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in reading through verse 12 is one sentence and to uh set the context the full context of Peter's opening encouragement to the Believers I'm going to read that whole
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section 1 Peter 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
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again to a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not
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fade away reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time in this you
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greatly Rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary you have been distressed by various trials that the proof of your faith being more precious
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than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ and
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though you have not seen him you love him and though you do not see him now but believe in him you greatly Rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of Glory
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obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls as to this salvation the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would
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come to you made careful search and inquiry seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the
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sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you in
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these things which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel To You by The Holy Holy Spirit Sent From Heaven things into which Angels long to look let us
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pray Our Father we do that you would bring new light to our eyes new thoughts to our
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ears that you would truly by your Holy Spirit um as PA pray of our heart that we might know the the mag magnitude with
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the Excellency of the Salvation to which you have brought us in Christ and so we ask that by your Holy Spirit you would speak again as you spoke to the prophets
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as you spoke through the apostles as you speak through preachers of the Gospel even today speak and we ask that you would be glorified in these
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things knowing that we are but uh Jars of Clay and yet being those stars of clay you have given
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us this preciousness of the gospel and the Salvation in Salvation in Christ but father may it always be that the glory is not ours but yours in
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Christ's name we pray amen the open of Peter's letter says a lot
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about encouragement a lot about the advantages we have as Christians and I believe it says a lot about continuity of the scripture we have a lot here to
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be for the new birth The Living Hope the inheritance that's imperishable undefiled will never fade away our faith
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brought to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Christ seeing as he says the certainty of obtaining a
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Salvation that think well Peter you you've captured all that now let's get on to the application or to say it a little more crestly I guess when I first moved here to
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Greenville we were looking for a church and I don't remember if it was someone in a church or someone at work someone in probably in my neighborhood who would speak this way but they said well if
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you're evaluating the preacher remember he ain't preaching until he gets to medin and I guess that was his way of saying
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application I would never describe any of Paul or Peter or John's writing as meddling I would never describe preaching that way that is very
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demeaning but there are those who would say get on with it Peter tell me what I'm supposed to do and we have this word in verse 13
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therefore and as my brother-in-law used to say to say you have to understand what the therefore is therefore and I I I say that to say that Peter's not finished he
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he didn't end with verse 9 and go immediately into the therefore gird up your minds he has to say something else that is the
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is the foundation it it it's the unity of the covenants it's the unity of the old and and the New Testament that sets the
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stage for the exhortations that will follow and without 10 through 12 I think we we miss what the Theologian Richard
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lensy says we miss the basis of the Gospel of Jesus Christ if we don't have verses 10- verses 10- 12 and and so when I read and I'm trying
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to understand that we were in a dispensationalist church uh in Vermont before we moved here and I didn't pick up a lot of these things but my
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understanding is that many Christians and perhaps dispensationalists look at the Old Testament and the prophecies and say therefore
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say therefore Israel they're for the physical Israel or they're for the literal Israel but they're not for the church and I guess if I could put Paul's
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words into Peter's mind it would be it never be God forbid that you would think that way because what he says here is that
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the prophets are the administrators of a Great Estate that that without the prophets and the Holy Spirit in the prophets you
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would not understand the the gospel and therefore how you ought to live in the gospel as he says because God is Holy be holy your yourselves and all your
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conduct and so here what we see in these verses is a connection from verse 9 obtaining the outcome of your your faith
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the salvation of your souls and Peter says let me speak concerning that salvation because you need to understand this yes it is the outcome of your faith
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it is the crowning consummation of your faith and there is an expectation on that great getting up morning that that salvation will come to
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completion that complete deliverance that you have in Christ and and because you know that and you see that your love that you have for Christ and the faith
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that you have in him and the joy that results in all of these things is yours so despite your
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suffering know that you will one day see Jesus as he is and you will jubilate now and you will jubilate
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then salvation will be complete in the future but Believers experience that salvation now but this salvation that you experience now was prophesied by the
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prophets in the Old Testament in the past the prophets he says who prophesied of the grace that would come to
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you without those prophets again something that we understand or the gospel would be missing and Peter is saying it's a
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privilege and an advantage that you know this because the prophets only saw it from afar and what we have here is a very
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important hermeneutical principle and it's a principle that guides Peter Peter as he seeks not only to educate his readers but it's again the basis of his
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encouragement to them and his exhortation to them as what we've already seen in chapter one The their resident aliens now remember hermeneutics simply
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put is the science of interpreting the original author's meaning what did the original author really intend to say and I think the goal of biblical
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hermeneutics is to try to discover the intention of the author big a God what did God say and the intention of the little a author the
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prophet and we I think sometimes get in this rut of thinking that prophecy is always prediction predicting future
