379: Mark O'Grady - The Spirit in All

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:03

   Welcome to Good Christophian Talks. Thank you for joining us this week on this podcast. We select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our Daily News feed. Each week we post a talk that we previewed from suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world. Then we record a short intro beforehand as a personalized recommendation to you on why we are sharing the talk. And now let’s talk more about this week’s talk. Everyone, this is Jason Hensley and this week we are listening to a talk by Brother Mark O’Grady called The Spirit in All.

2. 0:41

   I don’t actually know where this talk came from. I will tell you that he did give this same series at the Ontario Winter Bible School in the year 2023, so it’s possible that it came from that, but I’m not really sure. Regardless, I have to tell you, I had a hard time choosing which of the talks in this series to go with.

3. 1:08

   I decided on this last one because I felt like it really brought everything together and just gave a really nice summation of the Spirit of God with an emphasis here on the Word of God, but also an emphasis and how God uses his angels, these spirit beings to work in our lives. So I, I really appreciated his discussion there.

4. 1:28

   I think sometimes you’ll hear people who try to talk about the spirit involved in our lives and it gets very mainstream Christian Y and other times you’ll hear people who just say, well, it’s the Bible and that’s all. And it was nice to hear, brother Mark. Really Class 5 is about the Bible and then class 6 that we’re listening to here. The Spirit in all is about how God works in our lives. So I really want to just encourage you, if you get the chance, listen to this whole series. The whole series is great.

5. 2:00

   It builds up really well and I think it gives us a very, very well thought out and scriptural understanding of the Spirit of God. And always that’s what we want, right? We want to know what scripture says. So I hope you’re able to check out the whole series and I hope you’re encouraged by this talk.

6. 2:23

   This is class 6 in the series Born of the Spirit. This class is entitled The Spirit in All. We bring the subject to a conclusion as we look at a spectacular element of the work of the Holy Spirit. And this is actually where the theme of the Holy Spirit becomes rather personal and very intense in terms of its involvement in our daily lives. It’s when we come face to face with the realization that the Holy Spirit is involved in all aspects of our life, in the truth, and it becomes quite emotionally impactful as we realise the the wrap around involvement, the all consuming involvement of God in our own personal lives. It’s also where we we pause and we become very conscious of the way in which we let our Heavenly Father down in his work with us from day-to-day.

7. 3:19

   You know those words in Hebrews 4 when the apostle is speaking about the the mind of God and the word he sees in verse 13 of Hebrews 4. Neither is there any creature that’s not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of whom we have to do so.

8. 3:39

   We’re living our lives under the ever awake and ever watchful eyes of God. The ESP says no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

9. 3:59

   So, brothers and sisters, that means He sees everything. Deep, deep, deep down inside our own secret thoughts, behind every closed door, inside every embarrassing thought, every motive read. There’s nothing hidden from our God. And faced with that realization, I suspect all of us would come to the conclusion I need help. And so the apostle moved straight on the next verses to say, seeing we have a great high priest, Jesus, the Son of God, who’s passed into the heavens, one who feels our infirmities, He tells us we can then come with confidence to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

10. 4:50

    So that’s our journey today, brothers and sisters, as we look at the theme of the Spirit of God, the work of the Holy Spirit as he’s working together in our lives, personally providing him with that help. We can ask him for that help. Now I’d like you to come back, back with me to Psalm 139, which is a passage we’ve looked at already a few times in our studies together. It’s the passage that speaks of the Spirit of God being everywhere, and we can’t go anywhere outside of His presence, that He’s before us, He’s behind us, He’s above us. We can go to the utmost parts of the sea, and we’re still surrounded by the presence of God. But let’s just pick up a little phrase in Psalm 139. In verse 9 and 10, he says, if I take the wings of the morning and dwell on the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand leave me, and thy right hand shall hold me. Question how?

11. 5:53

    How does God lead us? How does his hand actually hold us? What does that actually mean? Well, we know that we don’t have the Holy Spirit gifts. We’ve discovered as we’ve gone through that we don’t have the Holy Spirit dwelling in US saying, hey, walk this way, walk that way. We’ve learned that we can develop the mind of God or the Spirit of God in us through the through the pages of the word, a godly way of thinking, a spiritual way of thinking. We know that the Spirit of God sustains us and keeps us alive. But is that the only way that he actually leads us? Is that the only way in which his hand upholds us? And the answer to that, of course he’s not. The Holy Spirit is actively, actively working in our daily lives.

12. 6:43

    That doesn’t mean we have the power of the Holy Spirit, But never, never, ever forget that the Holy Spirit is actively involved in our daily personal lives. This is God, because of course we can’t separate God’s Holy Spirit power from himself. This is God active in our personal daily lives. And so we want to finish our studies this morning, brothers and sisters, encouraged by the fact that God’s work is ongoing in our daily lives, His hand is actually there. Through all the events that swirl around us, all the distractions of life, God’s hand is there. And we can rest confident in that assurance. And that’s really our theme tonight, brothers and sisters, that we can return home falsified by an unshakable conviction that God’s hand is still working out his work of salvation in our personal lives.

