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as last week I gave an outline of hopefully where we're headed over at least the next few weeks the holy spirit's activities in the Old Testament and the first of those um the headings
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was the spirit of of God in the world or the spirit of God in creation is where
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the Old Testament first of all and the spirit of God entering into in the world um I think I used this phrase before it comes from uh some
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writings of um and perhaps from a sermon of his uh G Campbell Morgan says that in in all
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in all generations um but particularly in the the Old Testament what we see of the spirit is uh this
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and you it comes across um immediately in uh Genesis 1 that we um began to look at a little bit last week that in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth and the Earth was
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formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters and then God said let there
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be light and there was light that the spirit was um
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he was there the the imminent spirit that he had a presence even at the time of of creation and so um from that we want to
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look at what what does that mean what was what was happening there and and why um and again admit that um
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even though we think of in the New Testament um of the spirit and his regenerative work the um the second Advent of Christ
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and then the subsequent giving of the Holy Spirit um his presence should not be overlooked in the generation of the
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created world that uh what we see here is that he has a presence as I say
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immediately but we read in other places in scripture and I'll I'll read this and then we'll um look back again at um Genesis 1 but we see God's work in
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creation as as the the the psalmist writes it um as bowing the heavens bowing the heavens and coming down with
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thick Darkness under his feet he rode upon a cherub and flew and he sped upon the wings of the wind he made the darkness his hiding place his canopy around him darkness of waters thick
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clouds of the Skies from the brightness before him past his thick clouds hailstones and coals of fire the Lord has also th wed in the heavens and the
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most high uttered his voice hailstones and coals of fire this is depicting depicting the the time the the chaos
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that is there at the creation the the the chaos being um Genesis one the the
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there is a sense in which I think um and again we talked about that last time the there are some who will go that this was total waste that there's something that had happened
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before um that there's a confusion but I I believe this idea of formless is um an an absence of shape
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a A Wasteland um I think is how I would see the the Hebrew term there and yet we do see do see this strangeness that there is this Darkness um as someone described it last
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time this opaqueness that there there is no light there is nothing that allows us to to see
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anything um and this void is an absence of of life or
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habitants um again as best I can understand the the meaning of the Hebrew
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so you got form and then it becomes a shape and then is added it right well well that's that's where I think at least that what I see is here is the spirit coming in what is he doing
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we we read it and um I had forgotten until you you know Chuck Chuck mentioned it before in verse two it says the spirit of God was moving and in New
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American Standard moving over the face of the water some count it as as hovering okay um what is what is the
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okay um and I don't disagree with with this because there is a sense in which the the spirit
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is seeing this brooding over this preparing this for what he's going to do for the
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work that has to be done that there is um let me see if I can find
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um I had a a quote from someone and I can't um it's gone for my notes now um
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yeah um it's I've I've lost the the train of train of our the quote um what most people see here in in the
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brooding is a preparation that as the spirit is is moving hovering what he's looking at
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here is what needs to be done that his job will be to to mold this to mold the Earth to bring the Earth to a point
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where life can begin bringing this into being inhabiting the Earth as the spirits
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light and there was light the the spirit prepared the way for the light that the spirit brings the um the order and he brings
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the the word of God to pass um that's his job is to bring the he is the power through
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which the Divine will let there be light Let There Be and then we see the let there
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be the sun and the moon and the stars and the expanse being separated all of those things that it is the spirit who brings
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those about at God's command it doesn't come through in
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The New American Standard but in job 26 verse 13 uh we read um in 12 and 13 He quieted
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the sea with his power and by his understanding he shattered Rahab by his breath the heavens are cleared by his hand uh his hand has pierced the fleeing
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s serpent the the idea in those verses is a picture of the spirit the he has cleared or he has quieted the sea so as
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he hovered and brooded over the faces of the waters then the scripture says he quieted the sea with his power and then in verse 13 and again this doesn't come
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across quite as poetic as the literal Hebrew that I can understand from from the scholars it says by his breath the heavens are cleared mine says in the
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marginal notes made beautiful but those Hebrew Scholars translate it this way by the spirit the heavens are
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heavens are garnished that's a beautiful picture that the heavens are garnished by the power of the holy spirit that all of the wonders of the world all of the record
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of of the whole creation is through the power and the the the um just the Majesty of of the Holy Spirit by the
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spirit the heavens are garnished um Psalm 36 calls him uh the breath of God's mouth well again we see the
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command of God the word of God uh let there be light let these things happen and the Holy Spirit as the the breath of
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God's mouth executes that um that command in Psalm 33 by the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth
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that's the Holy Spirit the breath of his mouth all their hosts he gathers the Waters of the sea together as a heap he lays up the deeps and
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storehouses and then of course the psalmist moves to let all the Earth fear the lord and let all the inhabitants of the earth U praise His name so these
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so we see his the his the brooding the preparing of the formless and void Earth for the
