Alright. Turn in your Bibles first of
all to Genesis chapter 24. Someone said once that an illustration
in the sermon was like a window in a house. It can be used to let light in. But this old gentleman also said,
but who wants a house that's nothing but windows? I'm afraid
that's what a lot of preaching is in our day. But I'm of the opinion that God
has already provided the illustrations. As a matter of fact, that He
provided them first, and He did so in all of the Old Testament,
where we have so many pictures of His grace. What we have in this text is
a servant who was sent especially by Abraham
to bring back a bride for his son
Isaac. Isaac is his heir. He is his only heir, the sole
heir to all that he has. And so in his journey, being
sent by Abraham to a particular place, he meets with a woman at a well
by the name of Rebecca. and what transpires in these
verses pertain to that experience and occasion, and particularly
what this servant says to Rebecca. Look then with me to verse 34. And he said, I am Abraham's servant. I'm nothing special. I don't
have anything of myself. I am not anything of myself. I'm Abraham's servant. And the Lord hath blessed my
master greatly. and he is become great. And he hath given him flocks,
and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants,
and camels, and asses. And Sarah, my master's wife,
bear a son to my master when she was old, and unto him hath
he given all that he hath." That last statement has to do
with Isaac being that sole heir to Abraham. And as that one heir
to this man Abraham, everything that Abraham has is given unto
him. And what is understood here on
this occasion is this, that as all these things are given to
Isaac as the sole heir, they will by virtue of this bride
being now brought into union with him, she too will receive all that Abraham
has. And this morning I would love
to be like Abraham's servant in that spiritual sense. In other words, he spends his
time telling this woman about the heir. I want to spend my time telling
you and whoever would hear me about the Lord Jesus Christ. And my mission is in all occasions
to tell you about the heir and the inheritance of God. Did you know that there is an
inheritance from God? And if you look with me over
in Romans chapter 8, we find the Apostle Paul on this occasion
talking about this same one who is pictured and typified in Isaac. and that inheritance that is
spiritual, the inheritance of God. Listen to him in Romans
8 and verse 14 again. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God. What does that mean, to be led
by the Spirit of God? There are a lot of people in
our day who claim to be led by the Spirit of God, but they do
and they say things that are contrary to the Word of God. The Spirit of God is the Spirit
of Truth. And the Spirit of God neither
leads people to say what is contrary to this book or do what is contrary
to this book. And our Lord said that when the
Spirit of Truth has come, when the Comforter has come, He will
take the things of mine and show them unto you." As many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are led to Christ. The Spirit
of God emphasizes Christ and Him crucified. But he says, as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are not might be, they are the sons
of God. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. then heirs, heirs of God, and
joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him that
we may be also glorified together. Now these words that we find
in this text and elsewhere in the Bible as they pertain to
Christ and the children of God, words like heirs, words like
inheritance, words like the heir, They are used of God to show
us plainly and clearly that His salvation, that all of these
blessings which He gives to His people and children, they are
all of His free grace. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. So that
the Apostle Peter writing to us says this, blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his abundant
mercy, hath he begotten us again unto a lively or living hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you." This inheritance is from God. It is undefiled
in any way, justly given. It is incorruptible and fades
not away, diminishes never. And it is reserved in heaven
to his and for his people. Now what brought about this people
receiving this inheritance? How do they come to this inheritance? Well the psalmist, he stated
it so very plainly and clearly when he speaks of God and says,
he shall choose our inheritance for us. In other words, just
as it is naturally, the one who bestows the inheritance, the
one who decides who will get what, he is the one who determines
all these things. And that is why God chooses this
inheritance for his people, who are described as the excellency
