Dr Greg Bahnsen - God Sent His Son (Christmas): The God-Man Born of the Virgin (Part 2)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Please turn with me for our scripture reading this morning to the Gospel of Luke, chapter one. And we're going to begin at the 26th verse. It'll be something of a long reading, but I'd like you to get a sense for what is being declared here in this chapter because it helps us to understand the theme of the Bible. Many of us promote Bible reading. We're Christians, after all. We're people of the book. But often enough, we don't really understand what the biblical story is all about. And that's all the more true for those who are outside the church and may need some indication of, well, what is this book about? People pick up the Bible sometimes and they easily get lost. Sometimes their approach to the Bible is open it up and just, you know, start anywhere you want. You know, jump there into the Song of Solomon. See if you can figure that one out. Right. Well, that just won't work. Because you see, to understand this book, like any other piece of human literature, though, this is God's word through human people. Like any other piece of human literature, the Scripture's got to be understood according to its plot, according to its own character. And to help us understand what the Bible is all about, today we're going to be looking at Luke chapter one. To put it very briefly, you might look upon the Bible as the divine preparation for Christmas. I know people sometimes get kind of upset at the way the merchants start getting ready for Christmas earlier and earlier and earlier every year that ever happened where you are. It used to be that if we saw Christmas trees and advertisements and things up by Thanksgiving, we thought people were really pushing hard. Then it was the beginning of November, and, you know, around October 31st, what we thought was Halloween, we're now seeing Christmas things come out. Well, it's even earlier than that now. I think about Labor Day. We're going to start pushing, you know, so many days left for Christmas. Well, we get a little irritated about that, and we think that's kind of strange. But, you know, the Bible tells us God is the one who took the longest time preparing for Christmas. For years and years and years, he set in the fulfillment of a wonderful promise that he gave. And we'll mention that in just a minute. But we see something of the fulfillment of that in Luke chapter one, beginning at the 26th verse. Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came in unto her and said, hail, thou art highly favored. The Lord is with thee. But she was greatly troubled at that saying and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this might be. And the angel said unto her, fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. And Mary said unto the angel, how shall this be? Seeing I know not a man, we might pause just briefly to remind you that the verb to know here means to have sexual relations, to be intimate with a man. Mary says, since I'm a virgin, how could this possibly be? And the angel answered and said unto her, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee in the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. Wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, thy kinswoman. She also hath conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her that was called barren. For no word from God shall be void of power. And Mary said, behold the handmaiden of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. And Mary arose in these days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass, when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she lifted up her voice with with a loud cry and said, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come unto me? And behold, when the voice of thy salutation came into mine ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believeth. For there shall be a fulfillment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord. And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Saviour, for he hath looked upon the low estate of his handmaiden. For Behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things. And holy is his name. And his mercy is unto generations and generations on them that fear him. He hath showed strength with his arm, he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart. He hath put down princes from their thrones and hath exalted them of low degree. The hungry he hath filled with good things, and the rich he hath sent away empty. He hath given help to Israel his servant, that he might remember mercy as he spake unto our fathers toward Abraham and his seed forever. And Mary abode with her about three months and returned unto her house. Now Elizabeth's time was fulfilled that she should be delivered. And she brought forth a son. And her neighbors and her kinsfolk heard that the Lord had magnified his mercy towards her. And they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass on the eighth day that they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zacharias after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, not so, but he shall be called John. And they said unto her, there is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, saying, his name is John. And they marveled all. And his mouth was opened immediately and his tongue loosed. And he spoke blessing God. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them. And all these things were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, what then shall this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel. For he hath visited and wrought redemption for his people and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from of old, salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, to show mercy towards our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore unto Abraham our father, to grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemy, should serve him without fear, in holiness, in righteousness before him all our days. Yea, and child, thou shalt be called the prophet of the Most High, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to make ready his ways to give knowledge of salvation unto his people in the remission of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the days spring from on high shall visit us to shine upon them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And thus far, the reading of God's Word. What is the Bible all about? It won't do you any good to pick it up and just open up the covers and just start anywhere to read it. And it won't do a lot of people much good to even begin at the beginning and start reading through Genesis if they don't have some sense of the overall theme and structure. The important points that are being made in this book. In the scripture reading this morning, we have read Zacharias benediction, how he blesses the name of God and talks about how God has blessed his people and sent them redemption and peace. And he says that God has done this because of what we know today as the Nativity, the birth of the Savior himself. In thinking about the awaited birth of that Savior, the one who would come to deliver God's people, Zacharias alludes pervasively to the Old Testament. In fact, to put it very simply, it's much more poetic the way he put it. But if I can boil it down to put it simply, Zechariah says everything in the Old Testament was about that day because this is what the prophets were all talking about. This is the fulfillment of the covenant that God made, the oath he swore with Abraham and to David. And so if you look at Abraham and David and the prophets, that is to say, if you look at the whole Old Testament, it was about these days. The prophecy that was about these days extends from the beginning of the world. He says in verse 70 of our reading, it fulfills what God promised to Abraham according to verse 73. It's connected with the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant according to verse 69. All the prophets talked about it according to verse 70. And so the whole Old Testament apparently was directed according to Zacharias inspired word to the birth of the one that we call Jesus the Savior, God's people. What's the Bible all about? It's about a promised Savior. If you open your Bible and begin reading at chapter one, chapter two, of course you know something very important about God, about how he created the heavens and the earth, how he governs all things and all men are accountable to him. You know something of the glory of the original paradise state and what mankind could have enjoyed if it had not rebelled against them. And that's what chapter three is all about. That's what sets up the tension in this particular story. Because the Bible tells us that all of our miseries, the things that make us so unhappy in this world, all of those things that are dreadful, from sickness to death, go back to that day when our first parents decided they'd decide for themselves what was right and wrong. They didn't need God to tell them the evil one had come and tempted them, saying, God doesn't want you to be like him. God's just trying to keep you from good things, so why don't you decide for yourself what's right and wrong? And they said, okay, well, we'll eat this fruit and we'll make our own decisions. And it's because of that dreadful decision that mankind has all the problems that we endure today and shall endure for all eternity if we're not right with God. And the Bible says God came walking in the evening, and Adam and Eve heard him in the garden and they ran. That was a new experience for man, to run away from God. And we would fully expect that when God encountered them. And he did, because there was no doubt that he could find them. When God encountered them, he'd say, you have broken my law. You are under my wrath. Depart from me forever. The day of judgment could have been called right then and there. And this is the first great wonder of the Bible, the first great amazing thing that we see about the character of our gracious God, and that's that when he came to Adam and Eve, who had sinned against him, and fully knew that in the day they ate thereof, they would die. And they did spiritually, of course, die. They were separated from God. They were fearful of God. They knew the hand of God would mean the stroke of doom for them. And so they ran. And the day that they ate, they died. And so as God came, we would fully expect him to bring judgment. And the first amazing thing we read about the Bible is that he brought a promise. He said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. There's going to be a seed of the woman who's going to crush the head of the one who brought you into this dreadful state. I'm going to send you a savior. Now, at this point in the biblical story, you need to understand, as amazing as this is, and really I don't have the words to describe for you how incredible it really is that God would come with a promise of grace rather than the stroke of doom. But at this point in the biblical story, all we know is that the story is going to be about some human being that's going to save God's people. A human being. The seed of the woman. Someone's going to be born, you see, that's in the line of the woman who is going to crush Satan. Now, later in Genesis, we realize that we know more about that seed because God comes to Abraham and he says that Abraham is going to have a seed, and all the nations are going to be blessed in the seed of Abraham. And so we see in the Bible the promise of a seed, the seed of a woman. The seed of Abraham, a savior is going to come. But you know, at the time of God's promise to Abraham of a seed, there's also a hint of something else that's going on. And this begins the second great wonder of the biblical story. That's what I want to tell you about today. What is it at the time of Abraham that is so wondrous? It's not just that there's going to be a seed, a savior who's going to come. But if you know the story, Abraham says, well, if I'm supposed to have a son and through him