Published: January 19, 2025 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: 1 Peter - Part 3 | Scripture: 1 Peter 1:4
Transcript
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we're back in 1 Peter chapter 1 this morning looking morning looking at one at one verse verse verse verse 4 but I'm going to read
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uh 3 4 and five together to set the context that Peter gives us here 1 Peter
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1:3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great Mercy has caused us to be born again to a Living Hope through the
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resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you who
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are protected by the power of God through faith for a Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time let us
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pray we have just sung father that your voice is mighty and your voice is thundering and your voice is glorious Majesty we ask father that by the power of your Holy
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Spirit you might speak speak to our hearts speak to our souls we might understand what the Apostle has written here by the inspiration of that
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same holy spirit that you would build your church but also we ask that you would receive a Blessing by our faith
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and by our trust in you in Christ's name we pray amen probably the first time I ever thought about an inheritance
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was when uh my family and I we were traveling back on 85 through Charlotte and we were stuck in traffic waiting to go into the Charlotte Motor
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Speedway and the guy the vehicle ahead of us was a big ginormous shiny motor home with the trailer on the back with
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his brand spanking new RV and a couple of of kayaks and he's turning off into the speedway to spend his weekend in
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Charlotte but there was the memory I have is of the sticker on the back of the motor the motor home we're spending our kids
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inheritance and that's probably the first time like I say that that I thought about I thought about inheritance what it is and obviously to him it was something tangible the motor
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home the RV The at all some children's inheritance
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literally going up and smoke this week but what is an inheritance it's a financial term in in our world describing anything that is
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passed down to individuals after someone dies and it can be cash that's stored in a bank account that's assigned to
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someone or stocks jewelry cars motor homes art heard about one individual in
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California he said I didn't build a house to contain the art I I put the art and made the house around it the art was everything and they said probably one of
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the costliest art collections private art collections in the world antiques real estate other
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tangible assets which could include I suppose junk that someone collected and thought you might like it but it can also be a
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title that passes with someone's death you could be be a British Lord or lady for The Inheritance process to
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begin there has to be a will submitted for review usually to a probate court and an Executor is authorized to parcel out what the
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inheritance will be legal transfers of assets to beneficiaries have to be carried out probate court in most cases must
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approve that will prove that it is valid and an executive must settle any debts that are owed before there can be a dispersement
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of things and a person's legal right to actually inherit the assets must be validated and in many cases I don't know
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about South Carolina but in many cases you have a limited amount of time there must be 6 months that pass before the dispersements can be made but 6
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months to maybe 3 years is normal apparently in the United States and any number of things can make an inheritance
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an inheritance invalid or greatly delayed diminishing the amount of time you can claim that inheritance or it could be hotly
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contested if someone has an objection to the will but what we see that Peter writes in these three
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verses is that we have been reborn not only into a living hope he says in verse
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three but we have been reborn to obtain an inheritance which is imp perishable and undefiled and will not fade
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away and as we'll see this is an inheritance that can't be jeopardized no one can ruin
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it and we will see in verse 5 when we get there hopefully next week nothing can keep it from us and us from it
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but why does pet Peter speak here of inheritance well Peter was a Jew what was the Jews inheritance what did the Old Testament look at as the inheritance
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of the of the people it was the land in Genesis 17 we read God saying to them I will give to you and to your your
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descendants after you the land of your sojournings all the land of Cana for an everlasting possession and I will be
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their God land to the Jew was a means of of wealth it was also a means of social status and as we see in Numbers chapter
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32 it was a means of security the the tribes of of GAD and and Reuben did not want to to go across the Jordan to fight because one they had found the land they
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were herders and they had found the land that was really good for keeping their livestock but they were also afraid if we go across the land what will happen
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to the women the children are will they truly have an inheritance here and God through Moses has to tell them are you going to sit here and not
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fight with your brothers and they finally agree to do that but it was a means of security for them it was a means of of of possession for
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them God implored implored the people and Deuteronomy 12 not to do as he says what is right in your own eyes but he says this you have not has yet come to the
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resting place and the inheritance which the Lord your God is given giving to you I think Peter is telling them look at the idea of the inheritance what God has