of Jacob, whom he loved. And when you look back at our
text here in Romans 8, we find that they come to this inheritance,
every one of these children come to this inheritance on the basis
of relationship. I hear these preachers, I read
what they say, I hear what they say on the television, and they're
always talking about these people needing to have a relationship
with God. How's your relationship with
God? But the truth is, this book teaches
that God's people, those who will receive this inheritance,
every one of them has and has had from all eternity a relationship
with God. They are his children. He did not decide yesterday that
this one or that one, nor did he on the basis of some decision
they made, decide that they would be his children. They have been
his children from old eternity. That's exactly right. Because
when you read Ephesians 1, this very God is blessed and praised
by the Apostle for having blessed them with all spiritual blessings. Every one of them. He blessed
them with all spiritual blessings when he chose them in Christ
before the world began. You see, this relationship with
God is all by His will, it is all by His grace, and it is especially
all in His Son. And the reason being, with regard
to this inheritance, that they will have it, it is because of
His Son. In other words, Abraham, according
to Abraham's servant, has this one son, and he hath given unto
him everything that he has. So when the Apostle writes in
Hebrews chapter 1 describing Christ, describing this Son by
whom he made all things, the one who is the image of God himself,
when he speaks of him it says that he, that is God, hath appointed
him, what? The heir of all things. How in the world can we ever
be sure of this? How can we count on such a glorious
inheritance being ours which contains and includes all things? Well, it is simply because of
who said so. It is simply because that Christ
is the heir of all things himself and he was appointed and placed
there and ordained as such, set there from old eternity. That's right. The inheritance
of God's people has been sure for old eternity in God who changes
not, in God who willed it and determined it and purposed it
and entrusted the sureness of it all into the hands of his
only begotten Son. He's the heir of all things. And that means simply, first
of all, that he's the Lord over all things. He is the King, he
is the absolute Sovereign, the only begotten Son of God, who
in himself is God of very God come in human flesh. As a matter of fact, in all honesty,
the only God that you and I will ever see with our eyes, and we
shall according to the scripture behold him, but it is God as
he is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's that Word that was God and
yet was with God in the beginning, John said, and yet he is that
Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us. And he said of
himself, in showing something of what this means, being the
heir of all things, he said to his disciples, all power is given
unto me in heaven and in earth. For what? That I might give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given me. You see, this bride,
this bride such as the one pictured in Rebecca, this bride is not
only the one who receives the inheritance, she is in herself,
the church, the inheritance of Christ. He said, all things that the
Father hath are mine. Therefore said I, that he shall
take of mine and shall show it unto you. That's how he leads
by his Spirit. He's given us His Spirit. All
He says, He gives His Spirit that they might receive and know
the things that are freely given unto them in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the heir. He's not a bunch
of heirs. He's not one of the heirs. He
is the heir. Just like Abraham had this one
son. Now, somebody always says this. Well, I believe Abraham had more
than one son. Didn't he have a son by the name
of Ishmael? Did he not have a son of this
bondwoman by the name of Hagar? He absolutely did, but that one
was a child of the flesh and not counted by God as his son. You say, how in the world do
you know that? Because when God was commanding Abraham to take
Isaac up into Mount Moriah and sacrifice him, He said, you take
Isaac, your only son. I believe twice he says that
in death. Your only son. That is, this one who is a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is the type of the one who is
the only begotten son, this child of promise wherein all the inheritance
is to go. And that's why Christ is called
the firstborn. He's the firstborn. You see,
Adam is described as the first Adam. But the Lord Jesus Christ
is described as the last Adam. And the truth is, the last Adam,
as is shown so many times in scripture, was before the first
Adam. You say, what does that mean?
