Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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They are Israelites, and to them
belong the adoption, the glory, the
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covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To
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Them Belong the Patriarchs, and from
their race, according to the Flesh,
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is the Christ, who is God
over all, blessed forever. A men
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and then also a Hebrews chapter eleven, Verse Eight, Hebrews Eleven, verse
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eight through Verse Sixteen. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to
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go out to a place that he
was to receive as an inheritance, and
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he went out not knowing where he
was going. By faith, he went
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to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living
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intense with Isaac and Jacob, airs
with him of the same promise, for
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he was looking forward to the city
that has foundations, whose designer and builder
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is God. By faith, Sarah
Herself received power to conceive even when she
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was past the age, since she
was, since she considered him faithful,
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who had promised. Therefore, from
one man and him as good as dead,
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were born descendants as as many as
the stars of Heaven and as many
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as the innumerable grains of sand by
the seashore. These all died in faith
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had not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them
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from afar and having acknowledged that they
were strangers and exiles on the Earth.
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For people who speak thus make it
clear that they are seeking a homeland.
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If they had been thinking of that
land from which they had gone out,
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they would have had opportunity to return, but as it is, they desire
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a better country, that is,
a heavenly one. Therefore, God is
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not a shame to be called their
God, for he has prepared for them
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a city you may be seated was. We continue our our tour through Romans
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Nine, verses four and five.
We come today to this word promises.
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This is, of one of the
other things that Paul lists in this list
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as distinctive marks of Israel, things
that belong to them, particularly as a
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people, as a nation under God, and we can think of these promises
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as being connected with the covenants.
Indeed, several of the things in this
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list are, and they're all interrelated
in one way or another. The giving
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of the law, for example,
is a particular marker, but it comes
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within the covenants that God made to
them. He has in mind particularly the
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Coven of Moses, we could say
the same thing about worship and the promises
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as well. There's a connection between
these two things. I think, for
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example, of glacians three seventeen.
Paul says, this is what I mean.
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The law which came four hundred and
thirty years afterward does not annull a
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covenant previously ratified by God so as
to make the promise void. You hear
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those words, covenant, law,
promise, all being used somewhat interchangeably to
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refer to a similar the same event, the same relationship that God established.
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Listen to how these words relate in
Efhesians to twelve. Remember that at that
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remember that you were, at that
time separated from Christ, alienated from the
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Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the
covenants of promise, having no hope and
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without God in the world. You
see what he's saying there. He says
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to us as gentiles, to the
Ephesians in particular, you were strangers to
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the covenants of promise. There's lots
of ways you can think about the covenants
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that God makes, made with his
people, but one of the ways that
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God wants us to pay attention to, one of the particular angles that were
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called to look at is the covenants
of promise, or promise as as an
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angle on that. Perhaps you've been
to a place where a view has been
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set up already, you know,
you drive out and you get out of
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your car to look at a particular
place and there's a there's some kind of
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monument perhaps, or a or even
a view finder that has preset angles.
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Right, you look through this one
and you see the thing or you look
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through this side and you see this
thing. That's essentially what's going on here.
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By giving us this word promises,
God is telling us to look at
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this particular angle of what he's doing
with his people, to consider how they
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belong to him in particular in this
special way by promise. So what are
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the promises? What does Paul have
in mind when he says promises to Israel?
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Well, we have to go back
again to the covenant that God made
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with them, beginning with Abraham.
When we go to Abraham Cha, sorry,
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hit to Genesis, which is very
much about Abraham. We go to
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Genesis, chapter twelve, verse one. Listen to the things, see if
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you can write them down or count
them on your fingers, that God promises
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here to Abraham Them. Now the
Lord said to Abram, go from your
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country and your kindred and your father's
house to the land that I will show
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you, and I will make of
you a great nation, and I will
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bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
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I will bless those who bless you, and he and him who dishonors
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you I will curse, and in
all the families of the earth you will
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be blessed. In this promise here
that God makes him in this covenant,
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we see several things promised, don't
we? We God promises him a land.