13. 7:38

    So I’d like us to get underway with a rather challenging topic that comes up in Ephesians chapter 1. If you could please turn there for us. We’ve talked in our studies so far about the importance of of free will, that God wants us to submit to him in a voluntary way. We voluntarily commit to believing and obeying him because that’s what brings honour and glory to our heavenly Father.

14. 8:02

    But let’s not forget that God does still influence us in that journey. He’s been doing so actually in our lives for a very long time. So let’s start with Ephesians 1. He talks about the blessing that we have in verse 3, in verse 4, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holding him without blame before Him, and love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. The word predestinated pro arisa. It means for ordained, predetermined, or decided beforehand.

15. 8:55

    That’s a challenging concept and the apostle is saying that God preordained that we would receive the adoption of children from the foundation of the world. Now let’s just think about it. Does that mean, brother or sister, that God chose you personally more than 6000 years ago? It’s an interesting thought. Let’s go to Romans 8 again, an epistle and a chapter that we’ve looked at quite a lot over the course of these studies because Romans 8 speaks about the Spirit of God and how we need to develop the Spirit of God within our hearts so that the Spirit of Christ can then dwell in us. Let’s pick up the record in verse 28. We know Romans 8 verse 28, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

16. 9:59

    And so we stop and we just marvel at this concept of everything working together towards a good outcome. Now, that means, by definition, that God’s interactively engaged in the things that are happening in our own personal lives with the events that surround us. It also tells us that he has a positive objective in mind. He actually wants there to be a good outcome from all the things that are happening to us.

17. 10:27

    But it’s also a concept that’s very challenging when things go wrong in life, and sometimes things go catastrophically wrong in life. How can all things be working together for good in those circumstances? And yet it’s giving us the reassurance that God has an objective for an ultimate positive outcome. All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

18. 11:01

    But if that’s not challenging enough as a concept, look at the next couple of verses. He said the call according to His purpose in verse 28, verse 29. For whom He did for now He also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate them He also called, and whom He called them He also justified, and whom He justified them He also glorified. Now, these are very challenging concepts. God knew in advance who He was going to call you, and for millennia He’s been working to bring it to pass. He knew who your great, great, great grandparents would be. He knew when your forebears would immigrate to this country. He knew what circumstances would apply before you were born. He set in motion a whole train of events that would lead to us coming into existence.

19. 12:16

    You know in Psalm 139 and Speaking of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, but Speaking of God’s involvement, he said my substance was not hid from me when I was made in secret. In thy book. All my members were written when as yet there was none of them interesting concept that he actually knows in advance everything about the existence of his children. So he knew that we would be born. He knew that we would be called.

20. 12:52

    He knew that we would come to hear about the truth. It was His plan that we would be baptized as some of His chosen. So how’s that for Ford planning? And by the way, he doesn’t make it a secret. He says it over and over and over again in the word 2nd Thessalonians 2 verse 13.

21. 13:12

    God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Well, what about Romans 17 verse 8 which speaks of names written in the book of life? The phrase written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. So it tells us categorically that in God’s purpose He identified us by name more than 6000 years ago.

22. 13:47

    So before Noah built the ark, God knew that you would be called. When David was a shepherd boy wandering the hills of Israel, God had already included you in his purpose. He’s real brothers and sisters, and He’s involved in our own personal daily lives. And since our birth, He’s been involved every step of the way, shaping and moulding our characters, teaching us to respond. It’s an incredible thought for us to get our head around. That is the work of the spirit that surrounds us individually today.

23. 14:29

    Now, what that tells us, brothers and sisters, is that if we love him, he has a good outcome in mind. So all of the things that happened to us in life, never forget. God has a good outcome in mind. That’s his purpose, that’s his objective. Now, obviously going through the whole subject of predestination is not our plan today, but suffice it to say, God knows everything in advance and He’s predetermined certain things in advance. Our core is one of those.

24. 15:08

    But the outcome is not guaranteed for us, brothers and sisters, Salvation is not guaranteed. It’s not a case, as the churches teach, once saved, always saved. It is possible for us, if we so choose, to live in a way that has the names blotted out of the book of life. But I love the fact that God’s perspective is that our names are already there. As I said to the teens, we’re talking to them this morning. It’s not like there’s a letter of righteousness and that we have to somehow claw our way up to a certain level before God will grudgingly say, oh, you’ve reached enough of a height. I’ll now give you the light, the Kingdom. Our names are already in the book of life, and our Father wants us to respond in love and obedience so that our names stay written in the book of life and don’t get blotted out. So the question for us this morning is if God’s been working for thousands of years, bringing about the events that would bring us into existence and bring us to a point where we could hear about and accept the gospel call, Is he still working in our daily lives?

