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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David Pick and for the
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next three days we’ve got something new and different on Open the Bible.
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And, Colin, today you’re going to cover the whole Old Testament?
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The entire Old Testament in one programme? What, have we got 25 minutes left?
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How are you going to do that?
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I tell you, if you get to know five people- I’m kind of thinking about Adam, and Abraham,
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and Moses, and David and Ezra, you’ve got a pretty good outline of the Old Testament story.
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So that’s what we’re going to try and do today and I think we can get it done in 25 minutes.
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OK, we have a lot of introductions to get through so let’s get going. Here’s Colin.
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So, first Adam. The Bible begins by telling us that, in the beginning,
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God created the heavens and the earth.
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God made the sun, the moon, and the stars. He made the plants, the fish, the birds and the animals.
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But God’s masterpiece was still to come.
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Then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness.
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Adam was made in the image of God, and what was true of him, is also true of you.
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You are made in the image of God, and that gives your life unique dignity and worth.
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Now, God filled Adam’s life with marvelous good gifts.
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He planted a garden and gave it to Adam as his home.
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He gave Adam the work of naming the animals.
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He created Eve, and he brought her to the man.
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So home and work and marriage are all wonderful, good gifts from God.
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But God’s greatest gift is the gift of himself.
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God appeared in the garden in a visible form
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because he wanted Adam and Eve to know him.
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And God wants us to know him, not only as our creator but also as our friend.
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God gave to Adam and to Eve just a single command.
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Now Adam and Eve already knew about good
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and God wanted to protect them from knowing about evil.
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So this command was really a wonderful expression of God’s marvellous love
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But Adam and Eve disobeyed this command of God
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They ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
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and in that act of disobedience they got the knowledge of evil
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and we’ve all been living with it ever since
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The first act of disobedience, which the bible calls sin
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brought about a great catastrophe
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We read that God drove out the man
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and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim
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and a flaming sword that turned every way
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to guard the way to the tree of life
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So driven from the garden
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Adam and Eve now found themselves in a very different world
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pain and conflict and frustration and even death
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became their experience
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They were excluded from paradise
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and there was no way back in
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But God gave them hope in two ways
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first through a curse
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and then through a promise
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God cursed the serpent
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God said to the serpent, Cursed are you?
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and in pronouncing the curse on the serpent
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God was consigning evil to destruction
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He was saying this evil will not stand
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It will be destroyed
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and then God turned to Adam
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and he said
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Cursed?!
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and Adam must have been absolutely trembling
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God had just cursed the serpent
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and now God had said that same word
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having turned towards him
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But God did not say to Adam, Cursed are you?
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God said, Cursed is the ground because of you
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You think what did the ground do?
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This tells us something very important and very wonderful about God
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God will always deal with sin and
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He will always destroy it
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but God can deflect His judgment away from us
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creating room for us to be reconciled to Him
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And then God promised that a deliverer would come
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He said to the serpent,
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I will put enmity between you and the woman
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and between your offspring and her offspring
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he shall bruise your head
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and you shall bruise his heel
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Now, the whole of the rest of the Old Testament
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is all about this deliverer
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It tells us why we need him
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It helps us to discover who he is
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what he has done
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and how we can share in the blessings that he brings
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Well, now as the Bible story continues
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the human family grew
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and evil and violence increased
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God restrained evil by sending a flood
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and then by confusing human language
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But then
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God stepped into human history again
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and revealed himself to a man by the name of Abraham
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Now, Abraham
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was born about 2,000 years before the Lord Jesus Christ
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He grew up in Mesopotamia
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Which would be in modern day Iraq
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God appeared to Abraham
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and gave him this most marvellous promise
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I will bless you
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and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed
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Now, notice that this very important promise to Abraham is for us
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it’s for every member of the human family
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In you, all the families of the Earth will be blessed
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And the Old Testament story focuses on the line of Abraham
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Not because the rest of the world doesn’t matter
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but precisely because the rest of the world does matter
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and God’s purpose is to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham
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Now God’s promise to bless all people
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would be fulfilled at an unimaginable cost
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And that cost is illustrated by the harrowing story
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of Abraham and his son Isaac
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God said, take your son, your only son Isaac
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whom you love and go to the land of Moriah
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and offer him there as a burnt offering
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on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you
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Now if you’ve ever seen a picture of a small child
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lying on an altar supposedly depicting this story
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I want you to completely forget
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ever having seen that picture
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because Isaac was not a small child.
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He was absolutely in the prime of his life
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and he could easily have overpowered Abraham
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if he had wanted to, but Isaac didn’t do that
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and that’s very important
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Isaac was willing to lay down his life.
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So what you have in this story
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is a father who was willing to give up his son
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and a son who was willing to lay down his own life
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and the two of them are at one
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in order to bring blessing to the world.
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Abraham and Isaac seem to have understood
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that some great sacrifice would have to be made
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if God’s blessing that had been promised to Abraham
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would come to all the families of the earth.