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He's going to show him a land, he's going to give it to
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him. I'm in Genesis, chapter
thirteen, verse five. We have this
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separation of Abraham and lot, and
God says to Abraham this land I will
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give to you. In Verse Fifteen, the Lord, or Verse Fourteen,
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the Lord says to Abraham, lift
up your eyes and look from the place
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where you are northward and southward and
eastward and westward, make a circle,
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turn around everything that you can see, for all the land that you see
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I will give to you and to
your offspring forever. I will make your
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offspring as the dust of the earth. So that if one can count the
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dust of the earth, your offspring
can also be counted. So God promises
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a land. God promises a great
nation. God promises his blessing in promising
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to bless those who bless him and
curse those who curse him. He promises
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a measure of justice. He promises
him protection, and there's this kind of
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worldwide ripple effect that God also promises
in you, all the families, all
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the nations on the earth will be
blessed. God drops a big pile of
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promises on this one person, Abraham, and these ripples extend out even to
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us. These are the promises that
God gave to Abraham and belong to Israel
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as his offspring. But these promises
that Paul has in mind come in a
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particular context. They come in the
context of a world that is sinful,
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a world that includes murder and lying, trickery, idolatry, confusion. We're
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only in Genesis chapter twelve when God
says this to Abraham. Do you remember
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what happens in Genesis One through eleven? They include these things that I mention.
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They include prideful people. The include
the peoples of the earth seeking to
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show their will as stronger than God's
erecting a tower even to the heavenly places.
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We see God confusing them there.
We see God wiping them out,
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so sinful they were in the flood. We see his curse coming down upon
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Adam and eve and their children after
the first sin. We see rape,
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we see idolatry, we see evils
of all kinds, and it is the
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same soup of sin in which we
also swim. The old world is not
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that much different from the modern world. We think about the particular people in
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the Old Testament facing very similar things
that we do today, like Moses having
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to choose between a family and wealth
and following God, people seeking healing from
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disease, or Hannah wanting, wanting
a child being barren. We see people
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looking for work, we see people
who are lost, we see people who
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are burdened, betrayed, trapped by
sin, in gorged by wealth and power,
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and on and on and on and
on. The story of the world
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that we have recorded in the very
first pages of the Bible is there a
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story of the world that is all
around us today. So when we sit
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here this morning and try to imagine
the context in which God drops these promises
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showers these promises onto Abraham. We
don't have to imagine that hard what it
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was like. The content of God's
promises come in the context of sin,
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and in that we come to see
God's great love and his graciousness. He
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didn't have to do this for Abraham. God didn't owe anything to this one.
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When God says in Romans nine four
that to them belong the promises of
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Israel, it's not by birthright.
It's by adoption, with which the list
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first began. God called this people
to himself and said you will be my
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son and I will be your father, not because they had any rights to
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these things, but because God loved
them even while they did not love him.
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So this is what Paul has in
mind when he says promises. We
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have to kind of get that out
there and just have a sense of what's
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being said. But we also have
to go a little bit deeper and understand
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something very particular about these promises.
You have to understand that God gave these
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promises, everlasting and universal promises,
in a very temporary and local form.
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Let me say that again. God
gives these promises, everlasting and universal promises
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in a temporary and local form.
So, for example, he promises to
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him the birth of offspring, even
a particular offspring, Isaac. It even
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gets it so particular that when Abraham
hat tries to have a child another way,
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God says no, not that one, this one he has in mind,
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a particular child with a particular name. But Isaac, as you may
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know, died. This great child
of promise, this great offspring that God
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promised to Abraham, eventually died.
Indeed, many of Abraham's children have died.
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Indeed all of Abraham's children have died. And there's all. There's something
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that takes away from the everlasting nature
of the promise in that. Or you
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can take the land. There is
this land that God promised to Abraham.
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Even says, look at it.
