I want to try. It's the very, very last one. We can begin today's service
with singing 361 off your handout. Sweet hour of prayer, 361. that calls me from a world of
care. And it's the end, my father's
soon, they call my wants and wishes now. In seasons of distress
and grief, my soul has often found relief. And often escaped the tempest's
glare, my life returns, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour
of prayer, Thy wings shall my petition bear, To Him whose truth
and faithfulness Engage the waiting soul to bless. And since he bids me seek his
face, believe his word, and trust his grace. I'll cast on him my
every care, and wait for the sweet hour of prayer. ? Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour
of prayer ? ? May I thy consolation share ? ? Till from Mount Vista's
lofty height ? ? I build my home and take my flight ? That was easy. Then we're going to move to the
next one, Hiding in the... ? Higher than I ? My soul in its
conflicts and sparkles could fly ? So sinful, so weary, by
thy could I be ? Thou blest rock of ages, abiding in thee ? Hiding in this ? ? Hiding in
this ? ? The first rock of ages ? ? I'm hiding in this ? ? The top of the tombstone ? ? Is startled
for now ? ? In times when temptation and
stormy is howl ? ? In the tempest of water on its wide-leaving
seas ? ? The flesh of all ages come hiding in thee ? Hiding
in these. Hiding in these. Helpless rock of ages, I'm hiding
in these. Locked in our bondage, we're
pressed by the foe. I have led to my refuge and freed
out my woes. Thou often didst trials like
singular trolls. And within me, O Thou rock of
my soul, Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Good
to see everybody. For a change, right? I'm going
to be reading this morning out of Romans, picking up in chapters
8 and starting in verses 23. Romans 8, 23. You want to read
in verse 16 and go forward for a little bit? You want me to
start at 16? Yeah, 16's a great thing. So
if you just then just go. Yeah, I can start at 16. That's
fine. Absolutely. Starting at 16. The spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
And if children, then ears of God and joint ears with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may also glorify together. For I reckon that the
suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with this glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest
expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the
sons of God. For the creature was made subject
to vanity, not willingly, but by reason, of him who hath subjected
the same in hope. because the creature itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage and corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only
they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption
to wit the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope,
but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why
doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which
we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray, for as we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And
he searches the hearts, knoweth what is in the mind of the Spirit,
because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. And we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, then he also called. And whom he called,
then he also justified. And whom he justified, then he
also glorified. What shall we say then 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 things? Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also make intercession
for us. Father, thank you for bringing
us together, Lord, today to assemble and worship your son, Lord. And
thank you for everything you've done now and at all times, Lord,
for us. And we ask that you'd give us
hearts, Lord, to rule out the distractions that
we have at these times and really give us hearts and minds to look
to your son and to rest fully on him. And you'd give your messenger
the words to say today, Lord, to help direct our hearts and
minds to him and him alone. In your name we pray. Amen. All right, well, it appears that
we're live actually on Facebook as well. So if you're getting
texted by anybody, you can let them know. Let's go as well. Well, it's good to be here with
you all and to see your faces. It's really encouraging to be
here together again. Our brother read from our text
in Romans 8. We're gonna be looking at verses
16 through 18. And this can be a little confusing
to separate it in our mind what Paul is saying here, but I hope
as we go through it, the Lord will illuminate his word and
help you all to hear it. And if we don't understand it
now, I trust that we'll be able to cover it again as the Lord
teaches me and shows me and helps me to articulate it more clearly
to you and helps you all to hear it as well. So our text is Romans
8, 16 through 18. And we know that the Lord has
a people to whom he reveals himself to. And he does this through
the gospel. And those that he reveals himself
to are his children. and he leads them by his spirit. He gives them the spirit, and
the spirit of God leads his children. That's what we saw last time
in Romans 8, verse 14, which said, for as many as are led
by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God, or the children
of God. And so, the salvation of our
