fossils and they found this kind of bird like dinosaur.
Which was found.
Incredibly intact and laying or right nearby a nest of eggs and eggs are intact.
Now how could that happen?
Obviously, this is in a layer of material that has eroded off, so a soft material. And so these folks over in China are able to, there's lots of other folks in the world that are going over there to look into this, this huge area that has lots and lots of fossils.
And how could that happen?
That.
The hen is right there on the nest and the eggs are still in the nest and this thing gets covered.
It would have to have been almost instantaneous. Things don't happen in this world. Instantaneous, but quickly to do that.
And here I'm reading this rather evolutionary minded, very worldly book magazine and I stumbled through that and I said.
Flood. Try flood.
Like, wake up. There's no other way for that to sit there like that.
So as we see these layers and layers out there in the geology of the world, do think back to Genesis.
Is that exactly what happened? Is that what caused that? Very likely.
You know the evidences are out there.
The evidence that are out there.
How else would you have fossils that aren't really fossils, but they're soft tissue?
Soft tissue that has supposedly been there for billions of years.
Think again. Soft tissue doesn't last that long.
The responses out there that are soft tissue.
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One of the errors of this world, and one thing that stops them from thinking seriously about this.
World in this present age and it's pointed out, I believe it's in Peter that they have no consideration.
That the flood happened.
It must be brought before the conscience of men that God has judged this world before, and He will judge it again.
And when that flood happened, it wasn't that many years ago in terms of.
The kinds of years were taught at school.
It just wasn't that many years ago.
It is a very important thing for this world to know.
That God does judge.
At the same time, there apparently was other judgments before.
Adam and Eve.
And I just leave it there. Time periods spans exactly what happened.
I'm not qualified to say, maybe someone else is, but it's there.
Let's not let the pendulum of our mind swing over.
Just to supposedly refute evolution and swing way over and actually find ourselves contradicting some portions of scripture. Let's not let our minds do that.
Take all the word of God, everything does not have to be fitted into a time chart that we like to do things like that. I do at least.
We can't always fit everything into time, but know that it's there.
And there was an original creation. Something happened, there was a renewal.
Humans were brought forward.
Humans were.
Technically not the first ones to sin in this world, but they bore the responsibility as heads of the human race for their action of sinning. We feel the effects nowadays. There's already been a judgment in the flood, tremendous one. There's been other judgments, no doubt, throughout time, various wars and so forth. They're probably judgments and there's going to be another judgement.
And that's one thing that the world once put out their minds, that there's going to be a judgment for God from God. And how could there be? They say there's no God, so how could there be a judgment from God? But there is.
And that little bird sitting in China over a nest of eggs is one evidence.
And there's been some mighty judgment somehow that came to this world.
And I say it's God.
Had that happen and as evidence right now, right at the end of our age, I think that was only discovered two or three years ago, but just in time for people to wake up to think.
God is serious about this business of sin. I don't want to usurp anymore at times than has already been given me yesterday. Others perhaps having an opportunity to speak, but.
Would like to take up just a few thoughts and continuation of what Bruce has mentioned concerning a flood and we'd turn to Psalm 69 in this.
Save me, O God, for the waters are coming unto my soul.
Prophetic Psalm David speaking the depths of his troubles, Speaking of something far greater than he probably realized at the time.
It's the word to the Lord Jesus or the fits the situation at the cross.
Is what we have prophetically here given in the words of David 1000 years before it happened?
Save me, O God, for the waters that come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing.
And come into deep waters.
Where the floods overflow me.
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I am weary of my crying. My throat is dried, mine eyes.
Fail while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy me being mine enemies wrongfully are mighty then.
Salient verse I want to look at. Then I restored that which I took not away.
When we think of the judgments.
Catastrophic judgments that have befallen and will befall this Earth because of sin.
Here is one who on Calvary's tree, begins this work of restoring that which he took not away. He is the restorer. He is God's man to do this task, and he's the only one that could.
Who shall I send? The answer comes resounding down through the halls of eternity. Here am I send me. And he knew.
What the end of the course would entail Before He left the courts of glory, nothing caught him by surprise. He knew, indeed, the holy heart of God the Father would have to deal with sin ere He could have any of us.
From Abel on down to ourselves in his presence at peace.
And so we can look at that verse. I restored that which I took not away as applying to anyone who has come to the Lord Jesus.
And lay hold of it with both arms for ourselves, knowing that we're restored into the very presence of God and at peace there.
In the presence of a thrice holy God, a perfect work has been accomplished at Calvary.
There is more that he will restore.
God has set him over all the works of his hands, and he will restore the whole.