And when Abraham looked north and south and
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east and West, you know what
he saw? saw trees and rocks,
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maybe animals here walking this earth,
in this world, animals that he could
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have named, animals that he could
have caught, trees that he could have
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walked by or chopped down. A
very real world is he saw a very
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real land, a particular place with
a particular geography. And yet that temporary
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local form pointed to something else.
Do you remember that? From Hebrews Chapter
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Eleven, it says the Abraham saw
this land, but he always knew himself
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as a stranger and an exile.
How can that be? How can Abraham,
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who's been promised this land, the
land of Canaan, enter into that
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land, and even the people of
Israel enter into that land and yet be
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a stranger and an exile in it? Those things are put together by understanding
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that the temporary, local form of
the land pointed to something better. It
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pointed to something eternal and universal.
Do you remember what God says in Hebrews?
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He says they desired a better country. Better country, yes, a
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heavenly one. Abraham lived in tense, but God was designing for him a
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city that had foundations, and not
just rocks and mortar on the ground,
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but the foundation which would eventually be
Jesus Christ himself, the cornerstone of an
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everlasting city of God. This offspring
that was promised in Isaac was a temporary
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and local, or particular to that
time and place, form of a promise
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that would be eternal. Would Abraham
have everlasting offspring? Would Abraham give bull
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forth to the promised child who would
save the world in an eternal way.
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Yes, he would, and Paul
says that in Galatians he quotes the specific
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passages and he says, Hey,
did you notice back when God promised offspring
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to Abraham, he used the singular, not the plural. That interesting.
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Paul Making exegetical arguments from particular grammatical
points in the Old Testament text. As
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a side note, it says a
lot about Paul's Paul's faith and certainty in
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the texts of the Bible. But
Anyway, he confirms these things and he
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says here is Jesus, here is
the offspring that was promised. Yes,
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it was Isaac, yes it was
Jacob, yes, it was the children
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that were born after him, but
they all leading to something greater. The
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land was leading to something greater.
The child was leading to something greater.
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The nations on the Earth were blessed
too, through this people, through these
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promises. You remember Rahab right being
saved by God's people as they were coming
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into the land of Canaan. You
Remember Ruth Standing Outside the Covenant. Promises
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Sang to Naomi, let me in, I want to belong to you.
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These gentiles like us, who had
no right to belong to this people,
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no rights of the land, no
right to belong to the family, no
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right to any of these things.
And yet coming in, little by little,
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trickling trickling in. But this trickle
turns into this flood. When Jesus
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comes, these heavenly promises, these
eternal promises, become so great this people
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that were truly as innumerable as the
sands of the sea when they came out
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of Egypt are even greater now.
All found all over the world this morning,
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people worshiping from us, thousands of
miles away, worshiping the true and
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Living God. If it were not
for Jesus, if it were not for
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the promises to Abraham, you and
I would be worshiping rocks and trees and
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thunder storms and mountains, just like
our ancestors did. I don't know how
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far you have to go back to
find hard core idolatry in your family.
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For some of us it's not very
far. This is what we came from,
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this is what we've been saved to. We worship the God of Abraham,
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of Isaac and Jacob. We call
ourselves children of the promise, no
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longer strangers. As I read earlier
from Ephesians, to these convenants of promise,
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children of Abraham. Why? Because, these temporary, local forms of
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the promise, we're pointing to something
greater, something that has come to us
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in Jesus, something to which we
now belong. Why did God do this?
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Why did God give the promises in
these way, in this way?
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He did it for lots of reasons, all name two. One reason,
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as he wanted the people of God
and all those who are standing outside watching
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them, to understand how grand the
promises were that he were giving them.
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He wanted the Canaanites to look at
Israel established in the land and say,
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we're not gonna mess with the God
of Israel. He wanted them to understand
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the greatness. He wanted Israel to
understand how powerful he was, that when
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they marched around a city, it
would come tumbling down because God is great.