It means that before there was ever a sinner fallen, before
we ever fell in our representative Adam, before we ever entered
into that state of natural condemnation because of sin, there was a Savior. There was the firstborn. And
this firstborn, this one who is the heir of God, in whom are
all blessings, all men and women by nature reject him. Why? Because by nature, we are
such rebels, we don't want to receive things from God as a
gift, we want to merit them and earn them and deserve them in
ourselves. God gave us a picture of that
in one of the parables. Because in this parable in Mark
chapter 12, he's speaking of this farm or this vineyard that
was entrusted to the care of servants, and it says, but the
husbandmen, those who were entrusted with that care, said among themselves,
the heir has come. He sent his servants and they
rejected them, and then he sent the heir. Oh, surely they'll
treat the heir better, won't they? You see, he actually owns
all this already. But they said among themselves,
this is the heir, come and let us kill him, and the inheritance
shall be ours. They said, let us kill him. That
is, they wanted to receive this inheritance. They wanted to receive
this vineyard, but they did not want to receive it on the basis
that the owner of the vineyard said. That's right. Kill the heir. And my friends,
that is just exactly what happened to the heir. The heir of all
things. because he was taken and by wicked
hands was slain, was crucified, and this man hanging on that
cross, suffering and humiliated before men, this slain God-man,
he's the heir." You see, they were really saying more than
they even knew. But as Paul says in Romans 8,
death could not hold him, and he rose from that death, and
by his death he merited the right to possess all things and dispose
of all things according to his own will. That's right. His death so satisfied the divine
justice of God on the behalf of all those that the Father
had given Him. It so satisfied God so as to
enable God to justly give to them, each and every one, all
the inheritance. All of it. They won't ever miss
any of it. Because it never depended on
them to gain it, or earn it, or merit it. It is the inheritance
of the saints in life. It is the inheritance of divine
grace. And Paul says in that same first
chapter of Ephesians, he says, in Christ, in Christ, we have
obtained an inheritance. You say, well, we've not enjoyed
it all. No, but we've obtained it. We
possess it. And we possess it by virtue of
our relationship to this heir, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom
also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel
of His own will. And what is that will? That will
is that Christ, the Son, the heir sent into this world to
suffer the death of the cross, that would be the way by which
God would be justly enabled to give them that inheritance. So the Apostle says in Hebrews
9, for this cause, he, that is Christ, is the mediator of the
New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption
of the transgressions that were under the First Testament, they
which are called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance. How do they get that? How is
that promise of inheritance made sure? It's through the dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why outside of Christ
there is no inheritance from God. There is only the just wages
of our sin. Because we are nothing, and we
have nothing, and we can do nothing that will in any way get these
blessings apart from the heir himself. Why? Because he's given unto him all that he has. Now think about that. Not most
of it, but all of it. And that means that if you and
I ever, we who are nothing but beggars and bankrupt sinners
and spiritual paupers who proved it from our birth and will prove
it again in our death, if we get anything of grace from
God, It'll have to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the heir. That means that we can never
merit it. And that really is the good news
of the Gospel. And that's what the message of
the Gospel is. That's what Abraham's servant
was saying to Rebekah. If you get the heir, if you're
his bride, You get everything. Look back in Romans 8 at verse
17. You see that word that is actually
a compound of two words there that says, joint heirs. I'll tell you, if you and I could
imagine all that is involved in this matter of being joint
heirs with Jesus Christ. You see, that's the picture.
Rebecca was taken back. to Isaac, she married Isaac,
and that's why in that union the scripture says of marriage
that they too become one flesh. Why? It's a picture, Paul says,
of Christ and the church. They're joint heirs. I've told this so many times,
I probably have warned you out on it, but it stood as such an
illustration, you know. Once I was sitting in a restaurant
in Kentucky, and there drove up, right by
the window where we were sitting, there drove up this lady who
was driving one of those Cadillacs, you know, where everything is
trimmed in gold on it. Like the super expensive model. And she got out and she was dressed
in just fashionable attire and had more rings and necklaces
of gold and diamonds and all that stuff hanging on her than
you could hardly imagine. And so she came down into the
restaurant near us and one of the waitresses spoke to her. And when she opened her mouth
and spoke back, I knew this gal came from the
head of the holler. And I thought, where in the world
did she get all this? And then it dawned on me. She
married into it. And that goes two ways, you know,
sometimes in our day. There are men that are sorry
and worthless as can be and yet they happen to marry this right
gal and they marry into money, as we say. And here are all these
women, they married into money, all except for my wife. They become joint heirs. Joint heirs. If you don't believe
that, just try to divorce one. You'll find out. Joint heirs. And that's the description here.
