Page 62 - BACK TO BETHLEHEM

The Indispensable Principle

As we come to look in the Bible, there is a principle that we call
the indispensable principle and that is total reliance on God’s
Holy Spirit. We cannot understand the Bible unless He shows
us Jesus and only God can show the Lord. No human being, no
teacher, can present the Lord apart from the Holy Spirit. I
would like to begin with a Bible verse that ties into redemptive
living. Psalm 67:7, “God blesses us, that all the ends of the
earth may fear Him.” The Psalm begins the same way it ends.
God blesses us so that the world might be blessed. He doesn’t
bless us to bless us. It’s redemptive. He blesses us so that the
world might fear Him. That’s why He chose Israel. He wanted
to put on display His heart. He gave Israel the most and the
best and the highest, so others could look at Israel and see how
God felt about them. He blesses us so that the world may know.
That’s redemptive.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank You again that we can
look into Your word. We thank You that we can depend on the
indwelling Holy Spirit to bring us to Jesus. Give us ears to hear
and take the veil away from our heart and eyes. Show us Jesus
again. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen
The principle, as you know, that we’re going to look at
is called redemptive living. All the principles that we’ve been
studying are foundational. It’s hard to put them in order; 1, 2
& 3 because they are ALL very important. I consider this
lesson, redemptive living, a great foundation. I’d like to first
give a description of what I think God’s word teaches about
redemptive living. All things are redemptive because God is
sovereign. After we look at that, I’d like to show how things
are redemptive when we cooperate with God. They are
redemptive even if we don’t cooperate but in a special way, they
are when we do cooperate.
When I say that all things are redemptive I really mean
two things; that God is sovereign and He always gets what He
wants. Nobody can stop His purpose. His sovereignty and
60