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promised he would there is an inheritance there is a place of rest there there is a land that will you can call your own which the Lord your God is
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giving to you but notice how he describes there our inheritance here he uses the words and for those of you uh
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Greek Geeks Among Us he's using words that are called Alpha privative what does that mean well Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and so when
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you have a word and you put the alpha the a in front of it it negates it it's a form of negation we have a couple of words in
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English that do that if you are one who believes beles in the thousand year reign of Christ you're a millennialist but if you do not believe
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in that you're an a millennialist there's the negation of that mostly in English we use like our English translations here we put un or M in
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front of words words like something you're able or available or believable we negate those with a prefix
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last fall I was trying to get some material for my one of my classes here at Milton I had bought a book from a new a different publisher and I was trying to get some supplementary materials and
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it was taking weeks and weeks and I was getting things where I would type it in and they would say it is impossible for you to have these
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materials because your school is not registered with the publisher and so I would go through all those motions and f file those papers and then I would they would say well now you have to call
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somebody and it would be all our operators are operators are unavailable and after weeks went by literally weeks seven weeks went by I
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finally was got access to the right uh email address only Define that they sent me a message back that says oh the materials
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for that book are unav ailable and I'm sitting my my computer
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unbelievable but why does people Peter speak in these negatives these imperishable undefiled and undefiled and unfading well I think there's several
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reasons maybe three reasons why he does this and the first I I think that that comes to most of us is the glory and
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Excellency of God's inheritance for us is beyond human language we we we just can't think of of words to describe it
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when we DET try God uh Chuck this morning he uses the the word about God immutable unchanging there there are things about God and and what he's done
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for us that we just our language just can't handle that it cannot be expressed in human in human terms as one writer said reality with
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God transcends human language Heavenly inheritance is so far beyond what we can conceive humanly of
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the glory and the Majesty so we resort to these figures of speech these negative words
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negative words and yes I think secondly sometimes it's easier to explain what something is not so that we get some little inkling of
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what it what it is and so Peter uses these three words imperishable undefiled and
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unfading and in general what these these words mean and they there is some overlap in them but The New American Standard uses the word
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imperishable if this is a word it means undestroyable freedom from death and Decay and
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Decay and Corruption cannot be destroyed by fire cannot be destroyed by floods cannot disappear before it we have a chance to
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obtain it undefiled it undefiled again a word we might think of I don't know if it's an English word but unspoil a freedom from
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uncleanness a freedom from moral impurity it's unstained by evil will never lose its luster never lose its
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beauty can never be stained or become filthy it can also mean in terms of the title or the documents
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without defect or without flaw in those documents in that will and unfading or my translation will not fade away
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unimpaired freedom from the ravishes of time it it can't be worn out it it it can't become old or outdated it will last forever it'll
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never dry up and wither one of the favorite uh passages from Isaiah that Peter's going to use throughout this epistle is is Isaiah 40 and the
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Illusions from all the chapters that follow Isaiah 40 the grass withers the flower Fades but the word of God La is forever the the idea here is that this
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inheritance will never be disappointing and it will never lessen in value so these are three very powerful descriptions using these
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negatives but again why does Peter use these negatives these negatives here not because he couldn't think of something positive to say in in fact
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here you know my little illustration everything was disappointing it's unavailable it's impossible it can't happen but Peter is using it here to
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show a show a comparison a comparison between our inheritance and the Jewish inheritance of the
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land imperishable the land of Cana the land was not kept for them history records all of the armies and Nations
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that came against them and robbed them of their land as they sent them into Exile the Babylonians the Assyrians the Persians the sald the toames the and
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then later the Romans the land was ravaged by these people it was not
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imperishable undefiled the the land of Canaan was defiled by the enemies but as scripture tells us it was also defiled by the Jewish people themselves in Jeremiah 2 we read God
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writing this I brought you into the fruitful land to eat its fruit and its good things but you came and defiled my land and my inheritance you made an
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Abomination unfading the land decayed the glory faded the faded the beauty of that land flowing with milk
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and honey no it was defiled by sin Isaiah writes the Earth will be completely laid West laid waste and
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completely despoiled for the Lord has spoken this word the Earth Mourns and Withers the world Fades and Withers the exalted of the people of the earth Fade