25. 16:25

    Well, of course, to ask the question is to answer it, isn’t it? Philippians one verse 6 being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ. He never stops that work. Brothers and sisters, he’s working in our lives and he will keep performing that until the day when our Lord actually returns.

26. 16:50

    So how is God working in our lives today? Let’s have a look at a few passages, and I’d like us to, and they’re passages we’re familiar with, but I’d like us just to think through the implications of what this requires in terms of God’s involvement in our daily life. And actually, we’re going to look at, I don’t know, maybe half a dozen passages. The Scriptures are bound with statements like this, and every one of them beg us to stop and think, what are the implications of these little passages?

27. 17:23

    Let’s start with this one. The Lord’s Prayer, part of the Lord’s Prayer, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. What’s being asked for here and how does God actually going to do this? Well, possibly through the word will help, but how does God lead us in a way that avoids temptation?

28. 17:48

    Does God literally actually deliver us from evil? This implies that God’s changing events that happen in our lives. The implications of this are actually quite far reaching. Or another little passage we’re really familiar with, Hebrews 12, verse 5. You’ve forgotten the excitation which speaks unto you as children, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

29. 18:24

    And he’s drawing on the analogy of a father training and developing a child. But we look at those words and we ask ourselves the question, how? How does God actually chasten us? How does God actually scourge us? And we have to come to the conclusion this is through events and things that happen in life.

30. 18:49

    They might be things that people say, they might be events that take place, but God’s clearly changing and making use of a whole series of events in our own personal lives.

31. 19:05

    But when we stop and think about it, imagine all of the different things that he had to manage to bring that event to pass. Imagine that I don’t know 1250 things, 13,000 things that God did to bring about an outcome from a particular set of circumstances. The complexity of what that requires is quite extraordinary to stop and think about.

32. 19:33

    All right, what about this one? There is no temptation that’s taken you, but such as is common to man, God’s faithful, he won’t suffer us to be tempted above for what we are able, but he will with the temptation also make a way to escape that we might be able to bear it. Now, there’s lots of implications that come from that passage.

33. 19:56

    It means that when we run into challenges in life and they test our faithfulness or our commitment to the principles of God’s holiness, He’s saying there that God makes a way to escape. The question for us this morning is how is it a comment that a brother or sister makes to us that helps? Is it something we happened to read in the daily readings that time?

34. 20:24

    Is it the result of influence of other events that have caused us to think a certain way so that we have the ability to overcome that trial or temptation when it’s placed in front of us? How does God make a way to escape this is this is bringing us face to face with the reality of a God who’s actually working actively in all the things that we that we have or come across in daily life. All the all the experiences, all the thoughts that flood into our minds.

35. 20:56

    This is a very active end. It’s encompassing. It’s swirling around us in the various events. All right, what about this one? The rod of the wicked will not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands into iniquity. So what he’s basically saying is that yes, things will happen in life. There are wicked people around.

36. 21:18

    The consequences of that will be felt like a rod, which feels like it’s beating us at times. But he says the rod of the wicked will not rest so heavily that the righteous are forced to iniquity. So how does that work? That means God’s working in the life of the wicked person or events around them or in our life to release the pressure that would otherwise have broken us.

37. 21:49

    This simple little statement, Scriptures are bound with them. But the implications of all of these little phrases that it tells us, it brings us face to face with the fact that there’s a God who through his Spirit, through his power, is working actively in all the events of daily life. Here’s another one that we’re familiar with.

38. 22:10

    Paul says at the end of his life, the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly Kingdom. So now we have the work of the Spirit in our own lives, both of the sisters working with the Saints to bring them safely to his Kingdom. So there’s something which is happening in the life of God’s people, something which is more than just the influence of the Bible, and something which is more than just God’s Holy Spirit power or his spirit power energizing and sustaining everything in this universe. What we’re coming face to face with now is God’s personal hand involved in our lives.

39. 22:52

    It’s what we rather goodly refer to as Providence. And Providence is something we say yes, here we understand that God works in our lives. Do we? Do we really think through what it means to have God’s hand involved in all of these different facets of our own personal lives? Then the Bible says, in all thy ways acknowledge Him and he shall direct thy paths.

40. 23:23

    Proverbs 3, verse 6. How does God actually direct their paths? And what we’re now going to look at is the way in which the Spirit of God works in the lives of His people through the work of the angels, because they’re the instruments of his Holy Spirit power. They are spirit beings. This is God’s spirit power working in our lives. And he works through the agency of these immortal beings that we know of as the angels, an extraordinary army in heaven and in earth.

41. 23:56

    You know, the subject of the angels is such an interesting one. We just get blinkered by all the mundane things of daily life and it’s it’s so seldom we stop and look back and as it were, see the the heavenly host at work in our daily lives. Dothan. Remember the incident at Dothan? The Syrian Army came and surrounded the city because they wanted to capture one particular person in the city, so they besieged it.