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But God would not allow Abraham to sacrifice his son.
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God provided the sacrifice.
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A ram was caught by its horns in a thicket
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and that ram became a substitute for Isaac.
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Now, we’re meant to respond to this extraordinary story
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in two ways.
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First, I really hope that you will recoil in horror
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at this story
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because that is precisely what you are meant to do.
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That’s what we’re meant to feel.
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How horrific that an unimaginable cost
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should be involved in bringing blessing
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to all the families of the earth.
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And then second, I hope you’ll gaze in wonder
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at the reality to which this story points.
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God did what He would not allow Abraham to do.
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God gave His Son, and God’s Son gave Himself,
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and God’s promise to bring blessing
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to all the families of the earth
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came at the unimaginable cost
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of God the Father giving His Son
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and of God the Son giving Himself.
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Well, Abraham’s son, Isaac, whose life was spared,
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became the father of Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons.
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That family moved to Egypt where they found food
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during a time of famine, and their descendants stayed there
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for a period of about 400 years.
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This family that God had promised to bless multiplied,
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and as their numbers grew, they became oppressed.
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They cried out to God.
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And God answered their prayer by sending Moses.
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Now, God had commissioned Moses
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to bring His people out of Egypt
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and then to lead them into the land that He had promised.
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Ibrahim’s descendants had become Pharaoh’s workforce.
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And so at first, Pharaoh was reluctant
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to let God’s people go.
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But after a series of plagues that God sent through Moses,
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Pharaoh relented and he let God’s people go.
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But then Pharaoh changed his mind
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and sent the armies after them.
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And when God’s people came to the Red Sea,
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it seemed that they were trapped.
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But God made a path for them through the sea.
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And then when the pursuing armies came in after them,
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God caused the walls of water to collapse over them
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and they were destroyed.
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God’s people knew that they had been saved
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from certain destruction,
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and they’d been saved by a miracle
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that only God himself could have performed.
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After that great deliverance,
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Moses led God’s people to Mount Sinai.
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And it was there that God gave to them
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the 10 commandments.
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You shall have no other gods before me.
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You shall not make for yourself a carved image.
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You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
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Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.
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Honor your father and your mother.
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You shall not murder.
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You shall not commit adultery.
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You shall not steal.
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You shall not bear false witness.
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You shall not covet.
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In a world in which these commandments were fulfilled
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would be supremely good.
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But while God was giving these commandments
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to Moses at the top of the mountain,
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the people were actually breaking them at the same time
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at the bottom of the mountain.
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Even these people, who God had so richly blessed
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by bringing them through the Red Sea safely,
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even these people kept turning away from Him.
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And like them, we have all sinned
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and fall short of the glory of God.
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We have broken God’s commandments.
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We have the knowledge of evil.
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It’s not only around us, it’s also in us.
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And we are alienated from God
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and we are excluded from paradise.
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Now, after Moses died,
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God brought his people into the Promised Land
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under the leadership of Joshua.
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And what followed was a long period of chaos
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in which God’s people kept turning away from him.
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Other nations had a more settled form of leadership
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and God’s people wanted to be like them.
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They wanted to have a king.
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The first king, Saul, was really a big disappointment.
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God had another king in mind.
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A king who would reflect his own heart
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and that king’s name was David.
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You’re listening to Open the Bible
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with Pastor Colin Smith.
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We’ve got to pause The Message briefly there.
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The Message is called
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Five People To Meet In the Old Testament.
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And it’s first in our three-part series
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called Fly Through the Bible,
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which as it happens is also the title
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of Colin’s latest book.
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You can find out more about how to get your own copy
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of Fly Through the Bible by coming to our website.
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That’s at openthebible.org.uk.
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Back to The Message now.
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Here’s Colin.
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Now, David got people’s attention
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when they heard the story
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of his great victory over Goliath.
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David must have looked pitifully small
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when he faced up to this giant of a man.
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But Goliath had defied God
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and God was with David.
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David put a single stone in his sling
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and he struck Goliath in the forehead
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and that was the end of him.
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David was a great king.
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Under his leadership,
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the 12 tribes of Israel
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were united together as one nation.
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Enemies who had oppressed the people of God
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for years were pushed back
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and God’s people wonderfully prospered.
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With strong defense and a thriving economy
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and stable leadership,
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God’s people had never had it so good.
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But David abused his power
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and he committed adultery
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with a woman by the name of Bathsheba.
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And then he put her husband in the thick of battle
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ensuring that his life would be lost.
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David covered up what he had done.
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But God sent the prophet Nathan
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to confront David over his secret sin.
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Nathan told David a story
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about a rich man who stole a lamb from a poor man,
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and David was absolutely outraged
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when he heard the story
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until Nathan said,
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you’re the man, you’re the man.
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And David said, I have sinned against the Lord.