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creation we see him acting in power and the command as the breath of God's mouth but the spirit is not um to
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be I don't really know how to say it he's he's not to be trifled with um we're not to to have um an unbalanced
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view of the breath of God's mouth in in the creation and the beauty and the magnificence there um one of the writers
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um reminded Us in uh Isaiah 40 of Isaiah 40 verse seven familiar um phrasing that
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appears in the New Testament as well the the grass um All Flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field the grass withers
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the flower Fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon on it surely the people are grass the grass withers the flower
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Fades but the word of our God stands forever this the spirit is the breath of
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is can be a a fiery blast that he can be a fierce Blast Of God sweeping away the ground preparing the way for the springing forth of life because that is
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what Isaiah 40 is looking at um that he is preparing the way a voice is calling Clear the Way of the Lord is the
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context but he's clearing the ground he is the blast of God and so what we see here is that there is a
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there is a power there there is an action that the Holy Spirit has prepared and is prepared to carry out the Divine will of God in
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creation but also in the recreation the during the fall of Man which we'll probably get to next week
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uh after the fall of Man and preparing for the Messiah the the the spirit will have a very um strategic role to play in
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all of that um in the Old Testament and um hopefully we'll be able to to see how he works among men and yet again
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these these Concepts we see from the very beginning of creation of the of the H and the holy spirit's um role
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um thirdly so in creation and in the um carrying out the will of God then we also see that he is um part of the
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Divine the what some call the Divine movement in in the earth and in the heavens
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um verse 20 he says um um where wherever the spirit was about to go they would go in that direction the wheels Rose close beside them and the spirit of the living
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beings was in the wheels we may not understand what these wheels are but there is um an idea that the spirit is
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in all the directions of God that he is in all of the the Motions of God in his will in heaven and and Earth that um the
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and I I can understand why some people want to say of the spirit looking in in the Old Testament that it he was not a person but a force or an Impulse because
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there there is that idea that that he is those things that he is a force in God's creation that he is an impulse and an energy um but he
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is um as as we know from all of scripture that he is a a personality but it doesn't again as I
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said we have to be careful that personality does not come across so clearly in the Old Testament that we do see his Force we do see his energy and
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impulse as the spirit of life but again bringing order out of um what was not
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ordered bringing um form out of the formless and life out of that which was void of
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um that that passage um that whole chapter um an amazing chapter but within it what we see is on the one one hand the the great news there is no no condemnation for those who are in Christ
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Jesus but at the end of that chapter or near the end of that chapter we we see a creation in creation in agony we we see that that
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Paul uses uh those words here um in uh Romans 8: 19 for the anxious longing of the creation Waits eagerly for the revealing
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we want to say that it's all you know human problems if humans get their act together and wouldn't pollute and do all these things and yet nature is groaning because it's waiting for the Redemption
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of of man that that sin would would be dealt with and the Lord would return and so we we
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see um he says for the creation was subjected to subjected to futility not of its own will but because of him who subjected it
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in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God for we know that
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the whole creation groans and suffers the Pains of childbirth together until now now and not only this but also we ourselves
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having the first fruits of the spirit even we ourselves grown within ourselves waiting eagerly for our adoption as Sons the Redemption of our
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body um nature is in agony Paul says it's suffering as in Pains of childbirth and not only that that we are
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suffering because of the uh waiting waiting for that final um uh adoption as as Sons meaning our
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Redemption he says of of our bodies but do we see
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time but Paul goes on and says this for in hope we have been saved but hope that is seen is not hope for why does one also hope for what he sees but if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance we wait eagerly for
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it and in the same way the spirit also helps our weakness for we do not know how to pray as we should but the spirit
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himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches the hearts knows what the mind
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of the spirit is because he intercedes for the Saints according to the will of God this nature is in agony in suffering and
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groaning Believers are anxiously awaiting in agony and
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groaning I'm not sure that I understand all of the connections here but
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the Holy Spirit it creation brought form and shape to something that was unfed he brought life he brought inhabitants he he brought all the creation that he brought it into order
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and he he made it manifest and he made it beautiful the holy spirit is still in that business he's still in the business of a
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brooding over the creation o over the needs of Believers and the creation that was subjected to futility
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by the Fall the sin uh of man and man and so as he garnished the Earth at
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Earth at creation he's going to garnish us he is going to bring that calming the quieting of the Waters
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of the Abyss he's going to bring the quieting of the the tears of Agony of us a balm a healing a blessing
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promise so shall my word be uh he says for the rain and snow comes down from heaven and does not return there without watering the Earth and making it bare and Sprout and Furnishing seed to the sewer and bread to the eater so shall my
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word be which Goes Forth from my mouth it shall not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it for you will go out with joy and
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be led forth with peace and the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of Joy before you and all the trees of the field will clap their hands instead of the thorn bush the th