42. 24:26

    Who’s the person they’re after? Anybody know Brother Jenny? Elisha, Elisha’s in the city. The Assyrian, the Syrian king, sorry, wants to come and capture Elisha. So he besieges the city. And in the morning, Elisha’s servant gets up. He looks over the wall and he sees all of the armies of the Syrians around him.

43. 24:45

    And he absolutely panics. When he turns to his master, he’s just sitting there carrying on with daily life, looking completely unconcerned, quite relaxed. Master, Master, look at all the armies around us. And Elisha says, armies of him, we’ve got more for us than there be for them. And then he does a little pray, he said, just open his eyes, will you please?

44. 25:12

    And and the scales drop from the servant’s eyes, and suddenly he sees this host of horses and Chariots and soldiers of fire on all the hills all roundabout. What an extraordinary thing.

45. 25:29

    Do we see them? Are they there today? Well, we can go through the psalmist season. Psalm 103 verse Psalm. Where is it? Psalm 34, verse 7. The Angel of Yahweh encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth him. Do we believe it? It’s telling us that what the servant at Dauphin saw is there today, that the angels of Yahweh are encamping round about us. Unfortunately, like the Servant, we can’t see them, but they’re there.

46. 26:10

    And that’s an extraordinary concept for us to get our heads around. Brothers and sisters, they are there. So let’s just clothe this concept with a little more detail and hopefully that’ll help us see the angels a little more clearly in terms of our daily lives. First of all, the word Angel means messenger. These are God’s servants who do His will. They’re described in Psalm 104, verse 4 as being angels or spirits.

47. 26:36

    His ministers are flaming fire. Well, that’s what the servant of Elisha in Dothan actually saw. He saw the flaming fire. So they’re described here as being God’s ministers. He’s made his angels spirits. The word spirits is our word ruach, the Hebrew word for spirit, the breathing out the concept of an energy source that’s come from God.

48. 26:59

    This is God’s spirit now embodied in spirit beings. He’s made as ministers A flaming fire or Psalm 103, verse 20. Bless Yahweh, ye His angels that excel in strength, but do His commandments hearkening to the voice of His Word. Bless ye Yahweh, or ye His host, ye ministers of His that do His pleasure. When it says angels excel in strength, The Word excel the idea of Gabor the mighty warrior, but they excel in strength.

49. 27:33

    That Word strength is an interesting one. KOA, the theological word book says in aesthetic sense, it suggests the capacity to endure, but more commonly expresses potency and capacity to produce. These angels, brothers and sisters around us are mighty warriors who are patent, potent, sorry, should I say potent. They have their potency, the ability to actually deliver what it is that God wants them to actually do. They’re mighty warriors with enormous potency. So.

50. 28:09

    So let’s sit back, as it were, in our seats and see those angels at work. They could be in the room here. They certainly surround us, and they’re involved in our daily lives day by day. I’d like you to come with me, please, to Hebrews one. First of all, in Hebrews 1, the apostle picks up this one of those quotes that we’ve just looked at from the Psalms, Hebrews 1.

51. 28:34

    Talking about the angels being flaming spirits of fire. Hebrews 1, And we’ll pick up the record in verse seven of the angels. He said, Who maketh his Angel spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. So there’s the quote from Psalm 104, but this time, of course, it’s using the word Numa or ponephma.

52. 29:01

    He makes his Angel spirits, the Numa, a flame of fire. Look at how he ascribes him at the end of the chapter, verse 14. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs of salvation? So if we’re heirs of salvation, the angel’s been sent forth to be ministering spirits.

53. 29:24

    The word spirits is pneuma again. But the word ministering letter jicos, I have no idea how to pronounce it in the Greek. It’s a word that’s got 12 letters in it, but it has the idea actually of a public servant, someone who’s been engaged by the state to work on behalf of the state in public service.

54. 29:45

    And so these public servants have been chosen, he said, to minister diaconia, which we get we’re Deacon from, to be servants for those who are heirs of salvation. So this introduces to us the concept of the angels actually working actively in our daily lives as we’re heirs of salvation. And they’re, they’re there on behalf of the Saints. Interesting to use that word, servants of the angels working on behalf of the Saints.

55. 30:17

    So think about the angels who are involved in our personal lives. I, I wonder if they have names. Probably there are angels in Scripture who are named. So there are angels that are actually personally involved in our daily lives, and it makes us quite thoughtful because on one hand they’re described as being ministering servants, and on the other hand they’re being described as a flame of fire.

56. 30:51

    Those are the beings that God’s working through in our own daily lives. Of course, they’re not visible to our mortal eyes, but one day they will be. Now these angels are intensely and passionately involved in their work, and so our Lord gave that little warning in Matthew 18. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you that in heaven they’re angels. Do always behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven. Now there’s a lot of implications from that simple little statement.

57. 31:24

    How do we treat our brothers and sisters? How do we interact with those around us? Do we do things which cause a fence or stumbling blocks to make somebody else’s journey to the Kingdom a little harder? And when he says don’t cause a fence, he says because they’re angels. Behold the face of my Father in heaven. What’s he implying?

58. 31:48

    It’s a warning. There’s a threat actually implied on those words, but if we harm our brothers and sisters, their angels will communicate directly with God about them. And that tells us how intensely active the angels are in caring for each one of us. And it also brings very clearly home to us our responsibilities to care for one another in ecclesial life, because we’re working together with the Elohim who surround us and are involved in the daily life of our brothers and sisters.

59. 32:20

    You know, in Psalm 91, there’s a passage which is, is a prophecy of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He quotes it in his temptation, Psalm 91, verse 11. And in fact, actually it’s quoted against him. Should I say in in the in the in his temptation, it’s written, he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. But just think about the words themselves. Psalm 91 verse 11 He gives his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.

60. 32:53

    Now does that apply only to Christ? Or has God-given instructions to the angels to keep us as well? Well, the psalmist uses the exact same expression in relation to himself. Psalm 71 verse 1 Be thou sorry. Verse 3 Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort, Thou hast given commandment to save me.

61. 33:19

    It’s that same phrase, given a charge. Well, when God gave a charge to save David, who did he give it to? To the angels. So God’s actively involved in our personal life through the work of these very angels. In the words of Brother Roberts, the doctrine of angelic supervision is therefore not a mere drapery of description. This is not some sort of rhetorical flourish to talk about angelic supervision, he said. It’s the revelation of a literal fact in which the children of God are invited to place their faith, and of which God’s vouchsafed vouchsafed numerous palpable illustrations in the ages that have passed.

62. 34:08

    In fact, the book Ways of Providence is predominantly tracking through the examples in Scripture of how God’s providential work actually does work and apply. It’s a great book. It’s actually a comparatively easy one to read. And it just takes us through the sweep of history and shows how God, through his angels, providentially works in the life of men and women who have become his sons and daughters. And as he says, he’s about to grant the most striking of all exemplifications when the Lord Jesus Christ returns with a multitudinous revenue of the glorious host. So we ask ourselves the question again. And the light of those concepts is God’s Spirit working in our personal lives today?

63. 34:56

    And the answer is emphatically yes. God’s Holy Spirit embodied in spirit beings is actually involved through all the circumstances of daily life, moving events, moving people to achieve God’s purpose for us. So how do they do that? Well, what we’re going to do now is just consider a few examples, just a couple of examples from Scripture which show us the way in which God moves and changes events. Now let’s start with kings, those that and often we think about Providence as yes, God’s hands are working and moving all the big events of the nations, appointing this ruler, removing that ruler, moving these nations and that those nations. And that’s true.

64. 35:37

    But we’ll go from there to the small things of life. So let’s pick up first of all, Daniel chapter 2, verse 21. He, God changes the times and the seasons. He gives wisdom to the wise. He removes kings and sets up kings. So the question is how? What does it mean that he changes times and seasons?

65. 36:01

    So I mean he speeds some things up, he slows some things down. He gives wisdom to the wise. That’s an that’s a combination of things. It can be wisdom that comes from the word of God. It can be wisdom that’s learnt through experiences. But he removes kings, he sets up kings. And then when the King’s on the throne, Proverbs 21 tells us the King’s heart is in the hand of Yahweh, like the rivers of water.

66. 36:29

    He turns it with us so ever he will. In the South Island in New Zealand, we have these things called braided rivers. They’re quite wide river beds. They’re full of of shingle. The widest 1 is about 1.6 kilometres wide when you cross it across the Rukai River on bridge. So these are big riverbeds.

67. 36:49

    When they’re in flood, they’re back-to-back. Then when the flood reduces, you’ve got these braided streams, ribbons of water, which just flow through the shingle bed. Next time there’s a flood that changes course. And I look at those and I look at this passage, and God just turns the heart of the kings in the same way that those rivers just change their course, meandering down those riverbeds. God’s totally in control of these kings and what they actually do.

68. 37:19

    Now, there’s a wonderful illustration of that. We won’t turn it up. It’s a passage we’re familiar with. But there’s a wonderful illustration of that in Daniel chapter 10, which also emphasizes again how God works so that when his Spirit is involved in working in the lives of people, when angelically providentially he’s supervising, he never overrules the concept of someone’s free will, their ability to make choices.

69. 37:46

    There are consequences if they make this decision. There are consequences if they make that one. But he doesn’t go in and just tweak to force them to do something involuntarily. And the classic example of that is in in Daniel chapter 10, verse 13, when the Angel said to Daniel that the reason he hadn’t come for 21 days was because the Prince of Persia had been withstanding him for 21 days.

70. 38:13

    Now just think about what that means in terms of God’s work in the life of the Prince of Persia. Did God have the ability to reach in and go, you know what? I want the king to do this twig and the king does it.

71. 38:29

    So why did he take 21 days? Because he was working in the circumstances around the king for the king to make the call that God wanted him to make. How does he do that? Did he bring some people in to say something for free? Was it a health issue that arose? Was it some circumstance that happened in the Kingdom?

