I'll take you by was a turn back
with many Galatians Galatians chapter 4 our text will be found in verse 7 wherefore thou art no more a
servant but a son follow the logic here follow the reasoning
of the Apostle he is a been testifying that God, by His grace, has adopted
us to be sons. We went over this Wednesday evening
that we are adopted sons by sovereign election. God, in sovereign election,
chose us to be His sons. And Christ Jesus paid the ransom
price, paid the adoption price for us. And then by the grace
and power of the Holy Spirit, He came and we experienced this
sonship in the new birth. We were given life and we were
given faith. We were dead and now we are made
alive. And now He says this, you are
sons. Sons. And this word sons, again, in
children, remember, the Apostle is talking about not little children.
Little children, remember, were under tutors and governors. But
when they, at the appointed time, they became full grown sons. Now what does this mean? This
means that they, whatever the Father purposed for them to have,
when at that appointed time, they inherited everything. And
so know this, that it doesn't matter if you're a babe in Christ
or you're a full grown mature elder in Christ, we all have
the same benefits, the same rights and privileges as full grown
sons. And so then if we are indeed
sons, now today if you are a son, I went over this, what is the
evidence of my sonship? It is faith. Faith in Christ
alone. That's the evidence of our sonship. Love for the brethren. Yes. Love for God. But it's all attributed
to faith. Faith in Christ. And what's the
logic here? Wherefore thou art no more a
servant. You're not under the law. You're not a servant. But
what? A son. What's the logic? If a
son, then an heir. of God, an heir of God. How? Through Christ. Through
Christ. Now, as we go through this inheritance,
I want you to keep in mind, he's using this to contrast the law,
the covenant of the law. The law is a covenant. The law
gives an inheritance. but not as a son, but as a slave.
Do this and live. Don't do this and die. That's
the law's covenant. But this is a totally different
covenant, a better covenant. It's a covenant of love, sonship. Doesn't speak to us as servants,
but sons. And if sons, then heirs. Now,
what is an heir? An heir, again, is a man of full-grown
age that is given the estate of his father who has passed.
That's what this has the illustration of. It's like the reading of
a last will and testament of a wealthy man who leaves everything
to his son, and then his son may be a little child, but at
the appointed time, the father then writes in the time that
his son is to inherit everything. And so it is with us, children
of God. God has left us His will, His
covenant, and He has ratified that covenant. He has ratified
that covenant by the death of His Son. You see, Jesus Christ
is the mediator of that covenant. He's what we call the testator
of the covenant. You know in the last will and
covenant that it's not in force until the death of the testator. this is the good news we have
is that the testator of God's will has died, therefore, this
will and testament is in full force, it's in full force, dear
children of God, believers in Christ, we can rejoice in And
that we are not only made adopted sons by the death of Christ,
but we are also made heirs of God by the death of Jesus Christ. And our inheritance is twofold.
It is eternal and immutable. That's one thing if it's eternal.
But what if it was eternally changing? That wouldn't be any
good. but it's eternal and listen it's
immutable it is unchangeable remember what Paul said about
a man's will and testament he said if it is sealed and the
man has died you can't add to it or take away from it so it
is with God's covenant there is no addition to it and there
is no subtraction from this inheritance whatever is in this inheritance
is what every believer is going to receive One thing about a will and testament,
I could leave my vast kingdom to my wife and children. I could
leave it all. I can be very specific as to
who gets what. But when I die, you know one
thing? I can't make sure it's done.
Once I'm dead, people come in and they can steal it, they can
take it away. It's not immutable, is it? This
is not so with God's covenant. Why? Because the one who died
is also alive to make sure you get what he purchased. You're
going to get exactly what Christ purposed and purchased to give
you. And you're not going to miss
out. Not one thing is going to be missing. I thought of Joseph. What an
illustration of Joseph he is, right? Joseph, they thought he
was what? They thought he was dead. They
thought he was dead. But all the while that they thought
he was dead, he was doing what? Storing up life for them. And then one day they came and
what? They were surprised he wasn't dead. And he made sure, being next
and at the right hand of Pharaoh, Joseph made sure that Jacob and
his sons received exactly what he stored up for them. What a
picture of Christ, who died, who is not dead. who stored up
our salvation and is now alive to make sure that we receive
it. What our inheritance is, this
is sure that we will receive everything that he's purposed.
So what then is our inheritance? What then is our inheritance?
I could flip back and forth and I can go many places, but I think
this was it's gonna be concise for you. I'm gonna try to make
it concise because I don't have all the time to go through everything
you that he's bought for you. I don't. Let's go to Isaiah 54. I think this is a concise view
of several things. I'm not gonna make it exhaustive.
These are several things. And as you go through this, may
God, the Holy Spirit, incite your mind and heart to think
of other things that He has given to you as your inheritance. But these are some chief things.
Look at Isaiah 54. Isaiah 54. Look at the last verse,
17. Just the last part of that verse.
He said this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. So what he's saying is everything
that went before, this is your inheritance. This whole chapter
is devoted to show the saints of God what God has purposed
to give you. What God has purposed to give
you. Now I've got five things. Maybe six, maybe seven. I got
five things written, but there's a ton more. But the first thing
I want you to see is you as a child of God, the first thing you inherit
that is our experience is mercy. Isn't that the first thing you
experience when you are a child of God is the mercy? This is
part of your inheritance. Listen, mercy. Look at verse
seven. He said, for a small moment,
I have forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather you. This is the will of God. Even
to gather his people, how? By force? By threats? Mercy. Mercy. This is how he gathers. We know
that God has chosen us in Christ and that Christ is, we were predestined
in Christ the adoption of children. But listen to that, look at that
first part, for a small moment I have forsaken thee. What is
this? This shows us this, that every child of God has a small
moment in which we are lost. There's a small moment of time
from our birth until our conversion that we are forsaken. In the purpose of God's salvation
it was accomplished, purposed and accomplished, before we were
born. But we know this, that all God's
decrees in eternity must come to pass in time. So what was
our condition? Well, he tells you that in verse
1. This was our condition. Look at verse 1 of 54, O SING,
O BARON! Thou dost not bear, break forth
in singing aloud. Thou dost not travail with child.
What is he saying here? We're without life. What is a
woman without a child? She's without life in her. That's
what he's saying. This is what we were. We were
barren. We were fruitless. We were without
righteousness. We were without hope. We were
lost. We were dead in sins. We bore not the fruits of God's
righteousness. We were cast out and abandoned. We were wasted. We were used
up in our sins, worthless to men and to God. But God says to the barren, not
weep, but what? Sing. You know why? This is your
inheritance. I will in great mercy gather
you. I will in great mercy gather
you. Because of the death of the testator,
because of the will of God, God says, I will gather thee in great
mercy. Is this not how He gathered you?
Was it not in mercy? