Sunday Morning, September 20, 2020 AM

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Michael Dirrim Pastor of Sunnyside Baptist Church OKC "Praise the Lord for His Works" (Part 4) Psalm 111:1-10

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Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Sunnyside this morning.
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Beautiful day outside. We can praise the Lord for that today. Few announcements as we get started.
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Evening service tonight, 530 here at the church. Come back for that. Also, tag and prayer time at 630.
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Again, just a reminder, there is a meal before that, but it's only for tag families or if you're helping out in tag.
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That starts at 645. And then looking ahead, Sunday, September 27th, truth group for the young adults.
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That's after the evening service. Our fight or verse for this week is in the
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Psalms, Psalm 73, verses 25 and 26. Whom have
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I in heaven but you? There is none on earth that I desire besides you.
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My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
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Check your calendars on September 26th, Saturday, 7 a .m.
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If you're able to help, we're going to have a church workday here at the church. If you can help, there are actually some jobs that are posted out on the bulletin board in the hallway.
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If you look, I think there's like a bluish poster near the bottom of the bulletin board.
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The sign up is actually kind of over the top of that a little bit. You can sign up for specific jobs if you are interested in something or maybe are gifted in that.
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But that's out in the hallway. Again, September 26th, this coming Saturday at 7 a .m.
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or as Brian would say, oh 700 hours. Just a reminder, offering plate is on the back table.
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So give your tithes and offerings back there and then the nursery is also available. Any other questions or announcements this morning?
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All right. We do have Brother Red on the piano this morning as Brian and Lisa are out today.
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So we look forward to having him help us with music this morning. All right.
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Well, we're going to prepare our hearts for worship and then after Randy will lead us in prayer. Dear Father, we are truly thankful to be here this morning just to worship, to praise you.
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And I pray that you would just encourage our hearts as we hear your word preached.
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I pray for Michael that you'd give him freedom to share what you put on his heart. Father, we just thank you for the
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Psalms. We just thank you for just the encouragement they are and the privilege it is to offer praise to you and thankfulness to you for all that you've done for us.
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I pray that we just reflect on what you have done for us. And I pray that during these times of a lot of unrest that you would just give us freedom to share the goodness of Christ with others.
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And Father, I pray that you would just use us as your instruments. I pray that you would just encourage our hearts today as we meet together.
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And I just thank you for each one here. I thank you for those that are not able to come, but we just want to give you thankfulness and praise for Jesus.
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And we ask these things in his name. Amen. Well, good morning.
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With Brian and Lisa gone, and with J. Roberts gone, you've got
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Third String leading music today. The Lord will bless.
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I invite you to stand with me, and we're going to read together the call to worship,
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Psalm 47, verses 8 and 9. Let's read this together.
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It's in your bulletin if you need it. God has gone up with a shout, the
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Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises.
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Sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the
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King of all the earth. Sing praises with a psalm. Amen.
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Well, let's turn in our hymnals to 275. We're going to sing
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How Firm a Foundation, number 275. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the
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Lord. It is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
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Much more can he say than to you he hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled.
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Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, for I am thy
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God and will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand.
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When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, thy grace all sufficient shall be thy supply.
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The flame shall not hurt thee, I only disdain, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
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The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
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I will not, I will not desert to its foes.
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That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
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I'll never, no, never, no, never mistake.
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Kyle, come and read the word for us. This morning's scripture reading is in Deuteronomy.
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We'll be looking in Deuteronomy chapter 19, reading through the whole chapter.
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Deuteronomy 19, verse 1. When the Lord your God cuts off the nations whose land the
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Lord your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses, you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the
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Lord your God is giving you to possess. You shall measure the distances and divide into three parts the area of the land that the
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Lord your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.
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This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past, as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, he may flee to one of these cities and live, lest the avenger of blood and hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past.
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Therefore I command you, you shall set apart three cities, and if the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers, provided you are careful to keep all his commandment, which
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I commanded you today, by loving the Lord your God and by walking ever in his ways, then you shall add three other cities to these three, lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the
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Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.
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But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him, and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.
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Your eyes shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may be well with you.
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You shall not move your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the
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Lord your God is giving you to possess. A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime, or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed.
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Only on the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses shall a charge be established.
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If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the
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Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother.
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So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.
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Your eyes shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
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Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you for the timelessness of your word.
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We thank you that you are a God of justice. Father, you have put it inside each of us to desire justice.
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Father, though we often sin, pervert justice, seek our own justice, justice that is often flawed and partial, help us to yield to your perfect justice.