72. 38:51

    Was it a natural event that happened here? Or was it a combination of 5000 of those things as he works on the heart of the King of Persia to do what God wanted him to actually do without working in there and going in a nanosecond tweak and just forcing him to do something in particular because that’s not God’s way. And if three weeks seems like a long time, I suspect sometimes it takes the angels more than three weeks to get us to respond on things which he wants us to do. It’s an ongoing process of God’s work with us in daily life. All right, try this one For sheer omnipotence in scale. You see these things come up in all these different little nooks and crannies of Scripture.

73. 39:41

    So Israel were told that they had to go out three times a year to worship God, but that was going to cause a problem, a risk. What about all the nations around you? Imagine if you were one of Israel’s enemies and you live just across the backfields and you knew that all the men were going to disappear down to Jerusalem on this day. Well, when would you time your invasion? Oh, this is a problem.

74. 40:06

    And so God says Exodus 34 verse 23, Neither shall any man desire, sorry, it should be thy land, desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before Yahweh thy God three times in a year. How exactly did God achieve that? So that nobody in their enemies countries, their kings, they’re soldiers, they’re captains, they’re populists, none of them decided to take advantage of the fact that all the men had gone to Jerusalem 3 * a year on predetermined dates. God just made sure that none of those enemies decided to desire that outcome at that particular point in time. Just little passages like this show us the scale on which God’s hand was involved.

75. 40:49

    Well, let’s go very small on our personal lives. The steps of a good man are ordered by Yahweh. He delights in his ways. Though he fall, He shall not be utterly cast down, for Yahweh upholdeth him with His hand. That little phrase, the steps that’s small, that’s each little choice, each little step that we take in life, the steps of a good man are ordered by Yah. When we fall, God’s hands there to lift us back up again. How does that work?

76. 41:31

    Brothers and sisters? Let’s get out not just our head, but also our heart around the concept of God working that minutely in our personal daily lives.

77. 41:45

    So what’s the point that comes from this, Brothers and sisters? The point that comes from this is that we must never lose sight of the work, that angelic presence, the work of Providence, God’s Spirit working in our daily lives. And the objective of us considering this topic is to try and clothe with reality the things that we can’t see.

78. 42:14

    Moses was able to endure an enormous amount. He made some very big choices in life. He turned his back on the riches of Egypt and he wasn’t scared of the anger of a mighty Pharaoh. Why Hebrews 11 verse 27. He endured as seeing him who is invisible Now sometimes we see the hand of Providence in in the big things of life.

79. 42:41

    We see spectacular examples of someone on their journey of being brought to a knowledge of the truth. And we say that’s that’s tremendously wonderful, but actually the work of the countless myriads of the angels involved in their own daily life is just mind boggling to try and comprehend that little phrase. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Does God do that once in your life? Is he going to do it in 2026 on the 17th of March? Or is that a daily thing?

80. 43:15

    How many times a day does God deliver us from evil? How many times a day does God help lead us away from temptations that we may not have been able to actually withstand? And I suspect the work of the angels is a much more integral part of our daily life than we often stop and think about.

81. 43:35

    When God wants a given outcome, a given choice or decision, how many years does he begin to work in advance to achieve that on that particular day when we make that particular fateful decision? And in how many other people’s lives has he also been working to bring about that particular circumstance? And when he’s doing that, he’s doing that in all the circumstances of life, But not just for you, for all our brothers and sisters.

82. 44:09

    And at the same time, he’s managing all the affairs of the of the nations to bring about the return of his son. Our standing concepts to think about brothers and sisters, mind blowing things to actually think about now. It’s very, it’s very reassuring and it’s very humble to think of the work of the angels like that.

83. 44:30

    But if that’s impressive and thought provoking, what happens when we stop to think about the role of our Lord Jesus Christ in that particular world, and we can’t actually properly comprehend the subject without thinking about the work of Christ in this particular passage? I’d like you to come with me actually to Hebrews 2.

84. 44:55

    In Hebrews 2 we’re told that in the days of our mortality our Lord was made a little lower than the angels. Hebrews 2 and we’ll pick it up. In verse 9 we see Jesus, Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, now cremated with glory. And I Or in verse 16, verily He took not on him the nature of angels, but He took on him the seed of Abraham. So our Lord, when He came in the days of His mortality, was made a little lower than the angels.

85. 45:31

    But now, as it says in Hebrews one, if you turn back Hebrews one, verse three, who being in the brightness of his glory, the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word of his power, when He had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as He’s obtained by inheritance a more excellent name than they. So the record’s telling us that to begin with, He was made lower than the angels.

86. 46:04

    Now it says that he’s now being made so much more than the angels. That’s a radical change. And in his words to the disciples, Matthew 28, So this is after His resurrection, Matthew 28, verse 18, Jesus came and spoke to him saying all power is given to me in heaven and earth. So now all power is put into the hands of the Lord and we’re told him first to Peter that explicitly includes the work of the angels.