many nations are going to be blessed, then I'm going to have to help God out. Because as you know, my wife's just not up to this task. She's elderly and she's barren. And so Abraham said, God needs my help. But if you know the story and I have to abbreviate it, go back and read it. It's really amazing. God says, abraham, I can save my people all on my own. I don't need you. It's all in my sovereign disposition. When I made a promise to you, Abraham, I knew that your wife couldn't fulfill it. I knew that you couldn't have children through her. I want you to turn your Bibles to Genesis, the 18th chapter, verse 14. But keep your hand in Luke chapter 1, Genesis 18, and the 14th verse. And Jehovah says to Abraham, is anything too hard for Jehovah at the set time? I will return unto thee when the season comes round. In Sarah Sarah, your barren wife, your elderly wife, shall have a son. But what is it that precedes this declaration? God asked the rhetorical question, is anything too hard for me? I love that because in the Hebrew devar thing also means word. Is any word too hard for Jehovah? If I utter it, can I not bring it about Abraham? And so we have already an indication that the promised seed is going to be born in a miraculous way. In a miraculous way, God will fulfill his promise. And we see that at the time of Abraham. Is any word too hard for the Lord Now I said, keep your hand in. Luke, Chapter one. When the angel came to Mary to declare that she was going to have a son, Mary had the very proper response. Anybody who knows about the birds and bees would say the same thing Mary did. She said, how can that be? I haven't had sex with anybody. And being a woman who was righteous and followed the ways of the Lord, she didn't expect she was going to do that either. And what does the angel promise when he comes to Mary? When she asked this question, how can it be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, verse 35, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. Wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God. And so, according to the angel, Mary was going to, as a virgin, give birth to this Holy One who was coming. Mary was going to do this according to the miraculous power of God Himself. Verse 37 says, for no word from God shall be void of power. Isn't that amazing? You think Luke just accidentally dropped that in there? Now, I think Luke knew very well. He was alluding to what God had said to Abraham long ago about the promised seed, that that seed would be born miraculously because no word of God, no word of God is too hard. Jehovah is not without the power to fulfill anything. Then he promises, now we were to move ahead in the Old Testament just a bit. Let's look at First Samuel, chapter two. I'll tell you another story about a miraculous birth. First Samuel, chapter two. Now we come into the biblical history at the time of the Judges, the beginning of the greatest judge in his life and ministry, that of Samuel. The interesting thing is that the Bible indicates to us that Samuel should never have been born. You know why? Because Samuel's mother, just like Isaac's mother, was barren. The Bible shows us Hannah desperate, that the Lord would somehow take care of this curse, of her barren condition and give her a child. The Lord fulfills that promise and answers that prayer. And Hannah has a son. And in chapter two of First Samuel, Hannah prays and she says, now as I read this, I want you to be remembering our scripture reading this morning. My heart exalts in Jehovah, My horn is exalted in Jehovah. My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as Jehovah, for there is none besides thee, neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more, so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth. For Jehovah is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that were full have hired out themselves for bread. They that were hungry have ceased to hunger. Yea, the barren hath borne seven and she that hath many children languisheth. Jehovah killeth and maketh alive. He bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up Jehovah maketh poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low. He also lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the needy from the dunghill to make them sit with princes and inherit the throne of for the pillars of the earth are Jehovah's, and he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his holy ones, but the wicked shall he put to silence and darkness. For by strength shall no man prevail. They that strive with Jehovah shall be broken to pieces. Against them which will be thunder in heaven. Jehovah will judge the ends of the earth. And he will give strength unto his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. The reason why I wanted you to listen carefully to that is because those words are alluded to in the New Testament. When Mary sings her magnificat about what the Lord has promised to do unto her, she thinks immediately of Hannah, the barren woman who could not have a child, and how God would exalt his horn and that of the anointed. And so the wording is very similar in these two. So when we read Luke's Gospel, when we see what the Bible says about how a virgin is going to have a baby and what her attitude is toward it, we look immediately to the Old Testament. Because it's in the Old Testament that we learned that the promised seed is going to be born in a miraculous way. But I have something even greater to tell you. It's not just that the seed is going to be born and a miracle is going to bring it about. This is something that we really as human beings can hardly fathom. Because the miraculous birth of this seed, the miraculous birth of this promised Savior, is going to be the birth of one that will very legitimately and properly Be called God himself. Let's turn in our Bibles to Isaiah, the seventh chapter, Isaiah, chapter seven. And it's the 14th verse that I have an interest in, but I want to put it in its context. So let me begin reading at verse seven. And Jehovah spake again unto Ahaz, saying, ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy God. Ask it either in the depth or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt Jehovah. And he said, hear ye now, O house of David. Is it a small thing for you to weary men that ye will weary my God also? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Now, before we read on, let me just explain this. A sign of deliverance is going to be given by the prophet to the house of David, a sign of deliverance. However, King Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign from God, even though God suggests you can ask anything. I'll prove my point to you. But Ahaz not willing to trust that God is going to deliver Judah, particularly from Syria and Israel. In this particular setting, Ahaz plays the false pious king who says, oh, I would never tempt God. Of course, he had been doing so. But the failure to respond faithfully when God says do this is itself a rebellion in the very face of God. But Ahaz says, oh, no, no, I'm not going to tempt God. I'm not going to ask a sign from him. And so God says, well, then, I'll give you the sign. And I'll give you a sign of an even greater deliverance than the one you're worried about, Ahaz. And now this is the sign in verse 14. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. People who have to study Hebrew in order to enter the Christian ministry often complain about that. It's not easy to learn Hebrew, and there's a lot of time spent in going through the grammar and the vocabulary and learning how to put sentences together and translate them and so forth, and it really can be a burden, can be a drudgery. Of course, I would hope that once we get into the word of God and start letting it really speak to us in the original language, all of that drudgery will have been worthwhile. Regardless of how a person may feel about learning Hebrew, there can hardly be anything more glorious than coming to this verse and saying, oh, I can translate that. Immanuel. Immanu l l is the shortened form Of Elohim. God. Manu. Us. Im. The preposition with. With us. God. That'll be the name of this child. It's not just that there's going to be a sign given that's miraculous and wondrous because the virgin has a baby. That's, of course, just astounding, isn't it? But the most astounding thing of all is that this baby is going to be called God. God visiting his people. Immanuel. God with us. Now. You know, there are a number of critics of the Bible who say that isn't what Isaiah was saying. Isaiah was not promising a virgin birthday. And the reason for that is that the word translated virgin in my translation is the Hebrew word alma. And the word alma in Hebrew can mean simply young unmarried maiden. It can be a young girl. If you don't want to believe that no word from God is without power. If you don't want to believe that God can work miracles. If you don't think that a virgin can have a baby, then of course you're inclined to go back and say, oh, all he was saying here is that a young woman is going to have a child. Well, of course, anybody who can read in context can see what the dreadful problem with that is. Whether you want to believe the story or not, that can't possibly be a miraculous sign, can it? How would you like it if I came to you today and say, listen, I've got some really amazing news for you. There's going to be a miracle of wondrous proportion. You're not going to be able to even take this in. It's just going to blow your mind. Oh, yeah, what's that? A young lady is going to have a baby. So, yeah, that's happening all the time. I guess it's probably happening right now. Before I get done preaching, there's going to be quite a few more born. Young girls do that all the time. They do it in wedlock and outside of wedlock, don't they? There's nothing miraculous about such a sign. The very fact that this is presented to Ahaz as a sign from God, a miraculous indicator of something, tells you that the alma, the young girl, must be without any sexual intimacy. She must be a virgin. Which is, of course, the translation that we find in the New Testament. In Matthew, chapter 1, verse 23. Here we have Matthew's account of the birth of the Savior. And in chapter one, verse 23, well, let me back up and put it in context. Verse 21 says, she shall bring forth the Son and Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for it is he that shall save his people from their sins. Now all this is to come to pass that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying, behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel. Which, being interpreted, is God with us. Matthew understood what Isaiah was talking about, and he chooses the word virgin to express it. Even as we know from context, alma in Isaiah 7:14 must have meant Virginia. And so let's go back and put this together. The Old Testament promises a seed who's going to come to be the Savior. This seed will be born of a woman. It's going to be a human being. And yet there's something different about this special seed. Because at the time that God tells Abraham, it will be your seed, Abraham, that is the Savior. That seed had to be born in a miraculous way. And at the time that the greatest judge of Israel, Samuel, was born, his mother was barren, and he could only be born in a miraculous way. And when we get to Isaiah, we find out that indeed it will be a miraculous birth that this Savior undergoes. It's going to be a virgin who gives birth to the one who will be our Savior. And the greatest, the greatest of all of the miracles that's involved in the Nativity is not just that barren women or virgin women might have a child, but that this child is God himself. Isaiah continues to indicate the character of the coming Savior. If you turn to the ninth chapter of his prophecy, verse 6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isn't it dreadful the way the world goes to this verse and wants to pick out just those titles that fit in with our preconceptions? Over and over again I hear people talk about the Prince of Peace. And Jesus is that