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Father, thank you for the blessing of your law. Thank you for being a
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God who cares about the affairs of men. Father, we ask your blessing on our time this morning.
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Pray that you just might give Michael your words, that he might communicate them clearly, that we might receive them full of hope and expectation that you are to do your will in our lives.
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Father, thank you for this time of worship. Thank you for this church. We ask this in Jesus' name.
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Amen. You may be seated. Let's open our hymnals now and turn to 195.
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Nothing But the Blood. ♪ ♪
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What can wash away my sin?
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♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus. ♪ What can make me whole again?
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♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus. ♪
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All precious is the flow ♪ that makes me white as snow.
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♪ No other fount I know, ♪ nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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♪ All my pardon this I see, ♪ nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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♪ For my cleansing this my plea, ♪ nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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♪ All precious is the flow ♪ that makes me white as snow.
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♪ No other fount I know, ♪ nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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♪ Nothing but the sin but of Jesus, ♪ naught of good that I have done, ♪ nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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♪ All precious is the flow ♪ that makes me white as snow.
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♪ No other fount I know, ♪ nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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♪ This is all my hope and peace, ♪ nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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♪ This is all my righteousness, ♪ nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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♪ All precious is the flow ♪ that makes me white as snow.
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♪ No other fount I know, ♪ nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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♪ When we walk with the
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Lord ♪ in the way
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He sheds on our way, ♪ while we do
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His good will, ♪ He abides with us still, ♪ and with all who will trust and obey.
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♪ Trust and obey, ♪ for there's no other way ♪ to be happy in Jesus, ♪ but to trust and obey.
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♪ Not a shadow can rise, ♪ not a cloud in the skies, ♪ but His smile quickly drives it away.
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♪ Not a doubt nor a fear, ♪ not a sigh nor a tear ♪ can abide while we trust and obey.
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♪ Trust and obey, ♪ for there's no other way ♪ to be happy in Jesus, ♪ but to trust and obey.
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♪ Not a burden we bear, ♪ not a sorrow we share, ♪ but our toil
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He doth richly repay. ♪ Not a grief nor a loss, ♪ not a frown nor a cross, ♪ but as blessed if we trust and obey.
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♪ Trust and obey, ♪ for there's no other way ♪ to be happy in Jesus, ♪ but to trust and obey.
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♪ But we never can prove ♪ the delights of His love ♪ until all on the altar we lay.
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♪ For the favor He shows ♪ and the joy
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He bestows ♪ are for them who will trust and obey.
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♪ Trust and obey, ♪ for there's no other way ♪ to be happy in Jesus, ♪ but to trust and obey.
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♪ And in fellowship sweet ♪ we will sit at His feet ♪ or we'll walk by His side in the way.
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♪ What He says we will do, ♪ where He sends we will go.
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♪ Never fear, only trust and obey. ♪
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Trust and obey, ♪ for there's no other way ♪ to be happy in Jesus, ♪ but to trust and obey.
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I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Psalm 111.
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Psalm 111. As we continue to think together on all the different works of the
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Lord, which He deserves praise. Psalm 111.
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Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I thank You for what
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You have afforded us here today, that we're able to gather together in Your name.
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And thus we know that we're gathering together in communion and fellowship with our Savior, with our Sovereign Jesus Christ, and by His Holy Spirit that we have communion with You, our
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God. This is most blessed, and it is such a precious gift from You.
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We thank You. We thank You that we may gather today in joy, that we may gather together today in freedom.
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Lord, we thank You for the gift of Your Holy Word, that it is clear and true and perfect and right and sufficient and authoritative and is sharper than any two -edged sword, and that it is the scepter of our
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Savior's Lordship in our lives. And I pray that You would lead us to submit ourselves to the text.
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And I pray that You would help us to submit ourselves to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who speaks to us here.
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Have Your way in us, that we would be the amen on earth of Your will that is in heaven. We pray these things for Christ's sake, the one with whom
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You are well pleased. Amen. So Psalm 111 covers a lot of ground, and I find myself time and again asking myself all sorts of questions about what in the world is going on in the verse, and so we're taking our time, obviously.
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But we're going to be looking at verse 6 this morning as we consider how God gave His people a place and how
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He demonstrated His power and His glory in giving His people a place and what kind of joy and hope that we have in this very same truth that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
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So if you would please stand with me, I'm going to read the Psalm again.
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Psalm 111. Praise the Lord.
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I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart in the company of the upright and in the assembly.