87. 46:33

    He’s gone into heaven. He’s on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto them. First to Peter three and verse 2 that tells us, brothers and sisters, that our Lord now is personally in control of the work of the angels. He’s taking a direct personal interest in that work in our own daily lives, and our Lord wants us to allow Him.

88. 47:04

    And I’m using these words carefully to allow Him into our daily lives to work with us. You know how it’s described in Scripture. It’s described as Him knocking

89. 47:20

    on the door asking us to open our lives up so that He can do that work. Revelation 3, verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I’ll come into it. And then ultimately will suck with him and he with me, the brothers and sisters.

90. 47:45

    Our Lord says he wanted to do that with our brothers and sisters and layer to see him wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. That’s what he wanted to do with them. So what’s he wanting to do with us and the subject of Christ abiding in US, Christ dwelling in US or God abiding in US is actually quite a theme in the New Testament, quite a beautiful thing.

91. 48:24

    He wants His Spirit to dwell in us now, His way of thinking, so that He can actually rule in our hearts. That passage we’ve looked at before, Romans 8, verse nine. Yeah, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. So as Christ is supervising that work, how does Christ come to dwell in US?

92. 48:55

    And there’s a wonderful theme and scripture of Christ abiding in US as the Word comes to dwell in US, and we change to start thinking like him and like God. Look at these passages Ephesians 3 verse 17 that Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith.

93. 49:17

    For John 14 verse 23, Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loves me, he’ll keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. This is the sense in which Christ wants to dwell in us now as we learn from the Word, and their minds change, and we start working with the Lord dwelling in US.

94. 49:49

    Or Colossians 3 verse 16, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Or 1 John 2 verse 24. There’s actually three different words there in the English. It’s all the same Greek word for abide. Let that therefore abide in you, which you’ve heard from the beginning. Notice the emphasis here on the word and hearing what’s being said.

95. 50:19

    You’ve heard this from the beginning. If that which you’ve heard from the beginning shall abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father. If he abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. And as Christ continues to work in our life, as the Spirit of Christ dwells in US, brothers and sisters, as our minds are renewed, the spirit of our mind is renewed.

96. 50:53

    As we’ve looked at during our studies, that work continues. That work of angelic supervision continues until the point that our Lord require our Lord actually returns. You know, we’re in Hebrews. Just go back to Hebrews 2 verse 10. He’s Speaking of the captain of this, of our salvation made perfect through suffering. But there’s a little phrase there, Hebrews 2 verse 10, which I want to pick up on. It became him for whom are all things, by whom are all things in bringing, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Let’s pick up that little phrase in bringing many sons to glory. That’s the process, that’s the objective. That’s actually what this is about. The work of our Lord is the captain of our salvation, is to actually bring many sons and daughters, many children of God, through that process bringing many sons to glory. And when our Lord returns, if he sees a reflection, a reflection of His Spirit in us, if he sees that the way he thinks is now dwelling in us, then he will complete that process of bringing many sons and daughters to glory. There’s a couple of passages to look at now, brothers and sisters, because it shows us that actually that there’s a basis, there’s a set of principles upon which that happens.

97. 52:26

    This first one relates to the Lord Jesus Christ himself concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, declared to be the Son of God with power. And note these words according to the spirit of wholeness by the resurrection from the dead. It’s an interesting little statement.

98. 52:50

    So here’s the Lord Jesus Christ, who also was made perfect through suffering in bringing many sons to glory. He’s been declared to be the Son of God with power. Why? Well, it was according to that spirit of holiness that was our Lord. He exhibited that spirit of holiness. And according to that spirit of holiness, he’s now been resurrected from the dead and declared to be the Son of God with power. And what he wants to develop within us, brothers and sisters, is that same spirit dwelling in US, that spirit of holiness, so that then he can take us through the same process. Now look at this passage now from Romans 8. If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, that’s the spirit mind that we’ve looked at, learning to think in a different way, learning to show the Spirit of Christ, learning from His Word in our hearts and minds. If that Spirit dwells in US, then he that raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies. And in the AV it says by his spirit that dwelleth in you. If you have a look in the margin, it says because of as the phrase means because of his spirit that dwelleth in you. And there’s a guarantee for us, brothers and sisters, that as the Spirit of Christ comes to dwell in us, as he said, if that spirit dwells in us, then the same God who raised up Christ from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies because of his Spirit that dwells in US.

99. 54:35

    He will see that reflection in our own weak, feeble ways as we’re learning to reflect and change our mind to be more like that. He’ll look at us, brothers and sisters, and he’ll say I love that spirit. And because of that spirit, the power that raised up his son from the dead and made him the king over all, that same power will grant us immortality. It’s an extraordinary thought of the thing to think about on account the Berean literal Bible says He will give life to your water bodies on account of His Spirit dwelling in US. We’re running short on time.

