Turn first in your Bibles this
morning to Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. We'll have the baptismal service
this morning after We finish in here, and we'll baptize these two brethren, which is a public confession of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we also identify with Him. And we show our union, our hope
of salvation, to be all in His death, burial, and resurrection. That's why the only true baptism,
the only scriptural baptism is by immersion. It represents our
association with the death and the burial and the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter says that we
are resurrected in the one who is the heir. And therefore, we are raised
in Christ to an inheritance. Hold your finger right here in
Hebrews 1 and turn over to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3,
the Apostle writes, Bless be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath 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." It is the inheritance of grace. It is through the death, the
burial, the resurrection of Christ And it is altogether in He who
is the heir. Turn back to Hebrews chapter
1, because nowhere is this more clearly, more plainly, declared
than this verse of Scripture. The Apostle writes in Hebrews
1, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets. He hath in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all things." I wish that we were able this
morning to enter into just exactly what that means. All of the saving grace and mercy
of God is in this one that he describes
as the heir of all things. How do we know As someone said,
that it is safe to put all our eggs, if you will, in one basket,
the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we know that He is truly
the heir of all things? Well, it is because of who said
it. It is because God, who cannot
lie, has declared that His Son, the man Christ Jesus, is the
heir of all things. Why is He the heir of all things? Because God hath appointed Him. Look back at that second verse. He hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed. That can never be
altered. It has to be true, and we can
rest and trust the promise of God. He has appointed Him the
heir of all things." That means ordained or placed Him as the
heir of all things. In Isaiah we read this, this
is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth. And this
is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations, for
the Lord of hosts hath purposed. And who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out,
who shall turn it back?" The Lord Jesus Christ is appointed
of God from old eternity to all eternity future as the heir of
all things." Now, what does it mean for him to be the heir of
all things? Well, first of all, it means
that he is as such the authority, the Lord, the Master, the King
over all things." In other words, when he says this, he also is
the heir of all sovereignty. And the Lord Jesus Christ, being
the only begotten Son of God, in that high and incommunicable
sense, in which he is equal with the Father in nature, he is,
as God, God manifests in the flesh the heir of all things. And by virtue of this sonship,
by virtue of his person, God has made him the heir of all
that the Godhead possesses the heir of all things and constituted
Him the sovereign Lord and ruler and administrator of all things. The Lord Jesus Christ, not long
before He left this earth, said to those that were around Him,
All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And he shows that it is the Father
who has appointed this place to him in John 16. All things
that the Father hath are mine, therefore said I, that he shall
take of mine and shall show it unto you." He is the Lord Jesus
Christ being Lord over all things. But what I want us to think about
most of all this morning is, secondly, He is the heir being
the successor to the Father in all that He has. everything that God has. And what we ought to be most
interested in, especially His grace, all the grace and gifts
of God are in the air. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
heir of all things, not only ruling over all things, but also
the possessor and dispenser of all things. And this is the inheritance
that the man Christ Jesus as the incarnate Son of God is appointed
to and is therefore called in Scripture the Firstborn. That's the one who has the title
to the inheritance. He is the Firstborn, the heir
of all things. And when you stop and think about
it, the very people that he, when he was in that humanity,
walking on this earth, the very character in which men rejected
him, especially the nation Israel, was in this very thing. He was
the heir of God. Turn over and look with me in
Mark chapter 12. Mark chapter 12, where our Lord
gave a parable. And in this parable, it sets
forth this very thing, when He, as the owner of all things, sent
His Son after having sent many of His servants. He sends His Son. Look down in
verse 6. Having yet therefore one son,
his well beloved, he sent him also unto them, saying, They
will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among
themselves, This is the heir, this is the one in whom the Father
has entrusted all things. This is the one who has the right
over all things and who is the possessor of all things. Come, let us kill him, and the
inheritance shall be ours. And you know, that attitude goes
on to this very day, whereby men have a notion that if they
can somehow bypass the heir, they will then get the inheritance. And this might be true to some
extent in the natural realm, although illegal in even our
natural world, but since it's God we're dealing with, that's
not going to happen. That's not going to happen. And they took, just like the
one that's spoken of in this parable, they took the heir and
did just exactly that, crucified Him. The one hanging on that
cross outside of Jerusalem, suffering and humiliated and slain in the
flesh, this is the God-man who was and is the heir of all things. But death could not hold him. He rose from that death, and
by his death merited the right to possess all things and dispose
of all things as he will. And not only that, but in his
sufferings and in his dying in his laying down his life, he
justly satisfied every claim against those he represented. He satisfied fully the law and
justice of God on the behalf of everyone that the Father gave
him in that covenant before the world began. You see, this heir He neither
lives or dies or is raised again alone. And when it says that he is the
firstborn, it says he is the firstborn of many brethren. Many brethren. And his inheritance
involves not only this glorious lordship and heirship, but a
people for His glory. Let me read you Psalm 2. I will declare the decree. It could say the appointment.