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Great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them. Splendid and majestic is
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His work, and His righteousness endures forever. And He has made His wonders to be remembered.
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The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He has given food to those who fear Him. He will remember
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His covenant forever. He has made known to His people the power of His works in giving them the heritage of the nations.
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The works of His hands are truth and justice. All His precepts are sure.
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They are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness.
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He has sent redemption to His people. He has ordained His covenant forever. Holy and awesome is
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His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do
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His commandments. His praise endures forever. This is the word of the
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Lord. You may be seated. About 12 years ago, someone thought it would be a fun thing for Becca and I and 18 -month -old
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Benjamin to tour the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina.
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This modest little chateau is situated on 8 ,000 acres, and it offers 175 ,000 square feet of living space.
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175 ,000 square feet of living space. And if you are doing the math, yes, that is a little more than four acres of indoor space.
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And this was the personal home of Mr. Vanderbilt, who was the railroad tycoon who once advised, never sell anything you don't own.
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Now, of course, we don't know. We didn't know. Becca and I didn't really have any concept of the history of the
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Vanderbilts, the legacy of him or his family.
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We didn't know anything about the architect who oversaw the construction of the
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Biltmore or architecture in general. We had no appreciation for late 19th -century architecture, had no experience from European tours to make an appreciable comparison, and we didn't even spring for the $7 .50
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earphone prerecorded tour device to listen to all the different places of interest along the tour.
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So all we did was push a stroller and haul a 35 -pound, 18 -month -old linebacker through four acres of gaudy, furnished, empty house.
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And I think we even opted not even to go to the fourth floor because the stairs were getting rather tiresome.
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My appreciation for that structure, for what was all included in it, how much engineering was essential to that, how much art was invested in that, it was all incredibly muted.
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I mean, I knew it was big, I knew it was old, and I knew it was lavish, but everything else was lost on me.
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That type of muted appreciation should not be accepted as the standard fare for the worshipers of God.
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I think at some level that's understandable for anybody who's young in the faith, who is just getting to know who
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Christ is and who God is as Creator. But surely there should be some growth in understanding the glories and the works of the
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Lord. It would be awfully dreary, wouldn't it? Awfully dreary to just rattle around the vast riches of God's works and remain only generally impressed with their size, with their scope.
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There were several attractions on the grounds of the Biltmore that tried to keep people coming back or keep people around, but they didn't help me at all appreciate the architecture of the building or its history.
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They tried to entice my affections with Dippin' Dots ice cream and wine tasting and horseback riding and fireworks.
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That probably kept some of the tourists there longer, but they had nothing to do with the house itself.
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Likewise, many have added coffee bars and shopping and amusement parks and pyrotechnics to their churches, and that may keep some people longer, but that doesn't have anything to do with the works of God and His glory in creation and recreation.
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Not really. If we're going to excite God's worship, we need to examine God's works, and in particular, the works that we have in front of us today to consider is how that God, in the ways of His covenant, through powerful works, provides a place for His people.
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Last time we talked about how He redeemed for Himself a people and He sends them bread from heaven.
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We talked about our redemption in Jesus Christ, how He is our manna from heaven, how
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He has saved us from bondage and given us eternal life, and we give Him praise for His works of salvation, saving for Himself a people.
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But also, we see God's works in His place, not just His works for His people, but His works in His place, and this is all under the heading of His works for the works of the
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Lord in the ways of His covenant. Three ingredients. Time and time again we see that God has His people and He brings them into His place and He blesses them under His rule.
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And so we've talked about God's people in verses 5 and 9. What about verse 6, where we learn about how to praise
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God for the power of His works in gifting to His people, to bring to His people a place, or bring them into His place.
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So verse 6 again says, He has made known to His people the power of His works in giving them the heritage of the nations.
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So the psalmist in composing this alphabetical acrostic has placed the heading at the very top,
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Praise the Lord. Everything else he mentions in this psalm, as he goes through the Hebrew alphabet, is under this heading.
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Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for this. Praise the Lord for that. Look at all the different things we have given to us by a good and gracious and loving and powerful
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God. And we can give Him praise. We can just follow this list and give Him praise for one thing after another.
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And this is included to give praise to the Lord. Why? Because He has made known to His people the power of His works.
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In what way in particular? He gave them the heritage of the nations.
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Well, what was the power of His works?
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How powerful were these works that we should praise Him concerning? And what about this heritage of the nations?
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What kind of heritage was it? What kind of land was this? We need to consider the details of this gift that God gave to His people.
