Animals 8-27-23

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Episode Transcript

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Welcome the blessings of Christ. I'mScott Roberts. Lessons in Christ is also
the Church of Christ preaching the Gospelof our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Of he that believeth and is baptizedshall be saved. The Church of
Christ's scriptural name Roman sixteen sixteen,Scriptural and origin Colossians one eighteen, scriptural
and doctrine, First Timothy four sixteen, and scriptual and practice James one and

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twenty two. Our lesson today's byJames Mills from the Baltimore, Ohio Congregation
of the Church of Christ. He'sbringing us a lesson on pets. The
question he answers is do animals havea soul? So we hope that you
enjoy the lesson today and please likeus on Facebook. Thank you. It's

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Samuel turnover with twelve and we seean example of person's love for their animal.
And second Samuel chapter twelve, Versusone through three. And the Lord
sent Nathan under David. And hecame into him and said to him there

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were two men in one city,the one rich and the other poor.
The rich man had exceeding many flocksand herds. But notice verse three.
The poor man had nothing save onelittle oo lamb which he had bought and

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nourished up, and it grew uptogether with him and with his children.
It did eat of his own meand drink of his own cup, and
lay in his bosom, and wasn'tto him as a daughter. So I'm
sure this as you read this,you can see the love, the love

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for this animal, right, AndI'm sure you share that same love if
you have a pet through your ownor maybe not. Maybe you're done with
your pet right and you can't waittill you're done with it. But you
can see here that where we canread in God's word the love of this
animal. It compared it even asa daughter, right as one of its

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own. Well, a few yearsago, as I mentioned, there was
a friend of the family that lostThey lost their dog, and this dog
meant a lot to them, youknow. And I've saw this happen several
times in my life when people losea pet and they mourn and they suffer

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because they've become attached to this pet. But what really caught my attention was
that this person said that they wouldsee them again in heaven. And then
that's what stunned me because how manypeople, and I'm sure a lot of
us know how many people expect tomeet again with their pet or their animal

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when they get to heaven. Sowhat we want to do anytime that that
question comes up, Well, ismy pet going to heaven or my animal
will be in heaven? The straightanswer you'll get, well, they don't
have a soul, and that's allwe give. Right, Well, they
don't have a soul. Their soulcan't be judged, so no, no,

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So what we want to do thismorning, Let's look in God's word
rather than just give an answer thatthey don't have a soul. Let's see
what God's word has to say.Let's dive into the scriptures and talk a
little bit about animals and about whetherthe animals will be in heaven or not.

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So we start over in the bookof Genesis chapter one at the creation
when God created the heavens and theearth in Genesis chapter one, beginning with
verse twenty, and God said,let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving
creature that hath life and foul thatmay fly above the earth in the open

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firmanent of heaven. And God createdgreat wells and every living creature that moveth,
which the waters brought forth abundantly aftertheir kind, and every wing foul
after his kind. And God sawthat it was good. And God blessed

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them, say, be fruitful andmultiply, and feel the waters in the
seas, and let foul multiply inthe earth. And the evening and the
morning were the fifth day. AndGod said, let the earth bring forth
the living creature after his kind,cattle and creeping thing, and beasts of

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the earth after his and what itwas so? And God made the beast
of the earth after his kind,and cattle after their kind, and everything
everything that creepeth upon the earth afterhis kind. And God saw what that
it was good. So here wehave to go back to the creations.

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So you can see God's love forthe animal. Right, you can see
that love. Why because when hecreated the heavens and the earth's what did
he do? He created creatures,creatures of the sea, creatures in the
air, and creatures on the land, beast of the land. So we

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can automatically see that God chose animalsin his creation. And what does it
tell us? This is one thingwe need to notice that it says that
they were real. They were livingcreatures, so they had life in them.
They had life in them. Rightnow, let's go on with verse

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twenty six. And God said,let us make man in our image after
our likeness, and let them whathave dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fellow the air,and over the kettle, and over
all the earth, and over everycreeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

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So God created man what in hisown image, in the image of God
created he hem male and female createdhe then, and God blessed them.
And God said to them, befruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth

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and subdue it, and have dominionover the picture of to see over the
foul of the air, and overevery living thing that moveth upon the earth.
So after God created all these creatures, all these fowls of the air,
the fishing, to see the beaston the land, what did he
do? He said, be fruitfuland multiplied. But then what he created

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man? He created man? Andhe created what man in his all image?
What image is that? If youturn over to the Book of John
John chapter four and verses twenty four. John Ford Verse twenty four tells us
that God is what God is aspirit. God is a spirit, and

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they that worship him must worship himwhat in spirit and in truth? So
when God created man, he said, let's create him in our own image.
What was that image? A spirit? A spirit? Right? But
here he said, man, youare to have dominions. In other words,

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you are to oversee all these animals, all these plants that I've placed
here on this earth. So therewas an order in creation God, which
was the spirit. He created theheavens and the earth. And then he
created what the beast and the fowls, all the creatures. And then he

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created man in his image, whichwas a spirit. And he said,
man, you are over the meaning, you have dominion over all these living
creatures. Now that's going to Denisischapter two, verses six and seven.

