Published: January 26, 2025 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: 1 Peter - Part 4 | Scripture: 1 Peter 1:5
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we once again in First Peter chapter 1 and once again I'm going to read verses 3 through five we'll be focusing this morning on verse
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5 1 Peter 1 ver verse three blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to
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his great Mercy has caused us to be born again to a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance which is
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imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a Salvation ready to
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be revealed in the last time let us pray our heavenly father again we do ask that you would teach
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us and by your Holy Spirit you would speak to speak to us and that you would encourage us with these words but also that you would deepen our
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faith in you who alone are our salvation and and our help we ask in Christ's name
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amen it's a good thing that we do not have one of those plexiglass uh lecterns because um otherwise you would be seeing how my knees are shaking and knocking uh you may be able to hear it during the
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sermon what we have in verse five which is continuing on from the end of verse four there's a comma there which was not there in the original
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Greek but this inheritance to obtain an inheritance verse 4 reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a Salvation
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ready to be revealed in the last time an awesome verse but a very contentious subject in
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the church Eternal salvation can we be sure of our Salvation can we be sure that Peter is
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right here that it is a Salvation protected by the power of God through faith for a Salvation ready to be
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revealed in the last time I don't think that I know how to preach this verse
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and that's just an admission and I know that when I read through the collected sermons of Dr Martin L Jones uh in
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Ephesians that he had six sermons on one verse in Ephesians and I don't think I have it in me to do
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that but this is an awesome verse and I feel the feel the weight of responsibility to try the best that I can to help you understand how
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awesome it is how exciting it is and yet how much responsibility we have to understand
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it I see as one author put it I see his idea of perfect symmetry here as a starting place from verse 4
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reserved in heaven for you what is reserved as we talked about last week that inheritance that sure inheritance which is imperishable undefiled and will
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not fade away it's reserved in heaven for you and then he says about us you who are protected by the power of
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God our inheritance is reserved for for us and we are reserved for it and that's where Peter
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where Peter begins is you people you chosen aliens you you who are living in the midst of a sinful world you are perhaps being
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persecuted perhaps being marginalized and disrespected for your faith I want you to know that there is something reserved for you and you re
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are reserved for it it it is an a certainty the power of God protects you no matter what circumstances you are in
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and there are Again part of the controversy is there are Christians who believe that we are exempt that we have some kind of special dispensation that
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we are exempt from suffering read the Gospels read what Jesus says if you're in the world you will have persecution you will be
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marginalized you will have persecution and suffering and that can come in physical pain or it can come also in
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psychological stress yet he says we will receive the final inheritance we will experience the joy of our Salvation the word that Peter uses here
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you who are protected by the power of God the the word comes from our word for Sentinel um we translate it garrisoned
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we we have been garrisoned and in in those days the there would be troops that would be sent to a city or a town to protect them from their
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foes perhaps you would you would think of um our term protective custody not not because we've done something wrong
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but there is that protective custody that we are in a safe place under God's and this is the Greek
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God's continual watchfulness over us that's the idea of being garrisoned being protective custody or perhaps we
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would think and this is where my mind went think of the Israelites in Exodus chap 13 here's what we read the Lord was
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going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way and in a pillar of Fire by night to give them light that they might travel by day and
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by night he did not take away the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of Fire by night from before the people the the people were in the world he did not send
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them out out of the world he did not send them into a cloistered area into a hermetically sealed location out of the world they were in the world and yet his
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pillar of protection was around them that's the idea of being protected by God we are garrisoned by him he is with
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us and protecting us and David in his son Psalm 62 speaks of this
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power he's surrounded by people who are if you read Psalm 62 there's robbers there are murderers
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there are those who are practicing falsehood those who are their their whole moce or their own operation is in
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cursings and David says my soul waits in silence for God only but when he gets through all of these things he's looking at these men of he calls men of low
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degree he says once God has spoken two things that I have heard that power belongs to God and
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loving kindness is thine oh Lord two things he puts together God's power and his mercy and here the these folks that
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Peter is speaking to and us I think that though though dead Peter Still speaks we are protected by the power of
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God the power that belongs only to God he's reminding himself of what God has said but it's as if he has to repeat it
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over and over to himself do I understand this this truth power belongs to God just as surely as his
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mercy and I don't think I need to remind you what the scripture says there is no power like power like this in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 we read but we have this treasure in Earth and
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vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves we he says we are afflicted in every way but not crushed perlex and not