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events but as Grant Osborne in his book The hermeneutical spiral writes the prophet was a forth teller before he was
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a for teller in other words the the prophet is passive and active he he's passive and he moved by the Holy Spirit Peter tells us that in his second letter
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moved by the Holy Spirit and they receive the word of God but they're also active and their activity is he interprets that word and he proclaims
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God's message to others that's primarily activity so the principle is that I think Peter brings out here is
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that propety prophecy is not limited just to the subject of Jesus ministry his life and death and resurrection and
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Ascension we think you know we look for those prophecies in Isaiah what it would be like his suffering and those things but what Peter is saying is
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that we should not fall into the Trap of thinking that we as Christians have
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somehow that was predicted of of Christ and now we've moved into some new religion we've moved
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into a new religion founded upon this this man this man Jesus what he's saying you were grafted into to A continuing work that God
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revealed in in Israel in ancient Israel and through the prophets brings to
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you and so the prophecies include the new epic by Jesus resurrection inaugurated for you and I think the you that Peter speaks here
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includes you you all we've been grafted in to this continuing work of
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work of God God's mysterious Plan of Salvation his Plan of Redemption was revealed to the prophets and we have been privileged with that same
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knowledge as Karen jobes writes in her commentary this Unity of the prophetic message of the Old Testament and the Christian Gospel is the basis on which
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Peter will use the teaching teachings and ethics of the Old Testament to exhort and instruct his readers Peter has to tell them these
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things there are some who believe that he's speaking only to Gentiles perhaps there was a mix of Gentiles and Jews but what he's saying is the Old
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it the Old Testament was not just applied to New Testament Believers it was intended for
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them and the prophets we have it over the prophets look what they do the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry seeking to know they they wanted to know
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the Greek is is a doubling it's a doubling for emphasis they earnestly sought and they earnestly searched they they longed to understand the period that they saw as Grace that would come
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us my thought was that these prophets are not like the news writers that I read on the internet have you ever read an AR article and then you wondered did the author of this actually read what they wrote I mean and I can understand
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why doctors Hartman and Hartman and Dr failer are frustrated that their students cannot write anything that's coherent but I think the prophets were
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different because it says they gave careful search and inquiry wanting to know I think they got a revelation they didn't just again it wasn't to them as
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if they were saying things that they did not comprehend or that their readers did not comprehend but it was just well this is the word of God and this is what they searched and inquired about these
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things Daniel was one in Daniel 12 he's he's being escorted around by Michael the guardian angel of Israel and and he
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says as for me I heard but could not understand so I said my Lord what will be the outcome of these events there's an example of a prophet who was
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entrusted with great and precious things and he was saying I I want to understand what do these things mean when will these things come about and it is confusing in the Greek
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in verse 11 seeking to know the newest New American Standard says what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was in indicating these things I I the
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second part the time makes sense in the Greek they wanted to know what time wouldn't it be natural for you to have received a revelation of something that
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would happen and wanting to know will this great thing happen in my lifetime among my among my hearers but the first part of it I don't
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think they were asking and seeking inquiring with respect to who Jesus who the Messiah would be rather I think it
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is that they're considering the unimaginable because look what they're looking at they wanted to know what the time or what the time the spirit of
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Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow the these men do not have that
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concept that the Messiah the Christ the anointed one was going to suffer and so their inquiry is not who the person is but
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what circumstances would lead to the Messiah being crucified the unimaginable the tragic they wanted to
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know how could these things be the sufferings and then the glories to follow how does this work that is what they're longing to understand what is
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how is the grace of God manifest in things but they had the Holy Spirit their inquiry was into what the
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Holy Spirit or the spirit of Christ was indicating with respect to Christ's sufferings it was Christ's Spirit witnessing before hand and revealing
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these things to the Old Testament prophets and that same Spirit of Christ was at Jesus baptism coming down as a
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dove Al Lighting on him proclaiming him as the Messiah and that same holy spirit that inspired the first century
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preachers that used the Old Testament prophecies inspired by the spirit of Christ and presented the gospel inspired by the spirit of Christ and ministered
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to these people so that the Old Testament ministers ministered to Peter's readers and still minister to us
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today here again is a continuity a continuity between the Old Testament and New Testament in the presence of the spirit of Christ The Gospel of God's grace in
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Christ is centered on his suffering and the glories to follow and of course Jesus as I my quotation this morning not only do the
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pro prophecies witness of Jesus but Jesus Witnesses through the prophecies and Jesus the spirit of Jesus is in the past Jesus was in the present
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as we read this morning in John what our hands have held what our eyes beheld in the prophecies are also in the future
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Revelation the spirit witnessed to the prophets still witnesses to us today in the preaching of the word but even in Jesus day and Peter was there when Jesus
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spoke many spoke many things but the instance that I would pick out this morning is those two disciples on the road to Emmas after the
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resurrection and they they tell Jesus not knowing that it was Jesus some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women said but him we did not
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see and Jesus said to them oh foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these
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things and to enter his glory then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the
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scriptures again Richard lensy writes the New Testament gospel rests on the Old Testament Old Testament testimony cancel that testimony and you