Ruined creation to God.
Now we go back to judges.
Umm.
In the story of Gideon.
Gideon's charge in Chapter 6 of Judges.
Verse 36 Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.
Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor.
And we often refer to this almost as a byword. Gideon's fleece or to throw out the fleece has become a common expression.
I will put a fleece of wool on the floor. He has a task before him.
In a restoration of the people of Israel at that time, And if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside.
Then I shall know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.
If the dew beyond the fleece.
The Lord Jesus came full of grace and truth.
The one to whom we come.
If thou knewest the gift of God, he says to the woman at the well, and he was standing before her, thou knewest the gift of God.
Dry upon the earth, he had nowhere to lay his head.
No place that he could rest here in a sin cursed earth.
And it was so, for he rose up early on the Morrow and thrust the fleece together.
Ringed out the dew of the fleece Lamb of God.
Thrust out, ringed out.
A bowl full of water.
God could look down and see a man in whom he could delight.
A man on the earth, his beloved son.
Would that save us?
His perfect life, perfect obedience in his life here.
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We have a second-half of this similitude. And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak. But this once let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece.
Once.
Perfect salvation.
Let it now be dry only upon the fleece.
The earth was parched. There was nothing for gone. Redemption must come in as part of this restoration project.
Or he would abide alone.
I pray thee, but this once with the fleece, he will not return to Calvary. You know he made that trip once. It's sufficient for all that will come.
Let it now be dry only upon the fleece and upon all the ground. Let there be dew. And God did so that night.
When that noon day sun was darkened.
For it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.
Just a few verses in the 69th Psalm about that.
Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink and deep mire where there is no standing. I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat is dried.
It's parched.
The fleece is rung out, my throat is dry, my eyes fail while I wait for my go on.
They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy me, being mine enemies, wrongfully or mighty. Then I restored that which I took not away.
Psalms 22.
Verse 15 My strength is dried up like a puncher.
My tongue cleaveth to my jaws. Thou hast brought me into the dust.
Of death.
Leviticus chapter 26 verse 10 says you may take the old.
Ate the old store.
Because of the new.
And how would we interpret this if we didn't have the truth of the New Testament?
Where the Lord Jesus set his face steadfastly to go to the cross.
To be made sin for us.
Two Corinthians, chapter 8.
And I'm going to read a verse.
And I want to read that verse. Hold your finger there in 2nd Corinthians 8.
I want to read that those verses again.
And Judges 6.
While you're holding that place, if thou wilt save.
I will put a fleece of wool on the floor. The dew be dry on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside. Then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And so it was. And he arose up early on the moral thrust. The fleece together. Bring to the dew out of the fleece a bowl of water full of water. And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me.
And I will speak, but this once let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece.
Let it now be dry only upon the fleece and upon all the ground. Let there be dew. And God did so that night.
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You may eat the old store and bring forth the old because of the nude Second Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich.
Yet for your sakes, he became poor, that ye through his poverty.
I wish to speak a few words with the desire to exalt.
The person of the Lord Jesus.
Before our hearts.
To bring a fresh enjoyment of the wonder of his person.
Because he's really everything that.
Will satisfy our heart for eternity. As it says in Ecclesiastes. God has set the world in our hearts in that way. He said. I created you in such a way that the world and all that it offers is too small to satisfy the way I made you. And there's only one thing that will actually fully satisfy you the way I made you.
And that is the person of my son.
Scripture uses as we've had before us this afternoon, sometimes it teaches us things that are factual about the creation, and it uses imagery as we've had. And I want to draw on a little bit of that imagery with respect to the person, the wonder.
Of the person of the Lord Jesus. Go back to Genesis 1 again.
In Genesis one and verse nine it says and God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so.
In the way that God is written to us, this brief account of the preparing of this earth for us to live on and putting us here.
He says let the water be gathered together in one place and until that happened, there was no life. There was no.
Grass, which Scripture doesn't actually call life, but there was nothing to sustain life in the grass, and so on. There was no animal life. There was no human life on the earth. And I believe it in one application of it. It's the truth that all the waters of judgment had to be gathered together in one place before life.
Could be sustained and it's a picture of the Lord Jesus at the cross.
And the Lord Jesus goes to the cross and all the waters.
As it were of God's judgment, of which we have just been reading. The waters are coming onto my soul. I stink and deep mire, and so on.
They all come and concentrate themselves on this one person, the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And what the result of it is that dry land appears and then that dry land produces?
The grass, and then man is created and sustained by it.
But to develop it a little bit more, go over to the flood in chapter seven or eight. Is it chapter?