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And we should ask the question, do we as the people of God, redeemed by Christ, have anything to say in praise of God for His powerful works in giving us a place?
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Let's consider these matters. First of all, let's consider God's provision. It says that He gave them the heritage of the nations.
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They certainly were involved in this process, but it is His gift. He gave them the heritage of the nations.
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Now, what was this heritage? It was land. And everything that goes with land, the houses that had been built there, the fields that had been plowed, the wells that had been dug, all of the infrastructure of the land, the roads, this land was given to His people.
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He gave this land to His people. Well, what is the history of this land? What is the history of the promised land?
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Well, God came to Abraham, who was a pagan in the land of Ur, probably worshipped the moon god.
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God came to Abraham, who was a pagan living in the land of Ur. He called him out of darkness into light.
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God promised him land and descendants, which outnumbered the stars. Although Abraham sojourned in the land for many years, he only ever owned a burial plot there in Canaan.
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That's all he ever really owned in the promised land. And yet he traveled the length and the breadth of it, and he set up altars to the one true
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God wherever he went. He worshipped the Lord throughout the land. He only ever owned, though, a burial plot.
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But God is not ashamed to be his God, for Abraham was seeking a city which has foundations, a city whose architect and builder is the
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Lord. And Abraham was buried in that burial plot, buried in faith, in hope that God would keep all of his promises.
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And God told Abraham before he died, Your descendants will be enslaved in Egypt for 400 years.
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But I will bring them up out of Egypt. I will bring them back to this place, and they will possess this land.
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For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. In other words, the wickedness of the people who live here now has not come to the point yet where I am ready to judge them.
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For God is long -suffering in his justice. He is long -suffering and gracious even in his holiness.
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And so it was that 400 years after God gave that promise to Abraham, God brought the descendants of Abraham, the children of Israel, into the promised land, and they acted as God's tool of judgment and brought judgment against these wicked nations who had been for 400 years resisting the witness made by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Melchizedek, the witness of the one true
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God. They had rejected that witness and that influence for 400 years, and finally the time had come for their judgment.
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And so God's people took possession of the land by the aegis of his holy warfare.
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That's the history. What about the kind of land that God gave them? What kind of land is this?
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Is this the kind of sight -unseen land you buy somewhere in the heart of Florida, hoping it isn't a big swamp?
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What kind of land is this? Well, you may have heard that it is a land that flows with milk and honey, a land that flowed with milk and honey.
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This was the inheritance of these nations, the tribal lands passed down from generation to generation by the
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Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, all of these different ites. They were passing down this land from one generation to the next, often warring over it in between themselves.
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But here praise is offered to the Lord for giving this particular land, the inheritance of the nations, to his people.
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And it was quality land. That it flowed with milk and honey simply means one thing, fertility.
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Plenty of livestock, plenty of crops, plenty of everything.
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Now, the pagans who lived there attributed all this abundance to their idolatrous fornication before Baal and Asherah and their other deities.
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But the truth of the promised land's beauty and bounty is found in the covenant purposes of God.
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So listen to Deuteronomy 11 8 -12.
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Deuteronomy 11 8 -12.
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You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, so that you may prolong your days on the land which the
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Lord swore to your fathers to give them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
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And so what does that really mean? What does that translate into? Here's the description of the land.
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For the land into which you are entering to possess it is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your foot like a vegetable garden.
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But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the
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Lord your God cares. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it from the beginning even to the end of the year.
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So imagine this, a well -watered, lush piece of land that God's eyes are continuously upon.
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What does that sound like? It sounds like a garden. If you love your garden, you keep it well -watered and you check on it every single day.
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See how it's coming along. The Lord has special care over this place.
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He makes sure that it's well -watered. He watches over it. And that's why it's so bountiful.
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And that's why it's so beautiful. Echoes of Eden are found here in this promise.
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Now the following five verses there in Deuteronomy 11 makes it very clear that the beauty and the bounty of the land directly depended upon the
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Lord's special care. Should Israel break covenant with God, then
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God would respond by bringing famine upon the land. He would withhold the rain.
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He would withhold the fertility. And all would fail if the people he put in the land broke covenant with him.
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But should Israel keep covenant with God, he would greatly magnify the beauty and the bounty of the land.
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Now how much land was this anyway? What is the expanse of this gift? What is this heritage of the nations?
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How much land is this? Let's consider about the dimensions of the promised land, the heritage of the nations.
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The Hebrew word is the goim. That's why the King James says heathen. It has the idea of the heathen nations, the pagan nations, the
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Gentiles. The heritage of the nations are given to God's people.