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Cyprus will come up and instead of the nettle the Myrtle will come up and it will be made a memorial to the the Lord for an everlasting sign which will not
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be cut be cut off this the spirit is there for this this Cosmos out of chaos this order out
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of that which did not have order that bringing those things back to a beautiful state um
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because he's an intercessory Force because he administered the word of God and the will of God in creation we we see his work we we
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see that and we [Music] can we can stand firm on it he has not changed he's administering
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the the the the work of Christ in his intercessors in intercessory role and
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role and eventually it will remove the curse from nature that which was brought upon it by the sin of man and it will be renewed and it will be glorious and it will be
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perfect the spirit has not changed and I don't think that that his brooding his uh preparing his
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Readiness in in uh that we see in Genesis 1 has changed he executes as I I say the the executive of the will of God
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is the spirit and he he's executing still and yet his role in relation to to Creation um
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is very much the same but same but also different because of the Redemption of the creation as well as
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man so if I were to try to summarize what we've talked about here
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we're going to see it quite a bit more the as he executes God's will in that period from the fall to the Messiah the the bulk of what we
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see in the Old Testament we'll we'll see it in relation to um the the
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the the people the the men that God wants to work in and through um and so we'll we'll see that role expanded
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role expanded uh beyond the the creation but here um we're we've kind of concentrated on this this idea of
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bringing Cosmos out of chaos and again I will um I had to go back and and look it up but I see um Cosmos is simply means an orderly
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harmonious systematic harmonious systematic Universe um and that's what the spirit brings order Harmony and a system to uh
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the creat [Music] um let me um and this may be the quote that I was looking for uh
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before um one of the theologians um or Scholars uh named uh lupold wrote this from all the other activities that are
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elsewhere ascribed to the Holy Spirit we conclude that his work in this case in in that is in creation must have been anticipatory of the
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created work creative work that followed a kind of impregnation with Divine potentialities if you can kind of you know that's a 25 cent phrase if you ever
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had one but it it's that idea of preparing anticipating what is about to come and making it possible to happen he
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said we should not be averse to holding that the that the foundation for all physical laws operative in the world now was laid by
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this Preparatory this Preparatory activity that's his definition of the brooding that we see the hovering the preparing for the creative work to
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follow and holding that the foundation of all the physical laws and I'm I'm teaching uh James and uh his his buddy Tobias in uh
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physics this year and we're studying Newton's Laws of Motion now and and you look at all of those things as and we call them
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call them laws because we're expecting that the Universe the physical material Universe follows them but where did they come
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from where is the foundation of those I think loophole would say here when the spirit Spirit brooded over the waters he was preparing for all those creative
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activities that would result in those physical laws operative in the world now by his
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I we we we see intelligence bringing forth order and Harmony here but with with all the the mathematical Precision of of of nature
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[Music] um let me do another quote I I think I finally found these quotes that I was searching for searching for um BB Warfield uh Princeton wrote this
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The Obedience and the precedent power of obedience of the waste of waters to the successive creative creative work words
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and God said let there be light depended on the fact that the spirit of God was already brooding upon the formless V again all of the physical laws all the
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mathematical relationships that we see the Precision the creative Beauty the the garnished the garnished Earth garnishing the
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um the breath of the mouth of God we see it here as the breath of creation but we know throughout the the rest of the Scriptures it will be a breath of
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um after and we you know we had some trees down we had power off for five days or whatever it was and still waiting for spectrum to uh put some light through um the what do you call
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them the fiber optic cables to my house but I couldn't help but think that in on the following day on that Saturday getting
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Saturday getting up and how calm it was and the blue sky and the scut puff pu uh puffy white
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clouds um the Breath of God the spirit of God as depicted in the Old
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Testament and I think we we see its Echoes as as Chuck likes to say in the new um new um bringing the
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bringing the calm bringing the beauty bringing the the you know maybe sounds cliche the blue skies and the thankfulness I'm
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still standing and my house is still [Music] um that's the spirit um as bringing bringing that
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Cosmos out of chaos um but just remind you of this as we kind of close and thinking about nature and we'll move next time into how
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the spirit deals with men Morgan wrote wrote this no man can find God through
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nature but every man may find nature through God and as we we look at the world as we look at creation we have to understand that the spirit as I said
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last week the spirit was brooding over creation he was never merged with
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creation and unlike so many Even in our world today that believe that nature is God and God is nature and God is everywhere and God is in everything God is
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everywhere but we we don't come to God through nature but as we look at nature we can begin to see and understand and know God
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let us let us pray Our Father we thank you for the words of scripture we thank you for this um amazing and wonderful and yet
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mystery of the Trinity God the Father God the son and God the Holy Spirit and yet father we ask that you would help us to understand
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you would help us to see and know and appreciate the The Wonder of these things the magnificence of the role of the Holy Spirit not only at that day of
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cre but in our very lives even today and we ask that we would be people
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who understand who you are understand who we are and we would fall in worship we ask that you would guide and direct our worship that it may be true and may be