God is a salvation that's made known and experienced by these
children of God. He makes it known to us and he
gives us an experience of salvation so that we come into an understanding
of these things and we know these things which the Lord reveals
in his word. The spirit gives a witness to
the children, right? There's a witness that the spirit
bears to the children of God, witnessing that they are the
sons and daughters of God by what Christ has done. He bears
witness to our spirit, and he makes us to know that we ourselves
are heirs of the true and living God. and that we are heirs with
Christ. We are heirs with Christ. And
we'll look at that more as we go. Now, this is a great blessing
to the Lord's people. It's a great blessing. But we
also see that along with this blessing, the Lord has given
it to us that we should also suffer for his name's sake. Because
the children of wrath, the children of disobedience, the children
of this world, having the spirit of this world despise those that
are partakers with God and his inheritance. They're despised
by them. Our title is The Witness and
Glory of God's Heirs. the witness and glory of God's
heirs. And we'll first look at the Spirit's
witness, the Spirit's witness to us, to our spirits, and then
we'll see the heir's inheritance, and then we'll wrap up if we
have time, looking at the suffering of the saints. All right, so
first the Spirit's witness. So in our text, in our text,
Paul is speaking of the Holy Spirit. and that the Holy Spirit
is given to the children of God. And he tells us that the Spirit
bears witness to us that we are children of God. Look at verse
16. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. of God, and
so the witness given to us here is that we have the presence
of the Holy Spirit, of the living God dwelling in us. He dwells with his people, all
right? So he takes the word, additionally,
not only does he dwell with us, but he takes the word of God,
revealing it to you, making you to know that your experience
is that which God reveals in his word, showing you that we
are indeed the children of the living God. All right, so now
this verse, it uses this word itself. It's a distinction, it's
a word of distinction showing us that it's the spirit itself
that bears witness with our spirit. It's very distinct there, and
so that it's not simply that we have a spirit now, that we
have spiritual life, or that we are now spiritual people.
It isn't that at all, but we've been given the Holy Ghost. We've
been given the Holy Spirit, and this spirit the world does not
have. This is not the spirit of the
world, this is the spirit of God given to us whereby we know
that we are the sons and daughters of God. Now in the previous verse
last week, we began to see a glimpse of this. In verse 14 it says,
for ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba,
Father. And the understanding here is
that the Lord begins to make himself known and reveal to us
that God is our God, that he is our Father, and that he's
made this salvation, given us this salvation, and he brings
us to rejoice. When it's saying there, Abba,
Father, what is actually being communicated to us is that it's
a joyful thing, right? That it's not only that we cry
out to him as we see our own weaknesses and for him to save
us, but there's actually a joy there that God is our father,
right? The way your children rejoice
when you've been away for some time and you walk through that
door, when they were younger at least, right? When you walk
through that door and they see you, they see their father or
their mother and they cry out daddy, mommy, you know, in your
home. And so there's that joy there.
Now, one reason that the spirit reveals this to us is because
in ourselves, we find no proof, right? We don't find the assurances
in ourself. When we look at our feelings,
when we look at what we know, when we look at our actions,
we don't find proof or assurance in that, do we? In fact, we're
usually very disappointed when we begin to look at and assess
ourselves in the light of what we know to be true concerning
the Lord. In fact, those who can look at
their works and look at themselves to find a proof, and they can
find a proof, we typically call those self-righteous religionists,
right? Those that can find comfort and
hope just by looking at something in them. So we don't see it. When we look at ourselves, we
often are disappointed and confused and concerned about our eternal
state. But the spirit is given to us
so that he reveals to us the salvation of God. And he's the one that makes us
to believe the testimony of God. He takes his word so that we
hear the word and we believe. Words such as the gospel, right? For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He makes us to know the truth
of that, to hear that word as it is in truth, the word of the
living God. And so we come to know personally
that we ourselves are the sons and daughters of God. He makes
us to know this truth. He doesn't give us a spirit so
that we can know it about another, but it's a personal understanding,
it's a personal knowledge that God has saved me. Now we might
look at our brethren and have good thoughts towards them and
we usually are much more generous to our brethren who we see and
think they love the Lord, right? Because we can't see their heart.