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But they're up from myths, fromthe earth and water, the whole face
of the ground. And the LordGod formed man of the dust of the
ground and breathe the two his nostrils. What the breath of life? And

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man what became a living soul.So here is the difference we find in
an animal and a human. WhenGod create animals, what he spoken,
right, let there be animals Letthere be beast, let there be fouls,

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let there be great whales. Hespoke them into existence. But when
he created man, he created manwhat in his image, which is a
spirit. And in chapter two,verse seven s God took man and he
breathed to his nostrils the breath oflife. So man becomes what then becomes

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a living spirit, a living spirit, the spirit of God. The spirit
of God dwells in us as menand women, as humanists. That was
not given to those animals. Theanimals were just created. There was not
that living spirit breathing to those animals. They were living creatures, but the

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breath of life, that spirit wasnot given to those animals. Now,
God's plan, when he created theheavens of the earth, he created these
creatures, He created man. Tooverlook, what did he do? He
placed them in the garden right,And it was always meant. It was

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always me that that's the way itwould be forever right. It was meant
to be that way. God placedman and woman in the garden. He
gave them everything they needed. Hehad plenished the earth with all the seeds
that they would ever need. Hecreated all these beasts creatures, and we

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were supposed to live and what peace, be fruitful and multiplied with that living
spirit that he would give us.But we all know why happened. Why
happened sin Sin, Sin entered intothe world because Adam and e were given

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an opportunity to make choices. Theycould choose what they wanted to do.
They could choose what was right andwhat was wrong. That was the mistake.
Man was given a choice, andthey chose what they chose disobedience,

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disobedience. The poor animals that werecreated a place there. They were not
given that living spirit. They werenot given that opportunity to make a choice
between right and wrong. They werecreated from speaking and they were told be
fruitful, multiplied, But they didn'tget that living spirit that God gave us.

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And we could choose between right andwrong. We could find out the
difference between good and evil. AndAdam and Eve want they chose the evil.
They chose the evil. From thattime, saying entered into the birth,
and that sins separated us, separatedus from God from God. Eventually

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it got so weak people, weknow what happened. Right, God said,
I'm gonna have to destroy everything andstart all over. You know,
have you ever done that. Haveyou ever tried working on a project,
doing something and you finally get soupset because it's not working maybe your recipe

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that you're trying, and you're like, this is not working out like our
plan, this is not what it'ssupposed to look like. So what do
we do? We just scrap itall, scrap it all. We'll start
over again, start over again.Well, that's what God had to do
after he had breathed that breath oflife a man, and he gave us

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that opportunity to make choices. Wechose sin. We chose sin. So
he destroyed with the flood, rightexcept annoying his family and what else?
What else? We see the loveof the animal again. God commanded Noah

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to take these beasts. He said, take of every living creature, two
male female. Why that cause God'slove for the animal was still there.
It wasn't the animal's fault that Adamand Eve seined against God. It was
a ther mistake because all they weredone was existing. God just created them

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and said, here wrong the earth, enjoy be fruitful a multiply. They
had no saying what happened? Theyhad no choice. It was Adam and
eve that chose sin. Why becausethey had that living spirit and their soul.

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Now, oh, he's saved theanimals and Noah and his family.
Why because after the earth, andhe says, every living creature was destroyed,
was destroyed by he saved saved thoseanimals. So what after after the

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new Earth they could multiply again,multiply again? Now, John chapter one,
John, Chapter one, Verse one, John, Chapter one, Verse
one. In the beginning was theword, The word was with God,

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and the word was God. Thesame was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him,and without him was not anything aid.
That was made in him was life, and the life was what the light
of men, the light of men, and the light shined in darkness,

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and the darkness comprehended it. Na, we read about that life that was
put in man, that living spirit. Now, because of that sin and
separation from God, there has tobe a price paid, right, a

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price paid for those sins. Sowhat God done is he made away?
He made away under the old lawthat they could sacrifice for sin, sacrifice
for sin. Now, is hegonna let him sacrifice humans? No?

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Why because they have that living spirit. We're created in the image of God,
a spirit. He breathed that breathof life into us, so our
humans going to be allowed to beseckro all. But what does he tell
him to sacrifice the animals? Right? Animals? The animals were a sacrifice

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for their sins, pure animals,not humans, but the animals. And
eventually we see that God, wefind nowhere nowhere that the animals had a

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choice. They didn't have a choice. Why because God spoke it in commanded
it, and that's the way itwas. But a ventually, eventually we
will have to answer, answer forour sins, answer for our actions.