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He wanted them to understand that he
could save them by the word of
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his power. He could stop the
Sun, he could change the days,
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he could ruin a city, he
could bring a flood, he could cause
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people to fall down. He could
save his people. He could provide for
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them vineyards and orchards, lands and
Wells. In a moment. He could
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do these things and then, as
Israel would get established in their land,
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not only with peace and blessing security, but then the economy would grow and
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under solemn and a temple would be
built and people would look at this and
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say there's nothing like this in the
world. He wanted people to see the
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greatness of his promises, the glory
of God. But if all that is
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temporary and but a picture of things
to come, we get to see the
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greatness not only there but in what
they point to. As great as the
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land was, as great as the
victories were that God's people won, where
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the God that God won for his
people. They're just for tastes, like
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appetizers. The greatness of the temple
or these mighty victories that happen are like
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going to Costco and eating the samples. Kind of Nice, enjoyable, but
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not the real thing. It doesn't
compare to sitting down and having a feast.
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Or imagine if you're going to move
to another city and buy a home
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and you're looking at pictures on the
Internet. Wow, that looks really nice.
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It doesn't even come close to being
there. That's what it was.
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Where Abraham for Sarah, for Isaac
for Jacob, for Moses, for Israel,
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even as they lived in the land
and enjoyed these promised blessings, yet
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Hebrews says, they were still greeting
them from afar. They were seeing the
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heavenly city to come, the eternal
rest, the lasting protection of God and
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blessing and communion with him, as
if they were looking through a better homes
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and gardens. This is really nice. Maybe someday we could renovate. They
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were promised something eternal. So these
promises in this way taught them of the
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grandness, the greatness, the glory
of the things God was giving to him.
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But they also taught to them the
graciousness in which they would come,
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or by the grace in which they
would come, because you know what would
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happen? These promises, in a
temporary way, would be tied to their
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obedience, not eternally, but in
this temporary form, in such a way
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that God said, you can enjoy
living in this house, you can belong
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to me and enjoy this land,
but only if you obey. And you
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know what? They didn't obey and
they lost those blessings, they lost the
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promises, everything fell out from underneath
them because of their sin. God wanted
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that to happen. Not He wanted
them to sin, but he wanted this,
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this event, to happen. He
wanted all of this to fall out
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according to his plans, so that
these people, both those in the mixed
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hat and it was with happening to
them, and US gentile standing outside looking
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in, would see something. We
would see something happening here and we would
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see that these promises cannot be earned, they cannot be purchased by our obedience.
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It's impossible. They didn't do it, they couldn't do it. God
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wanted us to see the holiness that
was to be attached to the promises,
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but he wanted to see that his
long as our hearts were sinful, we
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couldn't obtain them, that death and
curse, we're always blocking the way,
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and that in order to obtain the
eternal things promised, God would need to
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provide an eternal answer, a righteousness
which is not like our own, but
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a righteousness which is everlasting and perfect
and holy. And he does that in
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Christ. Knowing the grand and gracious
nature of the promises helps us to understand
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how it is we belong to Israel. If we think of the promises,
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is being tied only to that time
and place, then we make two errors.
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One is that we might despair as
those standing outside and say, well,
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we don't belong, it's not ours. And even if they were,
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they've been lost. The people were
exiled, kicked out, dispersed across the
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world. Another error we might make
and if we see them only in this
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temporary way, as we fail to
see that how they are tied to the
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life after the promised blessings that come
to us in Jesus. But the great
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benefit of seeing them and hearing the
scripture as it speaks to us in this
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way, is what it's saying is
this. Paul is saying that the promises
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belonged to Israel. Yes, they
did, but they also belong to you,
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who believe and put your faith in
the offspring of Abraham, Jesus Christ,
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who came and who established for us
a heavenly city in which we dwell.
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Let me bring us to a conclusion
by speaking about the nature of promises.