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Now the psalmist doesn't say just exactly which nations these are. He leaves it kind of open -ended. We're not told in this psalm.
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But God's initial description of the land to Abraham was very generous and, in fact, exceeded any control
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Israel ever achieved under Joshua, David, or Solomon.
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Surprising. Genesis chapter 15, verses 18 through 21, as God is explaining the covenant to Abraham, gives the dimension of the promised land.
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Here's what he says. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, To your descendants, or to your seed,
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I have given this land, from the river of Egypt, that's the Nile, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river
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Euphrates, from the Nile to the Euphrates. Feel free to get in the back of your
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Bibles and take a look at some of the maps that you have back there and just trace from the
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Nile to the Euphrates and try to identify where in the tribal allotments of Israel were located, you know, the ones that were given to them by Joshua.
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He says, I'm going to give you the land from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, the
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Kenite and the Kenizite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the
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Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite. And, of course, those nations were defeated in battle, and many of them were subjugated by the children of Israel in much of the promised land.
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But these dimensions that God gives were far larger than the allotments that were made by Joshua.
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One of my favorite maps as a kid was the map where it has the different shading of colors all over the
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Holy Land, and this was the tribal allotment of Judah, and this is the tribal allotment of Manasseh. I just loved that map.
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But those tribal allotments are far smaller than what God promised.
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Again, he said it to Moses. He didn't just say it to Abraham. He said it again to Moses. Exodus 23, verse 31, he says,
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I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines.
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The Red Sea has two inlets coming around the Sinai Peninsula. Look at the eastern one, and just draw your finger across from the eastern inlet of the
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Red Sea all the way across up to the Mediterranean Sea. That's one direction.
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And then he says, from the wilderness to the River Euphrates. So you see, go towards Egypt, the wilderness of Sinai, all the way down, and then trace it right across from the wilderness of Sinai next to Egypt all the way up to Euphrates.
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You see that? That's a lot of land. That's a lot of land that God promised, isn't it?
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And it's worth comparing to the amount of land that Israel ever did possess.
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What's the point? There's two points here. One is generosity. It's generosity.
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The second point is geography. It's geography. First, the psalmist says, let's praise the
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Lord for His mighty works in giving the inheritance of the nations to His people. And one reason we should give praise to the
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Lord is for His generosity. It was more abundant than God's people ever experienced.
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They never got to the end of the boundaries that God set. It's a reminder.
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It was just like Adam. God put Adam into a garden, which was inside of Eden, which was on planet
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Earth, and God said, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Noah was given sanctuary into an ark, which landed among the mountains of Ararat, and he got the same orders as Adam did.
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Fill the earth. God gives Israel tribal allotments that are listed for you in Joshua.
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Go check them out. They were not concrete, historical, geographical borders given to the 12 tribes of Israel, and they were smaller than the land that God promised them.
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And then, when you realize that, and then you begin to listen carefully to the promises that God made to Abraham, He tells
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Abraham in chapter 22 of Genesis, Your seed will possess the gates of their enemies. In chapter 26,
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He tells Isaac, Your seed will possess the lands, plural, the lands of the
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Goim, of the Gentiles. And then, without blushing, without stuttering a bit, the
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Apostle Paul says in Romans 4, verse 13, that the promise to Abraham and to his seed was that they would inherit the world.
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The world. Did Paul get it wrong? Sometimes the
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Holy Spirit takes things out of context. No. No.
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That's the way it is with God's promises. They just get bigger and bigger and bigger.
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The more we lift our heads, the more we turn our eyes to Christ. It's generosity.
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The generosity, the abundance, the promise of plenty, and the place for His people.
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A people, by the way, who are innumerable. You have to have plenty of space for innumerable people. What do we know about God's provision of place for His people?
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What do we say as both Testaments testify together that Yeshua leads us into His rest?
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That Christ, the Son of David, builds the temple with living stones.
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We are gathered in Christ to Mount Zion, the city of the living
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God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Hebrews says, how big is that place anyway? I mean, how big is it?
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As long and as wide and as deep as needed to house the innumerable multitude of the redeemed. That's how big.
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People and place are connected in the covenant and in Christ. Zechariah says, Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls because of the multitude within it.
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It also says, the Lord is the wall of fire around us and the glory in our midst. Zechariah 2. So in the
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Father's abode, there are many rooms, isn't there? Far more than 175 ,000 square feet of living space.
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Way bigger than the Biltmore. Far greater than 8 ,000 acres of rolling estate.