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The buck of Ecclesiastes, chapter twelve. Ecclesiastes, chapter twelve, let's go
down to verse uh. Let's startthere with verse seven h H. Then

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child, the dust return to theearth as it lost, and the spirit
here's the spirit shall return unto Godwho gave it Hebrews nine twenty seven.

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It is appointed that the man wantsto die. But after this, the
judgment e Plesiastes tells us that andthat's what this body returns to the dust.
But the spirit, that spirit thatwas given to man, that spirit
that was breathing to us, isgoing to go back to walk to God

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who gave it? Did God givethat to the animals? No? Did
God give that to the trees?No, He created him. He spoke
them into existence. They were livingcreatures. But God didn't give them what

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that spirit, that living spirit.He didn't breathe that into them. They
were not created in his image.The spirit Man was and at death,
that's going to return this body tothe dust of the ground. But the

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spirit that the animals don't have,Man does, it's going to return to
God. Now, when we returnthis spirit, it's gonna have to be
accountable, held accountable for the thingsthat we done. Animals didn't have a
choice. The animals didn't have thespirit the animals was given for a sacrifice.

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The animals don't have a choice.The animals don't know right from wrong.
Animals don't have opportunity to sin transgressagainst God. So how can an
animal be held accountable? Returned tothe dust of the ground, but the

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spirit back to God. Ecclesiastes Chapterthree. Ecclesiastes chapter three, beginning with
verse sixteen and moreover, I sawunder the sun the place of judgment,

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that wickedness was there, and theplace of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
I said in mine heart, Godshall judge the righteous and the wicked,
For there is a time there forevery purpose and for every work.
I said in mine heart concerning theestate of the sons of men, that

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God might manifest them, and thatthey might see that they didn't selves are
beasts. For that which befalleth thesons of men befalleth beasts. Even one
thing befalleth them. As the onedieth, soul dieth the other. Yeah,

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they have all one breath, sothat a man hath no pre eminence
above a beast. For what allis vanity? All going to one place,
all are of the dust, andall turn to dust again. So
what is the writer telling us?Just because you have deminion over the beast,

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just because you have this fearit doesn'tmean that when you die, you're
not going to go to the dust, just as this beast does, just
as the animal does, soul doesman, all going to one place,
all other dust, and all turnto dust again. Who knoweth the spirit

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of man that goes upward and thespirit of the beast that goeth what downward
to the earth. It's the spiritof man that goes upward, and that
of the beast walk to the earth. Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing

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better than that a man should rejoicein his own works, for that is
his portion, for who shall bringhim to see what shall be after him.
So we should rejoice in knowing thatwe have this spirit, that when
we die and our body is turnedto back to the dust, that spirit

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is going to go upward. Wecan rejoice it knowing that we're gonna be
jazzed according to the works. Wewon't live forever in a place called Heaven
or a place called him. Itdoesn't end at death ear on earth.
It doesn't end in returning back tothe dust. But the spirit. Notice

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that spirit that God gave us increation, that he breathed into us,
that's gonna go walk to face Godin judgment. So even though even though
we got given that spirit, wegot breathed that breath of life in us,

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what happened and sin? Now wegotta answer it. Animals don't have
to answer because they don't have thatspirit. They don't have that breath of
life, they don't have that livingspirit, they don't have choices. They
exist. Right, that doesn't meanyour animals not important, right, They

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were important to God. He createdus. He saw that what he saw
that he was good. It's good. Animals are good, but they don't
have that living spirit that God gaveman. They're not gonna stand on judgment

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day and answer for their actions.Romans Chapter fourteen. Romans Chapter fourteen,
Versus seven through twelve. For noneof us live it to himself, and
no man died to himself. Forwhether we live, we live it to

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the Lord. And whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether
we live there for or die,we are the Lord's. Everything belongs to
God, creature, beast, man, It's all gods. For to this

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end verse nine. Christ both diedand rolled and revived that he might be
Lord, both of the dead whatand the living. But why dost thou
judge, thy brother, Or whydost thou said it not, thy brother?
For we shall all stand before thejudgment seat of Christ. For it

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is written, as I live,says the Lord, every knee shall out
of me, every tongue shall confessto God. So then every one of
us shall give account to himself,to God, to God. And John
chapter three, verse sixteen. ForGod so loved the world, that he

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gave his only for good son,that whosoever believeth then him should not perish.
But what have everlasting life? Everlastinglife? Nicodemus said, how can
we get there? Beginning of Chapterthree, Jesus said, accept a man

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be born again? Does an animalhave a choice to be born again?
No, Jesus, hold Nicodemus,No, it's not entered again into the
mother's womb. It's born of water. And what the spirit a peace doesn't

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have that choice. An animal doesn'thave a choice to be baptized for the
remission of sins. They know nosin. They are not merely a living

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creature that God spoke into existence.And we have evidence on top of evidence
that God loves the animals. Right, he wouldn't have created him, He
wouldn't have said all this is good. He wouldn't have saved him when he
destroyed the earth. But he did. He chose to save those animals. Now