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We live our lives on the basis
of promises. Every actioning we take,
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everything that we do, even if
we're not thinking about it at the
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moment, is really and truly relying
on certain promised things. You wake up
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in the morning, you throw your
feet out of bed and they land on
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the floor and you don't think about
it twice because you expect that your bedroom
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is not on top of a sinkhole. Right. you get out of bed
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and you stand up and you brush
your teeth and you put your contacts in
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and you move about Your Day,
knowing that the ground is going to be
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there. You Trust it, right, you trust it, and there's a
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thousand examples we can give. Maybe
you go on a vacation. There's all
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kinds of things you're trusting on as
you move away from your normal support system,
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that you're expecting are going to be
there, friends and family if you
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get in trouble, that your map
is correct, that the cell phone towers
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are working, that the weather is
going to work, that your car is
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going to be in working order.
We have all of these things, thousands
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and thousands of things that we are
constantly depending on, and yet we know
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that all of these things, these
earthly temporal things, can fail, cell
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phone towers go down, friends and
family can't be reached, the wealth that
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we thought we have disappears. Are
Importance in that we thought we had at
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work or in our neighborhoods, all
of a sudden is diminished, our value
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in our communities, the skills and
abilities we have, all these things break
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fall away. But we don't need
these things if we truly have God,
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if we truly have his promises of
life. This is how Christians can go
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out into the world and say,
friends and family may leave me, wealth
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may disappear, but I'll be okay
because I have Jesus, and in Jesus
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I have all the promised blessings of
Abraham. I have a place to live
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heaven itself. I have a God
who loves me, Yahwe himself. I
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have a God who will protect me. I don't need to fear. Jesus
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has conquered death itself. The worst
thing that could happen is I would die,
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and it would be the beginning of
life everlasting. This is why Christians
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can be burned at the stake and
thrown into lion's dends and beheaded and worse.
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That's how the Chapter I was reading
in Hebrews Eleven concludes, with Christians
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who, by faith, sharing that
same faith with Abraham, go out into
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the world as strangers and exiles,
saying it's going to be okay, because
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God has promised, and his promises
never ever fail. God doesn't get it
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wrong, the mechanics of the system
he builds don't fall apart, he doesn't
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change his mind or his will,
doesn't lose strength. All these kinds of
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things happen with us. We experienced
them over all the time, but not,
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but not with God. Things die, break down, fail to work,
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but Jesus rose from the dead.
Jes Jesus rose from the dead.
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He did not die and stay dead, he awoke and rose to everlasting life
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and promises that we will rise with
him. Indeed, we already have in
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belonging to him. One of the
great shames of people that recognize the failures
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and brokenness and disintegration of all the
things around them is that they go on
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these great quests to find and discover
the things that God has already brought right
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to them. People Climb Mountain seeking
gurus to tell them how they could have
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eternal peace, life, protection happiness, when meanwhile the son of God has
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come down to Earth, right where
we are, to give us light and
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life and blessing and to fulfill all
the promises. These promises began when God
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gave them to Israel, and this
small portion of humanity began to experience in
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a temporary way, in a this
earthly way, his blessing, his protection,
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his forgiveness. But they were brought
to fulfillment when the blood of Christ
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purchased these things eternally, and not
just for a small portion of humanity but
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for the whole world, not just
for one people but for all people's Jews
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and gentiles alike. Christ came through
the Patriarchs to bless us all, and
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in this we have promises fulfilled and
we look forward to the consummation of all
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of these things. You might think
of the promises of God like a train,
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one promise netlext to another, next
to another, next to another,
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linked together, moving through history,
chuggle, Chug, chuggle, stopping at
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various points, in places for people
to get on, for people to join.
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And that's what he has given to
us. In Jesus Christ, he
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says, by faith, become children
of Abraham. Get on the train.
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We're going to a heavenly city where
all of these things will be lasting,
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unbreakable forever. This is the home
to which we are called. We are
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strangers and exiles right now, but
so is Abraham. He hoped in a
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heavenly city. Let us hope so
as well. This is the promise of
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God. It is sure, we
can trust it. Let us pray