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remove the basis of the gospel of Christ do you see we can't be like those who would say the Old Testament prophecies are not they're not for the
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church they're missing they're missing the foundation of the gospel and I would say that your ethics your morality and all that you build is
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an empty shell because it's not built on the word of God as revealed by the spirit in the past and the present in
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future but you know that it was not always Peter's view of these things to think this way even after that great day when when Jesus asked his disciples who do men say that I am and Peter says you
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are the Christ the son of the Living God immediately after that in Mark chapter 8 we read about Jesus and he began to teach them that the son of man
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must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after 3 days rise days rise again and he was stating the matter plainly and Peter took him aside and
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began to rebuke them rebuke him but turning around and seeing his disciples he rebuked Peter and said get behind me Satan for you are not setting your mind
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on God's interests but man Peter had seen the seen the Messiah as he healed people and as he preached he had heard him teach the word
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Miracles but the for witness of the prophets helped Peter later to see the necessity of Jesus sufferings and death then he began to see the glories that
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followed suffering precedes glor glory to the prophets and in Jesus as he has said to Peter or to the men that the
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Christ must suffer these things and then enter into his glory suffering precedes Glory because Christ's blood opened the way to
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Glory the prophets as one writer said quote the prophets provide a confirming witness that a crucified man would indeed be the long awaited Messiah see now now Peter began to
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understand as he looked at the Prophecies of the Old Testament as I I think again he the difference was he had seen the suffering Christ he had seen
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him in the garden he had heard about those who had witnessed and he he went and he looked in the Tomb and I think then he could put these things together
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and then he could help his reader understand the same thing the crucifixion was no tragic accident it
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wasn't a mistake on God's part and our suffering our suffering is not a sign that Jesus has abandoned us or that he's
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betrayed us it is a sign that he is still the Lord and He will bring us us with him to glory and we have fellowship with
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said Remember the Christ of Glory is the Christ of the Cross and the confirming Witness by the spirit encouraged the
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prophets and their hearers in Galatians 3 Paul writes the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to who
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Abraham saying all the nations will be blessed in you see there was a confirming to the prophets as they sought and inquired these things there the yes they saw it from
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afar but they had faith it wasn't a different salvation for them they saw these things and the spirit of God showed them and by faith they beli these
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things and certainly this confirming witness of the prophets encourag Peter's generation and it's meant to encourage our generation as well Thomas Reiner
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writes in his book The Old Testament prophecies not only apply to Peter's readers but they were intended for them as I said before or as Abigail prayed simply
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Hebrews 12 fix your eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith who for the joy set before him endured
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the cross despised the shame and sits at the right hand of the Throne of God on high the sufferings precede the glory
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but the glory is there and it's our privilege to see these things and on this Foundation Peter says you're recipients of a great
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Advantage the value of our Salvation is is is is high our knowledge of God's Redemptive plan and his work is superior
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it's superior to the prophets because they had to search and inquire and try to understand these things so historically our knowledge is superior
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to the prophets and Peter goes on to say these are things these things the sufferings not of
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Believers but the sufferings and the glory of Jesus even the angels long to look into these things so cosmically our knowledge is
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superior to the angels and the Angels were not inactive as well some people think well they just kind of peeped in yeah that's what I do
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in a textbook it's like o I got to study this they remember what Peter did when he went to the tomb he stooped and he looked in to
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discover that's what the Angels did they stooped to look in from without and they wanted to see this salvation the sufferings of Christ and his crucifixion and Glory at his
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resurrection and our advantage was already announced by Jesus himself he says blessed are you because your eyes see
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and your ears are blessed because they hear for truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it and
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to hear what you hear and did not hear it Peter's readers were marginalized they were disrespected they had lost
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respect in their society and yet they were in a most advantageous position the UN of God's work in both
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the Old and the new covenants will now allow Peter to help us apply the exhortations and the ethics from the Old Testament to our lives
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today our knowledge of God's Redemptive plan the salvation of our souls that he speaks of in verse n and his plan for us
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as he's going on to say be ye holy as the Lord your God is Holy because you are chosen aliens and your knowledge is greater
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than Moses your knowledge is greater than Isaiah greater than Daniel greater than the angels and the archangels of Heaven the prophets saw this great
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salvation that you have but they saw it from afar the Angels long to look in and understand your salvation
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and they Marvel at it but it but we Believers in Christ now we actually experience it let us
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pray our heavenly father I do pray that we those eyes that you've given us the ears that you've given us we will really see and hear and father we we don't wish
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to go back as the psalmist said back to our Folly back to our lives that were no good but we want to live in this
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salvation that you have so graciously given to us the Salvation proclaimed by the prophets through the apostles and now to now to us and so father give us a hunger for
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the word to read to study to find these things that the prophet wondered at and the angels marveled at
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and that you've given to us for a great advantage to walk in a manner that pleases you we ask that you would do this please build your church in
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Christ's name we pray amen please rise for the
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15 Paul writes for for whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instructions that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope now may the God who
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gives perseverance and encouragement Grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus that with one Accord we may with one voice glorify the God and father of our