Joint heirs with the Son of God. Joint heirs with this One who,
like Isaac, has been given everything. Everything. That's good news. It's not good
news for me to tell you that you need to do this and that
and the other and all if you want to be saved. I'm going to
tell you a lot of things you ought to do, that God commands
you to do, but none of them to be saved. We're saved by His grace. The
things that we are commanded to do in scripture, and don't
ever think for one minute we are not commanded to do some
things and to abstain from some things, we are, but never to
be saved. What we are given of God, we
are given of His grace by virtue of this union with Christ, relationship
with Christ, And so the spirit of adoption.
Now I wish we really could get a hold of this. Paul says that
God has not given us the spirit of bondage again to fear. No. Love rules this house. And he says, he sent forth the
spirit of adoption. Now put out of your mind what
you think you know as far as this world is concerned about
adoption. Because adoption in this day,
in which this was written, adoption that's talked about here is not
like adoption in our day. Adoption in our day means the
placing of one who was not in the family into a family. That's not what he's talking
about here. Adoption in the Scriptures, and as Paul writes here in Galatians,
the spirit of adoption here is the manifestation that this one
who has been treated like a servant in his childhood has come to
a time when he is now shown to be a son. Did you ever feel like growing
up maybe that mom and dad were treating you like a servant?
All they want you to do is clean that room and clean up the house
and go out in the yard work or go out on the farm and work.
Think, it would appear almost as if they were servants. But when it came time that they
died, If never before, it's manifested
that they were children, that they were sons. And so, the Spirit
of God takes this Good News, takes this Gospel, and brings
it home to our hearts and our minds that God loved us with
an everlasting love, that He chose us in Christ, that Christ
came and died in our place for our sins so that He might redeem
us. that we might have this inheritance. You see, it's stated about as
clearly here as it can be. What is the basis of this being
an heir of God? He says, if children, then heir. Think about that. If you're a
child of God, you're an heir of God. That's why all this notion
about getting a bigger place in heaven, or having more golden
planks in your mansion, or getting a reward. Everything's the reward
of grace. Do we understand that? When he speaks of reward, he's
talking about our receiving based on what Christ did. You say, well, you're a preacher.
Well, not much of one, but even that will not make me receive
more than you. But they all so and so suffered
for the gospel. Well, they might have, but God
gave them grace. But they'll not receive more
than the other because it's all in the air. There are no big
I's and little u's. There's no social strata in the
kingdom of God. Not if it's all in the air. Not
if it's all by virtue of our being joined to Him, joined heirs
with Christ. You see, the gospel is never
telling us to do these things to gain them, but we serve the
Lord with gladness because He's given us everything. And that's why we're to believe
on Christ. You know what believing on Christ
is? Believing on Christ is ceasing to do in order to gain God's
favor and trusting, relying upon Christ alone. Turn over to Galatians 4. Now this word, Abba, that we
have in Romans 8, and also in Galatians 4, and also I believe
in one other place, maybe two other places. It is a word that epitomizes the most intimate
relationship. It's as if We are calling the
living God, Papa. My little granddaughter refers
to me as Papa. And when she comes to me in that
real serious look and she says to me, my Papa, will you do this,
will you do that? It melts me into a little puddle. Because I love her. She loves
me. Can you imagine you or me, wretched,
rebel, worthless sinners as we are? Not only able to, but encouraged
to call the living God. Paul in Galatians chapter 4,
beginning in verse 4, he says, But when the fullness of the
time was come, a God-appointed, ordained time, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them. Now, I'm not
trying to be a stickler for words here, but there's some things
we need to understand. I hear people speak of Christ
purchasing this inheritance for us. He bought us this, He bought
us that. That's not exactly true. Because redemption has to do
with individuals. And God sent forth His Son at
that appointed time, bearing the responsibility of the sins
of His people, to redeem them. It's like we're sitting here
in a prison house, condemned to die, sitting on death row.