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Away Jeremiah writes you have polluted a land with your holler tree and with your wickedness the land that they inherited
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was not imperishable it was not undefiled it was not unfading and I think Peter would have us look at it that and that comparison
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that's why he uses those negatives do you understand that land that land that inheritance is not any of those things
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but yours is all of those things
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it is hard for me to understand how all these participles go together I will admit that but I believe when Peter says in chapter or verse three but God according to his great mer
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Mercy has been caused you to be born again there are two things we are born again to to a Living Hope but also to
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this sure inheritance an I believe that we look back to that new birth when we look at the word inheritance here we have a new birth which means that we
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were being birthed into a new family God fathered us to be in his family and when you're in a new family guess what you
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have a new inheritance coming from that father
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Earthly foreshadowing we receive the Heavenly fulfillment Peter tells them that through your suffering now as sojourners and Aliens they should direct your their
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attention to their future inheritance an inheritance that was better than the land and I think it's worth remembering
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what Daniel Dorian says in his commentary an inheritance is a gift based on a relationship it's not a wage based on
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performance and that's where Peter brings us at the end of verse four reserved in heaven for you it's
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reserved but the word I don't know I didn't study this in the Greek but many of the Greek people the Greek uh Scholars that
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I look at called it the Divine passive participle God is not named here but he is here reserved in heaven for you it it
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means it's ready it's mean that nothing needs to be added to it it's all finished and it's all
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ready or it could be this way translated this way having ever been and thus ever continuing to be safeguarded in the heavens for you that's our
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inheritance God is the one who guards and keeps our inheritance that's what implied is implied here reserved in heaven for you there there's a security
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inheritance because someone who was to be the guardian of that inheritance was false or false or weak or didn't pay attention to what
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they were doing spent it or managed it or I should say mismanaged it so that it was
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lost but God says no it's reserved in heaven for
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you and many people take this idea that okay there's our inheritance we're going to heaven I don't think that's what Peter means here it's reserved in heaven it's a reservation that is secure and
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imperishable undefiled won't fade away but it's in a very secure place our inheritance is in Christ and
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where is Christ now he is in Heaven seated at the right hand of the father making intercession for us our inheritance is safe with him it's safe where he
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is and what did he say during his lifetime com looking at our inheritance looking at our treasure do not store up for yourselves Treasures on Earth where
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moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves Treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys nor where
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thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be also see all of these things imperishable undefiled unfading there in
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what Jesus had told his disciples almost from the very beginning we have a better treasure we we have this treasure
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Amplified for us by by Peter trying to describe this this great gift but it is kept for us by us by God and
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God and Peter Peter's not insensitive to the individual he's used the word us but now in the end of verse four he
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work uses the word for you it's a very personal level that he brings himself to because he himself is
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no stranger from suffering and being an alien and be treating treated as a Sojourner in this life he
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life he suffered for suffered for Christ and he's just applying the application that was applied to him it's
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for you it's yours it's your inheritance and it awaits Thomas Reiner wrote Peter Rems the readers of their future inheritance
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so they will con conduct their lives in such a way that pleases God now The Inheritance isn't a call to F forsake this world but to live as faithful
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disciples until the inheritance is realized you have a great inheritance it's sure it's it's locked away in heaven it's secure and it'll be there
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forever and it will be yours it can't be jeopardized it can't be ruined it can't be taken away it can't be burned it
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will he has paid the debts that were owed he has preserved our inheritance in a very safe place where it is imperishable undefiled and will not fade
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away and as we will see as we move on to verse five he has validated you the believer
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as the as the recipients and he will keep your inheritance forever let us pray our heavenly
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father we thank you for the word we thank you for the words that Peter sought for to describe our inheritance that we might at least have an inkling of the glory of the Excellency of the
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Majesty of not only the gift that you have preserved for us but who you are as our father blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ
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in his name we pray amen you please rise for the
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selected 2 Corinthians 13 uh verse 11 as our benediction uh Chuck read verse 14 so I'm just going to read 11 through 14 to close the loop here Paul writes finally Brethren
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Rejoice be made complete be comforted be likeminded live in peace and the god of love and peace shall be with you greet one another with a holy kiss all the
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saints greet you the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all amen