The Lord has said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession." His people are described as his
inheritance. And this means something that
is altogether against our nature of sin and our nature of pride,
that is, that we, in ourselves and by ourselves, we have nothing
and we are nothing and we can merit nothing, And we will get
nothing apart from He who is the heir, because He is the heir of all
things. We want heaven. We want all things
from God. We want all blessings. We want
eternal life, or at least we say that we do. But there is
no way in ourselves, if we lived in this world 500 years, that
we could ever do anything or stop doing anything or accomplish
anything or in any way get anything from God except judgment and
hell outside. of the air." Is that too narrow? That is as
narrow as God declares it to be. Because He describes the
Lord Jesus Christ not only as the air, but the one mediator
between God and men. He describes himself as the one
way, the one truth, the one life, and there is no other. And we are in light of that,
just beggars and paupers and bankrupt sinners. We proved it
in our birth. And if we don't any other time,
we will prove it in our death. That's what the Scripture says.
For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that
we can carry nothing out. And not only will we prove that,
But all eternity will prove that the only lasting things, the
only eternal things, the only blessings of God's grace which
go on worlds without end, they were all in the air. And we are by nature what we
are, none good, none righteous, none that understands, none that
seeks God, and none that are interested in the air. It would be so amazing to know
this morning all the things that men and women will hear Some
of the things will make them feel good about themselves. Some of the things will give
them a temporary hope about life and tomorrow and all these things. But how few will actually hear
about the air and all the things that are in Him. We are debtors. who have nothing
to pay, sinners with nothing that a holy God will accept,
and no ability to satisfy His law that we've broken or His
justice that we have offended. But listen. Listen to this gospel of Christ
crucified. Because the death of Jesus Christ
on that cross is not the end of all things, but it is the
ground upon which God can and does justly give everything in
Him to His people. When the heir was slain, that
wasn't the end. That was more like the beginning. That wasn't the end of all things
for the Lord's people. That was the ground that assures
that they'll receive it. Because on that cross, He is
paying a debt that He did not owe for sin. He is redeeming by His blood,
not Himself, but a people. And He is doing all those things
in order for them to be not only saved from all their sins, but that they might be possessors
of this inheritance. I thought about it the last few
days. I don't hardly know how to get
an illustration that would picture what this is all about. In other
words, here are all these blessings that God, in grace, before the
foundation of the world, bestowed on this people that He gave to
His Son. He freely gave them all of this
inheritance. But it's just like if you and
I were written into a will, and we are given all these various
gifts in some way, but we are sitting on death row, and we're
not ever going to get out. And there's going to come a day
when somebody will come to that cell and take us out and put
us to death. What good would it be to us? But if our blessings rest in
the hands of the heir, the heir of Christ Jesus came
into this world to redeem us, to deliver us, to save us, to
rescue us, to set us free. that we might actually possess
this eternal inheritance. That's what Peter was saying.
through the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, through His burial,
through His resurrection, which is His work of righteousness
by which He satisfies God and sets us free. Through that, He
has begotten us to a living hope of a resurrection and inheritance. and the people that the Father
gave Him, they being a part of His inheritance, He stands and
pays that debt and frees them of this indebtedness and this
bondage and this sentence of death to glorify Him forever in the enjoyment of this inheritance. Turn over to Romans chapter 8. I think that these few verses
are some of the most amazing in all of Scripture, if you'll
just read them and look. Romans chapter 8, and look down
with me in verse 14, "...for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God." Now, what did Christ say that the Spirit of
God, who He would send, the Comforter, what did He say that the Spirit
of God would do? He said, He will take the things
of mine and show it to you. So being led by the Spirit of
God is not walking around feeling some kind of giddy feeling. Being led by the Spirit of God
is being ever led to Jesus Christ and Him crucified alone. And he said, "...as many as are led
by the Spirit of God." There's no question here. They are the
sons of God. Now listen, keep listening. For
you've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but
you've received the spirit of adoption, and we'll look at that
a little bit later, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. We're made to know of this relationship
with God through Christ, the Spirit itself bearing witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. But it just gets better. Now, you look at that next line.