100. 55:15

     I was going to turn up Second of the Corinthians, chapter 3. It’s a passage you’ll be familiar with, so I’m going to read it out to you now. The Lord is that spirit. So think about this brothers and sisters, in terms of the topic that we’ve been looking at. The Lord is that Spirit.

101. 55:29

     He said where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Liberty in what sense? There’s deliverance, brothers and sisters, from the bondage of sin and death. There’s freedom from the trials of life which bear us down. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all with open face, beholding as in the glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord, or as the words littering mean by the Lord, the Spirit, the ESV translates it now. The Lord is the Spirit.

102. 56:16

     Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there’s freedom. We all with unveiled face, we’re beholding the glory of the Lord. We’re being transformed into the same image from 1° of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. And what that tells us, brothers and sisters, is that as we go through this changing process, this transforming process of the work of the Spirit that’s working with clay or oven vessels, men and women like us, as God’s taking us or the Lord is taking us through this process, it’s changing and transforming us.

103. 57:02

     And ultimately will be changed from glory to glory in the image of that glory. And ultimately our glorious Lord will transform us through the Spirit to be like Himself. Philippians 320 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He’s able to subdue all things to Himself?

104. 57:29

     Or what? 1st Corinthians 15 verse 45 The last Adam was made into a life giving spirit. When we see our Lord return, brothers and sisters, you know what we’ll see? We’ll see a life giving spirit, because the last Adam has been made a life giving spirit. Well, what about the words of our Lord to Nicodemus?

105. 57:51

     Now those words come to a conclusion when the Lord says that which is born of spirit is spirit. And that’s the ultimate destiny, brothers and sisters, as we become spirit beings. So that’s the journey of the spirit, the journey that our Heavenly Father is taking us through. So we’ve, we’ve scratched the surface, as it were, of a rather extraordinary journey and topic this week. It is God’s Spirit work in the universe, in the creation, in the life of the Saints, in the power of the word to transform us, to develop the mind of God in us. But actually what we’ve seen today is that that hand also works in the lives of very flawed individuals, people like you and me, as he’s actually working to help us in that transforming process.

106. 58:48

     He’s trying to develop a spirit within us and he wants to change us into spirit beings for all eternity. Now, as we all know, life can be full of challenges and sometimes we lose heart. Events get too big, or our failures are too overwhelming, or the behaviour of others can be too discouraging, or we can just lose sight.

107. 59:22

     This topic gives us the reassurance, brothers and sisters, that He continues to work with us. It’s through His power that these things become possible. So in conclusion, I’d like us to turn back to a passage we’ve referred to and looked at many times. Romans chapter 8. The passage when he speaks of God’s Spirit dwelling in US. The passage where he speaks of all things working together for good.

108. 59:53

     The passage where he speaks in Romans 8 of God calling us because He knew that He would bring us into the saving name of Christ thousands of years before we were even born. In verse 29 he speaks of us being conformed to the image of His Son. We’ve looked at the concept of His foreknowledge and pre destination.

109. 1:00:18

     And overwhelmed by those thoughts of the work of the Spirit, Paul concludes with these thoughts. Verse 31. What should we then say to these things, Brothers and sisters, if God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? He gave his Son for our lives, so won’t He give us everything that’s necessary?

110. 1:00:58

     Who’s going to lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? Who’s going to charge us with things? God? Who justifies is the question. Surely not, He said. Well, verse 34, who’s going to condemn us? Christ? Well, Christ condemn us, he said. Christ is the one who died and has risen again. He’s at the right hand of God. He’s making a decision for us.

111. 1:01:22

     He won’t sit there and condemn us. Who’s going to separate us from the love of Christ in tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or parent or sword? He said. That’s all. That’s all written in advance in Scripture. For thy sake we’re killed all the day long. No, he said. In all of these things we’re more than conquerors.

112. 1:01:45

     Through him that loved us. All of these things are going to happen, says Paul. This is going to be our life, says Paul. Will that remove our hope? No, he said. I am persuaded. He said in verse 38 that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, things present or things to come, Nothing that happens in the future, no height, no depth, nothing, no other creation will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

113. 1:02:25

     Even death, he said, or life, won’t separate us from Christ. No matter what powers, what events, what enormous things are swirling around in our lives, nothing is able to actually separate us from the love of Christ. So what that tells us, brothers and sisters, is that there is nothing so big or so overwhelming that God can’t still work to achieve His purpose and save us.

114. 1:02:58

     Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. So let’s be energized by that four brothers and sisters. Let’s be reassured as we resume our journey through all trials of life, the journey of the Spirit, rejoicing in our confidence that God is actually working through our daily lives to accomplish His work. And by God’s grace, we’ll be able to fully participate in His Spirit power when it fills the whole universe with its glory. Thank you for listening to the good Chris Adelphian Talks podcast.

115. 1:03:49

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116. 1:04:06

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117. 1:04:39

     God bless and talk to you next week.