We don't know the thoughts that they think, but their thoughts
and their hearts are just like ours, right? We're weak and sinful
and foolish so often and so negligent with the things and the blessings
that we have and forgetful of those things, but we see our
brethren and we rejoice and think well of them, but we still can't
know that about them. but we can know it about ourselves
that we have the spirit of God whereby we know these things
which he's declared to us concerning his son, Jesus Christ. So the
spirit of God is the one that testifies to us, right, that
he's the one that shows us that this work in us, this faith that
we have, this hope that we have in Christ is of him, that he's
the one that's giving it to us, and it's not of our flesh, because
the flesh doesn't believe, the flesh doesn't do that which is
spiritual, and the flesh doesn't produce that which is good fruit. The spirit produces faith, the
spirit produces that good fruit and that hope in Christ. I'm
gonna read from Ephesians 1, 13, if you wanna look at this
verse, because it's a good verse to look at later today when you're
home and throughout the week like sucking on a good milky,
creamy chocolate, you know, where you just enjoy that chocolate
and you appreciate it. I think when I was looking at
this it was a real joy to me as I looked at it a few times. But Ephesians 1.13. Now I want you to begin noticing
the order of this. And so 113 says, in whom ye also
trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation, right? So the word of truth is the gospel
of your salvation in whom also after that ye believed, ye were
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And so, What the
Lord is, the delineation there, is that many hear the call of
the gospel. Many hear it. But you, to whom
this salvation has come, hear it as the word of truth. You
hear it for what it is. It's the word of truth. To others,
it's the word of death. To others, it's the word of indifference. To others, they don't care about
what they're hearing. But you that hear the word of
truth, you believe. He's showing to you that that
faith has been formed in your heart and you've heard it as
the word of truth. And so you are given a different
ear, a spirit that the world knows nothing of. because to
them, it's just indifference. To them, it's just maybe some
religion. They might get excited for a
time, but then they grow tired of it, and they're done with
it, and they fall away. They taste it, but they spit
it out. But you, you taste it, and you
consume it. You continue to feed upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. You continue to eat his flesh
and to drink his blood because he's the one that's begun that
good work in you. And the joy is that he which
hath begun a good work in you testified in that little tiny
mustard seed of faith when you heard the word of truth as opposed
to the word of death, as opposed to the word of nothing. You heard
truth and you believed. And so having that faith, right,
because in our text faith is already presupposed. But after
that word of faith comes, the Holy Spirit is given, sealing
you in the truth of that so that he makes it known to you more
and more what God has done. And he keeps you in the faith.
He keeps you in the hope. See how it's his work? And so that testimony of the
Spirit is given to us and increases more and more. All right, I want
you to see how The Spirit is testifying to your spirit that
you are the children of God, that the hope you have, you can
rest upon Him, lean upon Him, venture upon Him wholly and believe
Him. Hope in God, that it's not just
some, like you don't have to wonder and go into yourself now
and start looking for some special feeling or some lightning bolt
striking you, it's this hope that he's begun that work of
faith in you and he's keeping you in it and revealing the truth
of this salvation to you. I love how Paul words it there,
as he calls it, the gospel of your salvation. You see, how
there's a difference in the ear of the believer who's been given
faith to hear it as that's my hope. that God has sent his son,
Jesus Christ, into the world in the likeness of my sinful
flesh, me having no hope in my works, no works of righteousness
to recommend me to God, but he sent his son to come and do for
me perfect righteousness, to perform for me what I cannot
do for myself. Christ has done that. My God
has done that for me, that He's provided salvation in His Son,
who came, and as the word says, was made sin for us, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. apart from any works of me, apart
from any demanding of my obedience and me doing something, my God
has done it all. It's the hope, it's the truth,
it's the word of God of your salvation. He's provided that,
he's done that for us, brethren. Now, turn over to Romans 5, because
we'll see this again, and this was a real joy to me as well. We see here as we're led by the
spirit, he continues to lead us to Christ and to show us more
and more of Christ. And so Romans five, look at verse
one. Now, as we read this passage,
I want you to see, right, there's this little point of our faith
right there in the sun. There's this little point of
faith, this little tiny mustard seed of faith. And then as we
read, you see this increase of the spirit illuminating the child
of God, showing them all the things of God, the hope that
we have in God, all right? So verse one, therefore, being
justified, all right? We see, we've heard the gospel,
the word of your salvation. We've heard what Christ has done
and accomplished for us by himself so that when he was crucified,
we were crucified with him. When he was buried, we were buried
with him. When he rose again, We were raised
again and have the hope of eternal life and glory with our Savior,
right? We've heard that. We've heard
the word of justification and we believe it by faith, right? Faith which God gave us. By faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So there it is, there's the Son
of God, the Son of Righteousness, and there's that little tiny
point of faith, that mustard seed faith that says, that's
true, I believe that, that is salvation. There is no hope of
salvation in any other way. My God has done that for his
people. Now listen, I'm gonna break away,
I'm just gonna read 1 Thessalonians 2.13. Listen to the same language. For this cause also, we thank
God without ceasing because when ye receive the word of truth,
right, you hear it as it is in truth, it's truth, it's the word
of God, not the word of man. And listen to how he says it.