And if children. And if children, then heirs. What's the basis for this inheritance? And if super-Christians, then
heirs. And we could go on with a long
list of things, but the thing that is the basis for this inheritance,
for these being heirs, is that they're children, the children of God. You know what you have to do
to inherit? Nothing. Tiny babies inherit. Actually, cats and dogs in our
day inherit. Because it never lies in the
one who inherits, it's in the one who gives the inheritance. I've told you this a lot of times,
but it's a good illustration, I think. How many of us have
watched in our lives a man, his wife, or whatever, and they work
so hard all their lives, And they try to save, and they try
to have some things, and they try to spend their money wisely,
and they accumulate some things, and they've got this one boy. And as we say here in the South,
he's a sorry thing. He's always into trouble. He
won't work. He won't help them. He's never
done anything his whole life to help them accumulate or gain
anything that they've got. As a matter of fact, it looks
like he's done everything otherwise. And these folks die. And the next thing you know,
the word's going around, what happened to all their stuff? The boy got it. You know, it makes you feel kind
of funny. Well, he didn't deserve it. He
didn't. I mean, he's sorry. He didn't do anything. And here
he is, he's got all that money, he's got all that property. What
is he doing with it? He inherited it. Because it never,
ever had anything to do whether or not he deserved it or not.
As a matter of fact, that's the way you and I are. Everything
we get from God, it'll have to be in this inheritance. It'll have to be in this heir.
And like this boy, we didn't deserve it. As a matter of fact,
we did everything not to deserve it. But every time you come back
to this verse, Tim, it's going to say the thing, if children,
then heirs. That's grace. That's the best
news I've ever heard. I can remember spending my young
years going down the aisle of the church, shaking the preacher's
hand, rededicating, reconfessing, rebaptizing, doing everything
imaginable. But if children, then heirs. But look at the next line. This isn't for a few bucks. This
isn't for a hundred acre farm somewhere. It says heirs of God. This has to do with gifts, God
gifts. This isn't what some individual,
a sinner like ourself gives, this comes from the eternal God. And then look at that next line.
And if joint heirs, and joint heirs with Christ. That's where it's at right there.
That's where this inheritance is. That's how we are made to
receive this inheritance, because God in grace has put us in Christ,
joined us to Christ. It doesn't say we're some kind
of joint lords. It says we're joint heirs with
Christ. He's God's only begotten Son. We're the children of God if
we're joint heirs with Christ. He's the one, Brad read it, Brad
prayed it in his prayer. It made me so thankful just to
know that he saw that, that we're not the ones who have these clean
hands and pure heart. It's this Lord of glory who does. We don't have a right to enter
into God's heaven, but in Christ every believer will. Isn't that something? Joint heirs,
not with a bunch of brothers and sisters that we're going
to fight with the rest of our lives, but joint heirs with the
Lord Jesus Christ. The devil says, well, you're
not worthy. No, but he is. You don't deserve anything. That's
right. I'll agree with you. But he deserves
everything. You have no natural right. No,
but in Him I have a grace right. You're not anything of yourself. Yes, that's right. But in Christ,
I'm everything that pleases God. You see, it's all based not on
works, not on will, not on worth, but on relationship. And it is
all an inheritance of grace. And the gospel is not a message
that tells men and women how to do something to please God
or in order for God to bless them, but it is rather an announcement,
a proclamation that He's blessed all who are brought by the Spirit
of God to look to Christ and believe on Christ and trust Him
alone as all their righteousness, all their salvation, and all
their hope of this inheritance. You see, there is a sense in
which it is really easy to be a believer. Because on the one hand, you
can agree with whatever man or devil says about you. Well, you
don't deserve it. You ought to go to hell. You're
certainly nothing special. You can just agree with them
in every point almost. But then on the other hand, you
can agree with God who cannot lie. They speak of what you are
in yourself. He speaks of what you are in
Christ. joint heirs with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn over to Galatians chapter
4. Galatians chapter 4 and look
down at verse 4. But when the fullness of the
time was come, 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." Now, adoption in Scripture is not the same as what adoption
has come to be in our day. Adoption in the Scripture is
not getting one or doing something in order for someone to be your
child. Adoption in Scripture was a public
revealing and a manifestation that they were your child. Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
in His death, He died for all the children of God. Just go
to Hebrews 2 and other places there and read that. He talks
about the children that the Father gave Him. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world and died, He redeemed them. And the Spirit
of God comes to each of them in time. And to them and in them
through this gospel shows them, and not only them but everyone
around them, that they are, they always have been, the children
of God. And they are the heirs. They are heirs of God because
they are joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ." I read that
phrase, heir of God. "...that we might receive the
adoption of sons, and because you are sons," you see that? God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father. I can't say you're a child of
God and you can't say I'm a child of God. The first time I ever stood,
about 1973 or something like that, to what
I thought was to preach My subject was what it means to be a child
of God. I don't remember all I said,
but I know it wasn't true, because I didn't even know the gospel. But when the Spirit of God takes this truth That this inheritance
is in the air, in the air of Christ Jesus. He's the air of
all things, and by God's grace, He gives to His people everything
in Christ. And when the Spirit of God causes us to know, He's talking