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Jesus Christ reigns from the right hand and is preparing a place for us. His promise is this. When He returns, we will live together with Him in that place.
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And it's not going to be tiny. It's not going to be small. It's not going to be a micro hotel.
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It will be more than we will ever come to the end of. So praise the
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Lord. Also praise God for His geographical placement. The precise location of the land that God promised
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His people is a matter of great praise. He gave to His people the heritage of the nations,
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Psalm 111 verse 6 says, the inheritance of the Goim, the heathen, the Gentile.
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But why those nations? Why the Canaanite, Perizzite, Hittite, and so on? Why didn't
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He give them the coast of China? Why didn't
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God give to His people the Mississippi Delta? Why didn't God give to His people the
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Italian Peninsula? Why Canaan? Why that place?
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Because for 2 ,000 years plus, that land was the busiest intersection of the ancient world.
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Egypt, Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Medes and Persians, Greeks, Romans, all these powerful empires, especially those last four, the first four true world empires,
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Babylon, Medes and Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, Canaan was their crossroads.
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It is the intersection of the ancient Near East. If you wanted to go east or west, if you wanted to go north or south, you went through Canaan.
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That's how you did it. And that's why there was so much war going on. That's why armies were always marching through one way and the other.
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God gifted this land in particular, beginning with Abraham on through, and it was a theological, geographical concern.
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A theological matter. A spell check doesn't recognize a theological.
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God's people were positioned, you see, for maximum impact. One of the questions I had in Jeremiah, why is there such an emphasis here about the people of Israel?
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They have lost their land fair and square. By covenant mandates, they lost their land fair and square.
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God did exactly what He said He would do. Why the emphasis on bringing them back to that particular place?
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Because God promised to forge the new covenant in that particular place.
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It was going to be from that location that the good news of Jesus Christ was going to go forth.
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God gave Canaan to Israel because the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ would be preached to the
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Jews first, and then from that busy, world -connecting intersection, it would be preached to all the
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Go 'im, to all the nations, to all the Gentiles. You hear this centeredness in Acts 1, verse 8, when
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Christ says to His apostles, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, there's ground zero,
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Jerusalem, and then Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.
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Now, we pass by that, but you have to be a little curious. Jesus, I think you left a few intermediary steps.
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I mean, after you leave Judea and Samaria, there's some regions and even some continents that you could kind of ease out, but that's not how it was understood.
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Canaan was the crossroads. You could get to the uttermost parts of the world from there, and they all knew it.
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It was the intersection. There was only one real intersection in Middleton, Tennessee, where we were for about seven years.
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There was one intersection. And if you wanted to explain anything, you had to start there. And that's the way it was in the ancient world.
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And it is indeed the fact that the gospel spread from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth.
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So praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah to God for his covenant dealings, perfectly situated to gather people from every tribe, tongue, and nation into his son,
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Jesus Christ. He did it from that intersection. So let's move on to God's power.
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God did provide this land for particular reasons, that he's praiseworthy. But what about his power? Verse 6 says,
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He made known to his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nations. So we can praise
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God for the dimensions of the land far more than they could even manage, far beyond their ability to experience in a multitude of generations.
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But also, the location of the place. He is so gracious and he is so wise.
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But also, the psalmist gives praise for how God manifested his power to his people in the giving of their place to them.
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He did the power of his works unto his people show when he the heathen's heritage upon them did bestow.
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What kind of people were they? These nations? These Go 'im? What kind of fortifications did they have?
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How many troops? What kind of weapons? Were they coordinated? Among them were giants and fierce warriors, the
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Anakim, the Nephilim. They made the Israelites feel like grasshoppers, they said.
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Their cities were huge and heavily fortified. When the kings of various city -states gathered together their soldiers to fight against Israel, it was said that they were as many as the sand on the seashore.
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They had vast numbers of cavalry and iron chariots. And yet, by the power of God, one
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Israelite chased a thousand and two chased ten thousand.
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They slaughtered all the giants. God sent confusion ahead of Israel against their enemies.
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He sent confusion, he sent hornets, he sent hailstones, and defeated all their enemies.
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He even kept the sun in its place an entire day while Israel's enemies were defeated.
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Praise the Lord for his power and his works in giving the place to his people.
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And after the three major campaigns were done under the general of Joshua, the central, the south, and the north, after those three campaigns were completed and the backbone of the
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Canaanite defense was broken, this is what Joshua said, Joshua 23, verses 3 -5.
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And you have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you.