Because when ye receive the word of God, which ye heard of us,
ye received it not as the word of men, not as death, not as
just some other thing to hear or learn like the Greeks, Mount
Areopagus, right? But ye received it as it is in
truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you
that belief. So he's showing us that that
belief, which is not of the flesh, it's of him, but it's that first,
it's that first fruit that he bears in us. that we believe,
we hear it, we heard the word of truth, and we don't necessarily
understand or know all things that God did that or what he
fully did, but we believe, we hope. Then he seals us with the
Holy Spirit, whereby we hear his word. Now back in Romans
5.2, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand. and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. All right, so we access this
by faith, but we're already standing in grace. We're already saved
by God. God's already done this work
for us, and we access it now by faith. Now here it comes.
Here's the illumination, verse three. And not only so, but we
glory in tribulations also, which we'll see more of in our text,
how the sufferings, the tribulations come, But we glory in tribulations
also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience
experience, and experience hope. See, he's showing us this more
and more. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad. It is shed abroad in
our hearts. by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us, so that there was a little mustard seed faith fixed in Christ,
but the Holy Spirit sealing us now, his presence being with
us, sheds abroad all these things, and he teaches you more and more
in that same gospel word of truth, the word of God, not the word
of men, but what God has done for his people, the word of your
salvation, and so I think For those that are struggling and
looking within for something, some lightning bolt to hope in
and have confidence in, don't look to that. Look to the fact
that God has given you an ear of faith to hear it as it is,
the word of truth. That God has provided salvation. And just believe on him. Venture
wholly upon him. Believe him. What else do you
have? You have no other hope. So fall
completely upon him. Abandon all other hope and just
say, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Lord,
teach me, reveal this to me. Because if you hear it as the
word of truth, then he which hath begun a good work in you
shall perform it unto the end. He's the one that gave it to
you. He's the one that'll keep you. And he's the one that'll
keep illuminating this. and giving you and fixing your
hope in Him and not looking to yourself, right? He delivers
us from that. All right, now, there's many
other scriptures that show that ceiling. I can give them to you
later, but like 2 Corinthians 1.22, 2 Corinthians 5.5, Ephesians
1.13 we saw, there's Ephesians 4.30, there's 1 Corinthians 2.4
and 5, and 1 John 2.20. and verse 27, I'll just put them
on there for the recording, but you can look them up and just
see how He, the Spirit, seals us. After that, we believe. I mean, we're already saved by
God's choice, His Son's choice, but He brings it and makes it
known to us. All right, let me move on, on to the inheritance
there. So if we have now the witness
of the Spirit bearing witness to us that we are God's children,
He says in verse 17 of Romans 8, Romans 8, 17, and if children,
then heirs, right? If you have the spirit of God,
then you're his children. And if you're children, then you're
heirs of God and join heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer
with them, that we may be also glorified together. And let me
just focus on the first part of that verse there. So one is
an heir either by adoption into the family or by birth into the
family, and the children of God are both. We're both adopted
and born of the seed of Christ, right? We know that we're adopted,
like we see in Ephesians 1, 4, and 5. It says that it's according
to, as he hath chosen us, right? It's his sovereign electing choice
of whom he will, he saved. It's according as he hath chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will. And then also, not only are we
adopted, but we're born of Christ's spiritual seed in regeneration. When the spirit gives us life,
life from the dead, Right? Because when we're born, we're
dead of Adam's corrupt seed, having no spiritual life in it,
no ability to know the things of God or understand them until
he gives us life by the spirit and makes us to see and to know
and hear that word of truth. Right? And that's what we see
in 1 Peter 1, 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed,
which is of Adam, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which is
Christ and is sort of a double entendre there, which is also
through the word of your salvation, the preaching of the gospel word,
so that by Christ's spiritual seed, we are made alive through
the blessing of God and the preaching of the word of God, which is
declaring Christ in the gospel, all right? So he gives us life,
and because we are children, he makes us to know we are heirs
of God. And just like our salvation,
where we did nothing to earn it, so our inheritance is not
by anything we do to inherit. All right? Me being a pastor
doesn't increase my inheritance or improve me in any way over
my brethren. We're all one. We're all one
in Christ, and we all receive the same blessing in Christ.