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despairing persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed the power of God we're Earth and vessels yes we are in the world but we're garrisoned by
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him we are protected by him and it is his power and what will be shown is that it's his power and not of
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ourselves and he further reminds us in 2 Corinthians for indeed speaking of Christ he was C crucified because of weakness yet he lives because of the power of God the same power that raised
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Jesus Christ from the dead is available to us for we also are weak in him yet we will live with him because of the power of God directed toward you see there is
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no power like this power and Peter says you you who are going to obtain that inheritance it's there for you you are
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protected by the power of God and doesn't he say in Romans chapter 1 the gospel is the power of God for
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salvation to everyone who believes there he puts Faith together with the power of God Peter says the power of
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God protects you through faith as I looked at this and as I thought about some things that the commentators
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say I I think true faith is a paradox the faith that identifies these
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identifies these people is people is also the faith that separates them from unbelievers around them the faith that that identifies and separates Believers
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from unbelievers is the same faith that identifies them as legitimate Heirs of Salvation it identifies them in the
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world as you're those people and yet to God it identifies them as you are mine the faith that alienates Believers
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from society is also the faith that provides them with the resources and encouragement to endure that alienation that's the
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Paradox so the question becomes what would prevent us from maintaining our allegiance to Christ until the end until that last time that Peter speaks of it
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can only be the three-letter word sin and where does sin come from what is its origin what is its source it's
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unbelief so God's power the power to protect us through faith must protect us
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unbelief and we see in that great chapter of faith in Hebrews chapter 11 it was God's power and yet what do we see of those people that the writer to the Hebrews tells us
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about Abel brought a better sacrifice than Cain by faith Noah surrounded by a wicked World built an ark by
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faith Abraham when he was called out of that sinful nation of the her of the caldes obeyed by faith
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but the question that many in the church want to ask so preacher is it the preservation of the Saints by the power of God or is the
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perseverance of the Saints by their faith well first of all we are not robots we we are not made some
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mechanical thing mechanical thing we are human beings and God treats us as moral agents and just as we use the means that
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he has given us yes we pray give us this day our daily bread but what do we do we use those means to nourish our bodies and to keep ourselves
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healthy and so we must use the means that he gives us to meet our responsibilities as responsibilities as Believers there are those in the church who will say no no no you never preach
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Eternal salvation because then people won't take life seriously they won't take the exhortation seriously they won't understand
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say well we're not under law we're fully under grace what we do does not matter
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I'm going to use an illustration that is going to sound crass and may disturb you some of you but I think it
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applies here years ago when I worked in Industry at the big French Tire Factory south of town one of my colleagues was giving a a
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talk on how to motivate people in the factory to to do a good job to do an excellent job in their building of tires and he used the illustration he
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said when my wife I take my wife out to some social event I always introduce her as my first wife so as to keep her on
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her toes God does not treat us like that God does not say well I have these provisional Christians and we'll see how they do God is not putting us through an
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obstacle course to see how we're going to perform God does not give us an entrance exam into heaven and say well you know if you
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if you pass do you understand trans substation if you get that wrong you can't come in that is not how God treats
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us Faith according to Paul in Ephesians is a gift of God not of Works hope is is a gift of God not of Works yet there is an intermediate agency and it is our
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faith Believers must exercise Faith to receive the final inheritance but what is faith faith is a continuing trust in the protecting and
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guarding and garrisoning of God's
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power Arthur pink in his book on eternal security says this quote God does not preserve his people by the mere putting forth of physical power but by renewing their Graces particularly their
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faith what does Paul write to the Philippians work out your own if one quoted in prayer this morning work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you both
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to Will and to work for his good pleasure Peter later on in his second letter says this seeing that his divine power has
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granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and Excellence he's given us
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everything the everything the means again the analogy we eat food that God has provided to prepare us to walk in this
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in this life we use the means that God has provided we ingest that so that we can walk in this
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life in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 if I can find the verse again I have to look it up
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Paul says of his message he says my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power so that your faith would not rest on the
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wisdom of men but on the power of God we have a responsibility to walk by faith and not by sight and yet it is trusting
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in the power of God to guide us and direct us direct us and God's power will sustain us in every trial and Temptation Peter is heading
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there in chap verse six of this chapter it's the same word that is in that misnamed Lord's Prayer it's our prayer
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lead us not into temptation lead us not into testing and whatever those Temptations what does Peter have in mind I think
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temptation to deny the faith to forsake Christ to go back into the world out of which we were
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called or at least the temptation to avoid the trials at all
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cost it is true we do not seek testing as Believers but we know that he will protect us when we face it
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we know that no genuine Faith exists
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testing but that is why we read and until one of the commentators essentially pointed it out to me I hadn't really noticed how many times in John chapter 17 Jesus High Priestly
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prayer prayer he uses the word keep keep them keep them keep them that's Jesus prayer for us he prays for his disciples
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and those who will believe keep them listen he says Holy Father keep them in your name the name which you have given me that they may be one even as we are
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one while I was with them I was keeping them in your name which you have given me and I guarded them he's praying that our heavenly father would use this
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garrisoning that this protect Ive custody with be with us always as we walk by walk by faith he says later in that same prayer
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I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one Peter says is recognizing you're in the world you're going to be
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in the world as aliens but I perhaps remembering the prayer that Jesus prayed for him I have prayed for
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you that when you return you will teach others and Peter is teaching them I went through this I live through this you're in the world I'm teaching you how God wants you to
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live in this world his protection through faith and Ephesians 1 we read this this verse again A Prayer of Paul for us but
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it's just again the awesomeness of this the Paul has this word picture that the eyes of your heart would be
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enlightened in chapter one I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the the
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surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe we don't walk alone we we we don't walk in in blind
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hope and and Blind Faith we trust him that he will protect us and and what are we protected for at the end of the verse the power of God
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through faith for us salvation Paul uh Peter describes our salv our inheritance sorry in terms of Salvation which is ready to be
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revealed the term salvation implies deliverance and the term ready implies future and there's a lot of things that
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we could say about this but I guess the first thing you could say about this is many Christians believe the moment you die you don't go straight up and turn right and see the Pearly Gates salvation is coming at the last
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time it will be revealed when Christ is revealed I believe it's the day of judgment the last great getting up
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day but we will not be completely saved until we are completely delivered from all dangers and in this life we are not completely delivered from all dangers yet Christ has begun a good work work in
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us but there's this this present day and then there's the future to come but Peter is speaking to us in our present
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walk there is remaining sin in us and our Salvation will not come until we've been delivered from that there are the assaults of Satan Peter's going to
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speak of that he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and there is the everyday on and on wickedness of the
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world our Salvation is ready to be revealed when God wills it at that great day and ready it's ready because there's
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nothing left to be done because Jesus death and his burial and his resurrection and his Ascension has ACH achieved it it's ready we don't add
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anything to it we do not consult with God on what it will be like it is ready
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us and I don't mean to this to be an afterthought but we have Peter has not really told us what this inheritance is but I have my idea
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not only is this inheritance reserved and ready but I think this inheritance is actually the Lord Jesus himself in chapter two of this letter
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Peter calls us some wonderful things among them being you are a royal
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priesthood and the priesthood the levitical priesthood did not have a section of land given to them by God because we read in numbers
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18 when the Lord has given Aaron the high priest all of these things to do and setting things out and how the sacrifices will go it's as if he draws
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Aaron aside and he says you shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among you
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you I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel and I believe from that moment on the Old Testament is clear and making or at least making clearer that our
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inheritance is not the land and it's not a building and it's not a place our inheritance is the Lord himself or as Edmund Clowney writes God
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claims his people as his inheritance and gives himself as their inheritance and I think it's our job not
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to argue over these things although I believe again the the emphasis is on our preservation or perseverance walking by faith because of his
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preservation but I think we do too little in marveling at God's workmanship and what he has done be in awe of his power bless God for so great a
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Salvation and then we can stand with the Apostle Paul and say this for I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in
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you will perfected until the day of Christ Jesus let us pray
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father these these things are high and wonderful these things are awesome and in the right sense of that word
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terrible because this is real this is you helping us to understand something
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virtually un Mis understandable not understandable how you protect us through faith for so great a
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Salvation And yet father you excite us you cause us to look forward to walking by faith to living in this world as the
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way you have called us to be knowing that you protect us knowing that you guide us knowing that you have sent your spirit to help us
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and so we rejoice in these things and yet father we pray that we would continue to be in awe we ask in Christ's
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name amen you please rise for the benediction from 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 Paul writes this to this end also we
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pray for you always that our God May count you Worthy of your calling and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of Faith with power in order
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that the name of the Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ amen