And we've been bequeathed this great inheritance. But it won't
do us any good. We're condemned to die. But if one comes and dies in
our place, And justice comes then, and because one has already
paid for our crime, unlocks the door and sets us free. We've
been redeemed. We've been delivered. We've been
rescued. And now we can enjoy this inheritance
that is freely given unto us. God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons. And that's the generic word meaning
all the children of God. And because you are sons, Christ's
death did not make you a child of God. Christ's death was because
you were a child of God. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying,
Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ." An heir of God through Christ. So what do we receive? by His
grace in this gift, this inheritance, what will be ours? Well, it says that Abraham's
servant said that Abraham, who is a picture of
the Father, has given unto his son all that he has. all that He has. As a matter of fact, so
amazing is this, that we find that if God has given us all
that He has, He has given us His only begotten
Son, And in doing so, has given us Himself. In giving Christ, we not only
have everything, but we have God Himself. Listen to this in
Psalm 16 verse 5. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is the portion of mine inheritance. And of my cup thou maintainest
my life. That's why the bride says of
the bridegroom in the Song of Solomon, I am my beloved's and
he is mine. He's mine. Well, what do we receive? All things. All things. And you can just
take all your but what ifs, make yourself miserable with
them if you want to. But he says, if you have Christ,
you have all things. You'll be delivered from all
things that are against you. You have all spiritual blessings
in Him. You have all the inheritance. You have the gift of the righteousness
of God in Christ imputed to you. You have the gift of faith. You have the gift of repentance.
You have all things. And in this same chapter, Romans
8, if you look down, verse 31, he says, What shall
we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all thanks? We're beating our brains out
about the future. We're worried about one thing
and we're worried about the other thing. Worried about our nation,
worried about the economy, worried about this thing and that thing,
worried about all our situation. But if He's already given us
Christ, Paul says, will ye not also with Him give us all things,
everything? Make all things work together
for good? to them that love God, to them
that are called according to His purpose, all things in His
providence. You know the heirs are also named
by description. He singles out who these heirs
of God are. He says Christ Jesus came into
the world to die for sinners. He says that he died for these
who are of themselves are ungodly. He describes them as lost. He describes them as unrighteous
in themselves. He describes them as guilty in
their sins. But because He made them join
heirs with Christ, they're going to be forgiven all those sins. They're going to stand not guilty
before God. They already do. He just sent
His servant to tell them about it. He'll bring them all to cast
off every other hope and to plead the blood of Jesus Christ as
the full payment of their sins To plead His righteousness alone and to rest in Him. Married to
Him. Never to be divorced from Him. And in Him, what they have is what God has
given in Him. He's given to them all. I don't know about you, but that
helps me a lot. He's got one Son, and He's given
everything in Him. Made us join heirs with Him.
You see, I can't tell you that you're a child of God. That's
what religion will do for you. You can walk down an aisle, they'll
say, now you're a Christian. You can raise your hand, you
can repeat a little prayer. You can do a lot of things, they'll
say, now you're a Christian. You're on your way to heaven.
I can't do that. All I can do is tell you about the air. And
He must and will, if you're His child, send His Spirit into your
heart and bring you to confess, that's the One. That's my Father. I'm a terribly disobedient child,
but that's my hope. May the Lord do so. Father, this
day we give you praise and honor and glory as the worthy one of
all praise, that it is you who has saved us and not we ourselves. This is your gospel because it
gives all the honor and glory to you in Christ. Send your Spirit
into the hearts of your children, bearing witness to us that we
are the children of God. That Christ is the heir. And
our hope, our only hope, is being a joint heir with Him. Watch over us as we go out into
this day and this week. Help these that are sick and
weak. Cause, Lord, Your sheep to be
brought unto Yourself. though by nature they are rebels
against you, as we were. Lord, bring these sheep into
this one fold, with this one shepherd. He's the one who they
belong to, he's the one who laid down his life for them, and he's
the one who alone can bring them. We thank you and praise you in
his name. Amy.