He is our inheritance. He is our hope and our joy. We're
all going to be in the same place, beholding the glory of our Savior
and our God. And so we rejoice in that salvation. And this is what he's done for
you, in blessing you and giving you that which is encouraging
and edifying to the people of God. Now, in one sense, God is
our inheritance, right? He says in John 17, 23, I in
them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that
the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them
as thou hast loved me. So our God is our God, he's our
inheritance, we receive him. And then the scriptures also
reveal that we are become joint heirs with Christ. Not co-heirs,
as though we're gonna split the inheritance 50-50, he gets half
and we get the rest of the other half, but he says we're joint
heirs. So that the meaning is, everything
that Christ earned, and his sacrifice, and the work that he did to make
the people of God righteous before God. Everything he inherited,
that he earned by inheritance, that he earned by his death,
which is his inheritance, is your inheritance. We're joint
heirs with him, so that everything that is his is ours, and everything
that's ours is his. It's all his, and again, We did
nothing to deserve that, we did nothing, we didn't lift a finger
for it, it's pure grace. And so in Galatians, Paul, speaking
of this says, four, six, and seven, because ye are sons, God
hath 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. When I read that, it made me
think of Abraham and Abraham's son. Before he got a son, he
had a servant. And he said, oh, that my servant, I forget his
name, that he might inherit everything. Or he asked, will he be the one
that inherits everything? And the Lord said, no, he's not
going to inherit it. You're going to have a son. And then he had
Ishmael. And he said, oh, that Ishmael might inherit. And he
said, no, that's the works of your flesh. He's not going to
inherit it. But the son of promise. Isaac, the son of promise, he
should be your heir. And so that's what we are, we're
children of promise. According to the grace of God
and his covenant of grace, apart from any works that we've done,
we are made by his sovereign electing choice, children of
promise, to receive the inheritance that Christ has obtained for
us. And so we too, as Christ is glorified, we too are glorified. We'll be glorified in that day,
when we are raised together with him and me to sit with our God. He says in John 17, 24, Father,
I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given
me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
And then in verse 22 of that same chapter, 17, it says, the
glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be
one, even as we are one. And so that's a blessed thing
to behold. That's an encouraging thing,
and it's hard for us to comprehend it, right? It's hard for us to
see ourselves there in the presence of God in glory, rejoicing in
Him and having no sin, having no filth and no weakness about
us, but to rejoice in Him and to be glad in our Savior. And
I like how Paul said, and this is actually another picture of
seeing that shedding abroad, that illuminating power of the
Spirit, which is given to you to make you know these things,
Paul said this when he was writing to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians
3, 21 through 23. He said, therefore, let no man
glory in men, for all things are yours. All things are yours,
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death
or things present or things to come, all are yours. and ye are Christ's and Christ
is God. Now you think about the man that's
writing those words. This was a man who was stripped,
who went naked and hungry and cold many nights for the sake
of the gospel. He was imprisoned. He was despised
and rejected by his countrymen and beaten in many cities. He
was imprisoned. He was shipwrecked. And you think,
well, here's this man who has nothing of the riches of this
world and has given up all those things is saying, you have all
things. I have all things. He knows he's
the richest man in the world because he has Christ. And the only way that he could
say that, because he never changed that we could tell, he forsook
all the riches of this world knowing that all things are his.
He forsook them all. And so you see how that's what the Lord teaches
us. That's what he reveals to us and illuminates in our hearts
and minds. He makes us to know that more
and more as he's growing us and settling us in the word of truth. So that's a good promise and
a good thing to dwell on there. while we wait for our Lord to
return. All right, now let's see the last point, which is
the suffering. All right, here's the caveat
that the Lord gives us. Look at verse 17 in our text
again, Romans 8, 17. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer
with him, that we may be also glorified together. So Paul tells
us that we're going to suffer. He shows us that we're going
to suffer. And the reason that we suffer is because we are the
heirs of God. We are the heirs of God with
Christ. And that's because the children
of wrath, the children of disobedience, they despise the children of
the inheritance. They despise the children of
God. We saw that even with Isaac and
Ishmael. You see with Cain and Abel, Cain
despised his brother Abel and slew him because God received
Abel's sacrifice, but had no respect unto Cain's works of
the flesh, the fruit of the earth, rather than the fruit of the
spirit. So he despised him. And then Ishmael, we're told
that when Ishmael saw Isaac, Sarah saw him mocking. Abraham's
son. He was mocking him. And so Sarah
rightly said, cast out the bond woman and her son. They're not
going to have part with my son. They're not going to have part
of the inheritance with the heir. The heir. And so she cast him
out, right? So we see that enmity there between the children of
God and the children of this world. And so there's many ways
in which we suffer for the gospel's sake. Paul said to us that it's
a certainty. He wrote to the Philippians in
129, saying, unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not
only to believe on him, right? Faith is given, so we believe
on him, but also to suffer for his sake. And so the father will
send us various afflictions, various hardships and sufferings
and tribulations because they work to strip us. They work to
strip us of confidence in this flesh. And they strip us of those
things that would cause us to trust in the flesh. And so the
Lord strips us of them that we find our all in Christ. We find our all in him. And so
we'll suffer various persecutions and things. He said to Timothy,
he said, all that will live godly, all that will live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution. And that may be the loss of a
friend, the loss of a loved one. It may be that you lose out on
a job. It may be that you get passed
over for a promotion. Some things we know or suspect,
some things we don't ever know, right? And some things just doesn't
happen, but the Lord's working all things together for our good. Our Savior said in Matthew, he
said, behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.