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For the Lord your God is he who has been fighting for you. See, I have apportioned to you these nations which remain as an inheritance for your tribes, with all the nations which
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I have cut off from the Jordan, even to the great sea, toward the setting of the sun. The Lord your
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God, he will thrust them out before you and drive them out before you, and you will possess their land just as the
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Lord your God promised you. So it's interesting. God has done all these powerful works so that his people are securely in the land.
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And then the promise comes, and he will continue to deliver these enemies into your hand.
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He says these are an inheritance for you, but they're still going to have to fight.
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There are still pockets of resistance. There are still valleys that are filled with the enemy. There are still cities yet to be torn down.
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So they have more work ahead of them, and yet what is the idea? The idea is that they would continue by faith in the
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Lord, in faithful covenant keeping with God, that they would continue fighting against the
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Canaanites and rooting out all of their idolatrous influences. That was the goal.
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That they failed is what happened in the days of the judges. That they did not trust the Lord. That they were afraid of the enemies.
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That they compromised with the idols. And then we see the chaos in the days of the judges.
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But God's purpose in putting these things out before them in an incremental fashion is still evidence of his power.
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And he is to be praised for it. Deuteronomy 7, verses 21 through 24. God says, you shall not dread them.
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Do not be afraid of these enemies. For the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome
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God. The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you. Listen, little by little.
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You will not be able to put an end to them quickly. Do you hear
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God's plan for his people? A protracted obedience. Multi -generational obedience.
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That they would teach their children, and their children would teach their children to fear the Lord, to trust him, for he is a good and awesome
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God. And they would continue the work that God had put in front of them. A work of victory, little by little, incrementally.
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He says, you will not be able to put an end to them quickly. For the wild beasts would grow too numerous for you. I like this.
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God says, I'm going to take out these Canaanites by my power. But the wild beasts, they'll be too much for you.
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What's his point? Well, he's reminding them how weak they are, number one.
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Number two, God has no beef with the wild animals. He does with the Canaanites. And he has a program in place to keep them steady on trusting in the
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Lord, generation after generation. Verse 23, but the Lord your God will deliver them before you, and will throw them into great confusion until they are destroyed.
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He will deliver their kings into your hand, so that you will make their name perish from under heaven.
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I haven't met a Hittite lately. No man will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them.
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You see, God shows them these mighty powers. How he could take down Egypt in a set of ten plagues.
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Could have done it with one. How he could part the Red Sea and part the Jordan River. Send hailstones from the sky and kill more than all the soldiers of Israel could even get to.
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And yet, he said, I'm going to bring you into this pattern of incrementally conquering this land and driving them out, trusting in me.
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And this would be a trusting in God, his power, and his ways of bringing them victory.
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Now, of course, they failed during the days of the judges, because they didn't trust the Lord. They feared man. But then
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David came along. And David was a man after God's own heart, wasn't he? And what happened under David?
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Under David, the land and the enemies were conquered, so that under the son of David, they would know rest.
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And thus they built the temple. Praise should be offered to the
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Lord for his power that is manifest in giving the inheritance of the nations to his people. We're trying to examine
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God's works. We're going to excite God's worship. As God's power was made manifest in giving to his people
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Israel a place in the Old Covenant, so also God's power is made manifest in him giving us a place in the
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New Covenant. There's a hallelujah here in Psalm 116.
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As God gives Israel whom he called his son, he gave to his son
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Israel the inheritance of the nations. Well, Psalm 2 verse 8 gives praise to God for giving
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Messiah, his son, the nations as an inheritance. Psalm 2, 7 -9
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I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you.
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Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance. The Go 'im as your inheritance.
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And the very ends of the earth as your possession. So, how much land did
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God give to Jesus Christ? What does it say? He gave the ends of the earth to Christ as his possession.
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And even all the people who live upon those lands, all the Go 'im, all the nations who live upon those lands,
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God has given it all to his son, Jesus Christ, his inheritance.
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That's why Hebrews says he's the heir of all things. Verse 9, You shall break them with a rod of iron, you shall shatter them like earthenware.
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So Jesus will take care of business. Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham.
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Galatians 3 Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham, to whom is promised the gates of his enemies, the lands of the nations.
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It is through his rule that all the nations of the earth will be blessed. It's understood that the promise to Abraham and to his seed was the inheritance of the world.
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And all who have the seed's righteousness through faith are co -heirs. Romans 8
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The meek, those who are saved by and ruled over by Christ.