7.
Here the waters come together and fall on the earth, and they fall on man. And what's the result when water of judgment falls on mankind? We see the picture of it here in Genesis 7.
And it says.
Genesis Chapter 7 and.
Well, we'll just see where they where it comes. They were taken into the ark and then he says.
Verse 11 And in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month, the same day where all the fountains of the great deep broken up.
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And the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth. 40 days and 30-40 nights, a time of complete testing. And so both the fountains of the deep and the sky together.
Come upon mankind, and what's the result on man when this form of judgment falls on man, it says.
In verse 21 And all flesh that moved upon the earth, both fowl and cattle and beasts, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man, all that in whose nostrils was the breath of life, and all that was in the dry land, died.
And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and beast, and the creeping things and the fowl of the heavens, and they were destroyed from the earth.
Here we have a figure. There's Noah in the ark who's safe but.
Here's what it is When 40 days or a complete period of testing to see what's in man, when God exposes him to his judgment and righteousness, what happens?
Man can't sustain it.
And all flesh dies before God completely destroyed. There was nothing that could stand the test.
And everything dies under it. And that's man.
But not the Lord Jesus, not the Person.
Of the Lord Jesus, he stands in complete contrast.
To what we see here in figure and in type turn over to.
Mark's Gospel chapter one.
Marks Gospel chapter one and.
Verse one.
The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The Son of God.
Jesus Christ, that's to bring before us the man.
Son of God that's to bring before us combined in the same person is the Son of God. They're one.
Jesus Christ, Son of God.
What happens when he's?
Exposed to the 40 days.
And figure of judgment.
He's a man.
He's a man.
The waters are come into his soul.
He feels that.
We remembered him this morning.
Did we understand?
No, we didn't.
No, we didn't.
Did he appreciate that which that little bit that we could enter into? Yes, he does.
It's wonderful to his heart.
My wife.
Was pregnant a number of times which resulted in three children.
I don't think in my whole life I've ever said to her in terms of regarding childbirth, I understand.
I've never experienced it.
I don't claim.
To enter in.
Some of you sisters could say to her, I understand.
You've experienced it, and that which we have ourselves experienced, we can relate to someone else's experience, sometimes to give them comfort, sometimes encouragement, sometimes to share in joy because we've experienced the same joy, and so on.
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When we remember the Lord Jesus, we can and do enter something into his sufferings as a martyr. That is, we enter something into his experiences as he was treated by others.
But when it comes to the deeper suffering, when it comes to the waters.
Upon him, we couldn't sustain that.
We're like those on whom the flood came. It would come upon us, but we die.
But again, to these seek to exalt the wonder of the person of our Lord Jesus.
He did sustain it.
He could sustain it.
She could bear in his own person.
The wrath, but he only.
He uniquely.
And only he can understand it, what it meant to his own soul.
And.
For us, it's just a bow and wonder and appreciation.
That such a one is.
And such a one could.
And that we can.
Be have Him as the object of our hearts to wonder, to appreciate, to worship.
The one who is Jesus.
The Son of God.
When it's all over.
He's exhausted it.
He's fully, as it were, dried it up so that there's no more water.
There's no more judgment.
He's taken it all upon himself until he can say.
As only he could say, and John as son of God, it is finished.
It is finished.
He can say, my God.
My God, why hast thou forsaken me? And he only says it in some of the gospels, and only in those gospels which present Him to us in a certain way. You don't find that in John. It wouldn't be appropriate. You don't find it in Luke. And there are reasons why it wouldn't be right there either. But.
Only God, only the Lord Jesus can fully. Yes, we know He did it for us, He was forsaken for us, but what it meant to His own soul?
Is, I believe, beyond us to truly recognize it's not something we've ever experienced, he says. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you, in other words.
I'm not going to allow you to ever experience what I've experienced.
I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I don't know that. I well, I think I do know. We couldn't handle it. We could not deal with it. We could not sustain it in our persons.
And yet he could, and he could say it is finished.
You know all flesh died.
I've said it before, but it's fresh in my soul and it touches me that.
He had to die.
He had to die.
We were the reason why he had to die.
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But how does he die?
In Genesis 22, the knife in Abraham's hand which is a picture of God the Father.
Is raised to slay them, the sun, but it doesn't happen.
Why? Because the Sun takes it upon himself.
Not to force the father to have to do it.
And by that power which he had to sustain, the sacrifice is by that same power over life. He bows his own head, he dismisses his own spirit.
And the waters of judgment are quenched and satisfied, and.
We.
Are made worshippers.
Hymn #21 in the back of the book.