Be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. He said, it's enough for the
disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his Lord.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much
more shall they call them of his household? And so you see
this, right? You that speak this gospel, when
you have opportunity and you're speaking to your friend or someone
that you care about or just a stranger and you're telling them the truth,
they usually don't understand what you're saying. Or they seem
like they understand, but you hear them speak and you realize
they haven't heard a word I said. They haven't heard the word of
truth, they just hear religion, or they hear what they want to
hear, but they don't hear the truth. And so they don't understand
because they don't have the spirit of Christ revealing it to them
and making them to know the truth. And our Lord said, fear them
not therefore, for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed,
and hid that shall not be known. So in other words, these things
are revealed to us, revealed to them, as we declare the truth
of the gospel and make it known to those that the Lord brings
in our path. But Peter even says, I like this, though we suffer,
Our inheritance is great, and he'll make us to know that. Peter
said, Lord, we've left all and followed thee. And Jesus answered
and said, verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left
house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife,
or children, or lands for my sake and the gospels, but he
shall receive an hundredfold now in this time houses and brethren
and sisters and mothers, and children in lands with persecutions,
and in the world to come, eternal life. And so we shall receive
the Lord. The Lord is very generous and
will give us more than what we forsake and give up here. In
fact, that's what he says in verse 18. He says, for I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And so many brethren
before you and I have all gone through this path. The Lord's
brought his people all down this way. In fact, we're told that
by faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter, right? Not just a wealthy Egyptian,
but the son of Pharaoh's daughter. So he had all manner of riches
and pleasures of the flesh at his disposal, and yet he forsook
all those things. Why? Choosing rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect
unto the recompense of the reward. And so brethren, You have the
very down payment, the earnest of your salvation, which is the
spirit of Christ, which has been given to you, making you to know,
bearing witness to your spirit, that you are the sons of God. You've heard the word of truth.
You've received it as it is, the word of God in truth. And this world has not received
it. And so don't look at the things that you're giving up
or the sufferings that you have in this life as a result of your
hope, but keep looking to the inheritance, keep looking to
Christ, keep looking to Christ who has been given for us, for
our life, to deliver us from death and eternal wrath and damnation. given you life in his son, Jesus
Christ. And so we'll receive this inheritance,
and this will be what I close with, 2 Thessalonians 1.10, when
he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired
in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed
in that day. So rejoice in Christ our salvation,
rejoice in him. He's made it known to you. All right, we're gonna pray and
then Brother Joe will come up and close this with a hymn. Our
gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy, for your
grace, for the inheritance that we have in your son, Jesus Christ.
Lord, we pray that you would indeed reveal to this people
that they are yours. Lord, show them how that the
faith that they have in the word of truth which they have been
made to hear, and to receive and believe it, Lord, that it's
your work, and that you would fix in them that everlasting
hope by your spirit, that indeed they are sons and daughters of
God, and that you would shed this light abroad in their heart,
making them to see and to know the witness of the spirit to
their spirits that indeed we are the children of God. Lord,
we ask that you would bless this word, help us Lord as we go forward
with deciding what we can do and Lord give us success in broadcasting
the messages and doing what we can as best as we can here until
things open up again. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks, amen. Yeah, sometimes it's on, sometimes
it's off, so I don't know if it stayed on. There's people
on, I can see at times, but the Lord knows, so. This recorded
too, so that's good. But that'll probably be better.