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The meek inherit the what? The earth. God has appointed
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Christ as the heir of all things, and he has done so manifesting his power. Manifesting his power. We can praise the
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Lord for the power, the works of his power that he has manifested in giving to his people through Christ our inheritance, our place.
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And what power was that? What work of power is that? That is better than the hailstones, better than the hornets, better than the confusion, better than making the sun stand still in the sky for a whole day.
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What work of power was it? The resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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The resurrection of Jesus Christ. The miracle of all miracles. Ephesians 1, verses 18 -21
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I pray. Paul is praying for the church at Ephesus.
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I pray that the eyes of your heart, the eyes of your heart, you truly get this, may be enlightened.
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I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling and that you'll know what?
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What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints?
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And what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe? These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might.
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Notice, the surpassing greatness of his power, the working of the strength of his might. Where do we see this?
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Verse 20. Which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.
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When we praise God for his powerful work of the resurrection, there's a lot there that we can praise him for, but certainly we can praise him for raising
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Christ from the dead, for Christ's ascension to the right hand, for his sitting down at the right hand from where he reigns and he has all authority, and this should be our praise.
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And when we praise in this way, we build ourselves up on our most holy faith.
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We solidify our hope. Here's the practicality of it.
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Jesus, after his resurrection, comes to his disciples, and he says this, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto me.
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So what we're reading about in Ephesians 1, all authority has been given to Christ, all of it.
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Dominion over everything, meaning the inheritance of the nations, meaning the possessions of the ends of the earth.
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It has all been given to Christ, the risen one, the ascended one. So he says, all authority has been given to him, and then he says what?
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Go therefore, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.
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Based on what? What's the therefore? Based on the fact that he's been given all the nations. He's been given the possession of the ends of the earth.
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It all belongs to him. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations.
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Why? Because they're all his, and they're all living on his lands. They're all on his land now.
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He owns it all, and they ought to be living and doing the things that their masters would dictate to them.
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He is Lord, whether they know it or not. So we go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe or to keep all that Christ has commanded.
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Why? Because he's the one in charge. He has all authority, and he promises he will be with us always, even to the end of the world.
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So we go, therefore, in what sense? We know that Christ will not fail where Israel failed.
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Israel did not fear God. Israel made compromise with the nations.
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They did not take possession of what God had given to them. Will Christ fail as Israel failed?
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He will take full possession. He will not fail. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the
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Lord as the waters cover the sea. He will not fail. God did not send
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Christ into this world to die and raise again and save us and bring us to heaven in such a way that we're living in a
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Vietnam. The church and the new covenant is not God's Vietnam. An ill -fated endeavor where we're all waiting for the last helicopter out of Saigon.
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This is not the story. The story is how Christ wins. It's how we in Christ overcome.
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And that's the direction of our hope. That's the direction of our hope. And if we will consider how
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God has given this place to Christ, then we will praise him for his mighty power and trust that if God can raise
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Christ from the dead, the miracle of all miracles, he can do whatever else it takes to make sure that the gospel succeeds.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the time you've given us in your word. We thank you that you're a mighty and powerful
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God. Lord, we live in the times that you have given us, and you are good.
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It is so hard for us to see how it is that you will win and that you will succeed, how
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Christ will be proclaimed and how all will turn out exactly as you said it would.
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But, Lord, we are in the position of believers in every age and every generation who always seem to be surrounded by people who are more numerous, more powerful, more well -equipped.
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But you do the unlikely, or you do the impossible through the unlikely. You receive the glory, so we give you the praise for that.
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Help us to be a people of faith who walk by faith, not by sight. Help us to be a people of praise who give you glory for all that you do.
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Help us to be a people of hope. We don't give up, but that we continue on in the things that you have called us to do, trusting that you will, by your power, succeed.
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We pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. Well, to close our time together, let's sing another hymn.
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"'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus," hymn number 350. ♪ ♪ "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take
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Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise, just to know the saith the
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Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust
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Him, how I've proved Him o 'er and o 'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
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Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more.
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Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus, just to trust
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His peace, just in simple faith to plunge me into the healing, cleansing flood.
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Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how
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I've proved Him o 'er and o 'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
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Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more.
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Yes, too sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin and self to cease, just from Jesus simply taking life and rest and joy and peace.
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Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how
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I've proved Him o 'er and o 'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
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Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more.
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I'm so glad I learned to trust Him, precious
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Jesus, Savior, friend, and I know that He is with me, will be with me to the end.
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Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how
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I've proved Him o 'er and o 'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
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Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more.
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May the love of the Father, and the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. We are dismissed.