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So despite all of his great achievements,
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David’s story points us to our need
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for a better King.
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Now, David wanted to build a temple for God.
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He wanted to honor God, but God had other plans.
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And God announced His plans in a stunning promise
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that He gave to David.
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I will raise up your offspring after you,
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and I will establish His kingdom.
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He shall build a house for my name,
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and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.
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I will be to Him a father,
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and He shall be to me a son.
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Now remember, the Bible story is all about
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how God’s blessing will come to all people.
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And God had already promised that His blessing would come
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through a descendant of Abraham.
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Now God promised 1,000 years later
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that His blessing would come through a King
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who would be born into the line descended from David.
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And when we get to the very first verse
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of the New Testament, that verse says,
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the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
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the son of David, the son of Abraham.
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Jesus is the one in whom all of God’s promises
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to Abraham and to David are wonderfully fulfilled.
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He’s the one in whom all the families
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of the earth will be blessed.
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He’s the King who God promised here would reign forever.
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He was born into the line of David,
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but God is His father and He is God’s son.
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Now after the time of David,
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God’s people turned to other gods
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and the kingdom tragically divided in two.
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In time, the entire northern kingdom collapsed completely
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and all of its people were scattered.
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There were just two tribes that continued in the south
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and their Kings led the people to worship other gods.
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And this idolatry was so offensive to God
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that he gave them into the hands of their enemies.
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Jerusalem was completely and utterly destroyed
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and those who survived, they were taken off into exile.
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Years later, some of God’s people returned from exile
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to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
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And many did that under the leadership
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of a man by the name of Ezra.
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70 years after God’s people were taken into exile,
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a group of about 50,000 people returned to Jerusalem.
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They began to rebuild the city
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and it was 80 years after that,
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that this man, a priest by the name of Ezra,
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brought a second group of exiles back to Jerusalem.
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And when Ezra arrived back in the city,
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he found that God’s people had adopted the detestable ways
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of the idols of the surrounding nations.
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And God used Ezra to bring about
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a great restoration among God’s people.
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Ezra’s strategy for restoring the people of God
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was very simply to open God’s word.
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He was supported in doing this by the Levites,
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they read from the book, from the law of God clearly.
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And they gave the sense
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so that the people understood the reading.
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When God’s people heard his word,
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they immediately saw how far they were
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from fulfilling God’s commands.
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And so their first response was to weep.
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It was really interesting.
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Ezra said to them, do not be grieved
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for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
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So you see what we learned from this?
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When you begin to open the Bible,
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God will show you some of your sins and your failures,
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but God will not leave you there.
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When you open the Bible, you’ll also discover his grace
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and you’ll discover his mercy and the joy of his grace
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and of his mercy will give you great strength.
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So we’ve met five people from the Old Testament,
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Adam, Abraham, Moses, David and Ezra.
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Throughout the years of the Old Testament,
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God raised up prophets who spoke his word,
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priests who offered prayers and sacrifices
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and kings who led God’s people in triumph.
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But despite all of their efforts
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through all of these years,
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God’s people kept turning away from him
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so that in the last book of the Old Testament,
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God says, from the days of your fathers,
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you have turned aside from my statutes
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and have not kept them.
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Return to me and I will return to you,
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says the Lord of hosts.
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God’s people just kept turning away.
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But God’s promise remained,
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and God said that a deliverer would come.
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So at the end of the Old Testament, we read these words.
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Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
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Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.
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Behold, your king is coming to you.
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Righteous and having salvation is he.
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But do you see that at the end of the Old Testament,
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after all of these centuries,
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God’s people were still waiting
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for the promise to be fulfilled?
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God’s promise was fulfilled
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when Jesus Christ was born.
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So then you might ask,
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well, then why do we need the Old Testament?
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Well, the Old Testament, you see,
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explains why we need Jesus.
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We’ve got the knowledge of evil.
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We’ve broken God’s commands.
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We are excluded from paradise.
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We need the deliverer God has promised.
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We need the savior who can turn our hearts
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back towards God.
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We need the substitute who’s going to die in our place.
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And we need the king who will triumph over our enemies.
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And we’ll meet that king in our next message
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called Five Events in the Life of Jesus.
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Today’s message was called
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Five People to Meet in the Old Testament,
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and it’s part of our three-part series
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Fly Through the Bible,
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a high-altitude look at the whole Bible story.
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And if you miss any of the series,
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you can always go back and listen again on our website.
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That’s openthebible.org.uk.
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Fly Through the Bible is also the title
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of Pastor Colin Smith’s new book.
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And if you’d like to get hold of a copy of that book,
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you can do that by coming online to our website,
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openthebible.org.uk.
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For Open the Bible, I’m Pastor Colin Smith.
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I’m David Pick,
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and I hope you’ll be able to join us again next time.
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We’ll be looking at five key events in the life of Jesus.
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With Pastor Colin Smith,
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that’s next time on Open the Bible.