about us. That's why we don't have an invitation
down the aisle and all this. I can't, I can't tell you, I
can't assure you of things like that. But I can tell you who
the heir is. If God causes you to look to
Him, and only Him, and convince you in your heart He's the only
way, His bloodshed is the only way to put away sin, His righteousness
imputed to us is the only way we can be righteous and accepted
by God if we can believe His promise. It says He sends His Spirit,
the Spirit of His Son, into our hearts, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. Years ago, I read something about
that word, Abba, and it is there because it expresses Intimacy that cannot, with other
words, be expressed. It means something like Papa. That our hearts cry out to God
in an expression that our lips never can quite form. Father, Papa, God our Father. O, an heir of God through Christ,
by God in grace placing us in this union with Christ, making
us a son in Christ, redeeming us by His bloody death on the
cross, that we might receive this inheritance. Never going to fade away? Never
going to corrupt away, Peter said, reserved in heaven for
you. Didn't he mean like you need
to do something to reserve it in heaven for you? No. He said
it's already reserved in heaven for you. Could that be that God, before
the world began, looked on you in special mercy and grace? loved
you with an everlasting love, set you apart in a covenant,
gave you to Christ His Son, blessed you with all spiritual blessings
in Him at that hour, took you into His family and reserved How could He reserve us an inheritance
then? Because our surety, our covenant
head, stood for it, guaranteed it for us right then. And He
reserved it in heaven for us. If He's the heir of all things, That means this inheritance involves
all things. You see families divide the inheritance
and they all want the same thing. You think that's got anything
to do with a fallen nature? I think so. But the glorious thing about
this inheritance is all the children get the same thing. They get
it all. all spiritual blessings. Turn over to Titus chapter 3. If I can find it myself, I didn't
mark it, but I want you to look at it. Titus chapter 3 and verse 7. He says that being
justified by His grace, declared righteous, by the grace of God
in Christ. We should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life." We are heirs of eternal life. Hebrews 6 says, heirs of the
promise. James spoke of the Lord's people
as heirs of the kingdom. The writer of Hebrews says that
the angels are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation. That's everything. Everything. All the things that pertain to
our standing and acceptance before God. All these spiritual blessings. The gift of righteousness. The
righteousness of God in Christ imputed to us. and all things
we need in life, and all things we need in death, and all things
we need every moment in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the preaching of the
gospel, which is a testament, you know, Men stand, and the
lawyer says, this is the last will and testament of Joe Brown. Well, this is the only and the
eternal will and testament, which means covenant, of Jesus Christ. And the gospel, the preaching
of the gospel, is a proclamation, if you will,
a reading of the will. a worldly will here this morning
that some wealthy fellow in the area had left and you just happened
to know of him or he knew you. If I were here this morning reading
this will to you, don't you imagine you'd be just a tad interested
to see if there was anything in it for you? Well, I know one thing I would
be. This is the will. This is the
testament of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God says all things are in
Him. He's the heir of all things. What are the names of those who
are written in this will, the Testament? Well, it says Christ came into
this world to save sinners. It says that He died, He suffered
for the ungodly, for the unjust. It says, he came to seek and
to save the lost. His death is for the guilty. Somebody says, well, I'm doing
the best I can. Nothing here for you. Or, I've
lived a pretty good life. Or, I've really cleaned up myself. I'm trying to do something. Nothing
here for you. This is for beggars. This is
for those who find themselves hopeless in themselves. This
is for those who hear the air say, blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This is for those who've sinned,
come short of the glory of God. This is for those who cannot
trust themselves, who are under the weight and burden of their
sin. They have nothing to pay. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
as the one, if He doesn't save them, they'll perish. If he doesn't
give them everything, they'll have nothing. Who know he's the heir of God. And who find themselves in their
heart of hearts wanting to be above all things, no matter what
anybody says. forsaken everything else that
they've ever done, to be a joint heir with the Lord
Jesus Christ. If that is my desire, if that
is my only desire, if that, no matter what happens, if that
is my one desire, you mark it down. God put that desire there. And he only puts that desire,
which is nothing short of faith, except in his children. John said, Behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we might be called
the children of God, the sons of God. The one that believes on Christ,
it says, will never be disappointed. The one who looks to the grace
of God, the giver of every good and perfect gift, you'll never
be in want. God help us to look to Him. I want it for myself, and I want
it for every one of you to be found in Him. Our Father, this morning we give
praise to Your Name for Your grace and blessing in the heir
that You've appointed, the heir of all things, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord, may we be found among His
children who give Him glory and only Him glory, who trust all
that You made Him to be to us and not themselves, who forsake
all and follow Him, who confess that it was Your
choice of them and not their choice of You. Christ's work
of righteousness and no good that they've done. That it was you who made them
your child. And it was in spite of everything
that we'd done against you. Cause all your children this
day to rejoice in the air. and to meditate and think about
the inheritance, undefiled, incorruptible, never
fades away, reserved in heaven for us. We pray and thank you
in Christ's name. Amen.