Praise God, Jesus is that. But you know, you can't have the Prince of Peace without also seeing that this one who is the Prince of Peace is called, though he is a son, a child who is born, he is called Mighty God in Hebrew, El Ye more Mighty God. Now, many times those who are followers of cultic versions of Christianity don't want to accept the deity, the full deity of Jesus of Nazareth. And so when you point to this verse, they'll say, well, that just refers to a very powerful man, you know, that is godly or something. They'll Try to give some kind of interpretation. But if you look at Isaiah 10, verse 21, it's real obvious what the expression means in that verse. There we read, a remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob unto the mighty God. The very same expression. Now we know that in Isaiah 10:21 that means they're going to return to Jehovah, who was called the mighty God. And yet a chapter preceding this Isaiah tells us, a child will be born, a son will be given, and he will be Jehovah. He will be the mighty God, the everlasting Father. He's going to be the one full of miracles, the wonderful counselor and Prince of peace. And then one more indication in Isaiah's prophecy about the character of the promised scene to his coming as our Savior. Isaiah 40 and beginning at the third verse, the voice of one that cries, prepare ye in the wilderness, the way of Jehovah. Make level in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places plain. And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it. There may doubt what Isaiah is talking about here. He says, God is coming. Get ready. And so fill up the valleys and plane down the hills and make a smooth highway for our God, even in the wilderness. Because Jehovah is coming to his people. Turn with me in the New Testament. Mark, Chapter one. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. According to the writer Mark, Mark writes the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even as it is written in Isaiah, the prophet. Behold, I send my messenger before thy face. Who shall prepare thy way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make ye ready the way of the Lord that is Jehovah. Make his path straight. And then Mark says, john came who baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism repentance. Who is it that's the forerunner of Jehovah? Well, it's John the Baptist, the very cousin of Jesus. And so we see that when John the Baptist comes and says, prepare to meet your God, that's a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. And Isaiah said, the one who was coming is Jehovah himself. So what's the Bible all about? Well, in the first place, the Bible's the promise of a Savior. The Bible is all about God's promised seed. One is coming who will be born to a woman born in Abraham's line, who will save God's people. But the Bible is all about something much more wondrous than that. Although that should be enough to give us a lifelong praise to the Lord. Why would God save rebels like us? But God has not only promised to save rebels like us, he has gone on to say, and I will miraculously bring the Savior into the world, because that Savior will be God himself. God is going to be born. Now, whereas I fully understand theologically, it's not the divine nature that was born, it was the human nature of one who was the God man. But the point is that the Bible tells us that this child who was born to Mary, miraculously born to the virgin, is mighty. God is Jehovah, Immanuel. God with us. None of us could ever have imagined, not only that God would save rebel sinners like us, but that he would come himself to do that work. If you read on in the biblical story, you'll see the third of the great wonders of this story. And that's that God would come humbly, not with great glory, not to be given the praise that is worthy of his name, but to be rejected of men and to die. I tell you, this is the greatest book that was ever written. And it's a shame if people don't understand what ties it all together. It's all about God getting ready for Christmas. God getting ready for the birth of one who would be the seed and therefore our Savior. But above all, the birth of one who would be the very Son of God. Because he is God, the Son. Pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wondrous book that you've given us. And we thank you for your patience and diligence and perseverance in bringing about that ancient promise of a Savior that you have given to us. Lord, we don't know why you would be willing to save us. We're not worthy of it. We're not worthy of your continued blessed presence and your concern for us. We're not worthy of your concern that we would live with you eternally. And yet you have promised ages ago to send a Savior to bring it about. That we would not be lost in the rebellion that Satan tempted us into. That we would not be alienated from you forever. And we thank you for that. How we thank you that you have promised a Savior and kept your promise. But Lord, today we stand in awe and wonder that this Savior should be God himself. That you would miraculously enter into this world through the womb of a woman. That the seed who would be born would be the God man himself. And though our minds cannot comprehend how this is, our minds cannot understand how you brought it about. We certainly could not accomplish it ourselves. And it is more than any of us can understand or comprehend yet Lord, we do believe it because no word of God is without power. And if you have promised you can do it and Lord, you have done it. And the one who was born so many years ago that we call Jesus, we also call Emmanuel God with us. Thank you for coming to us God. Thank you for not banishing us. Thank you for not sending us away. Thank you for coming to us when we would not come to you. For we pray in Jesus name. Amen. This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute. Duplication sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our website, bonsoninstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.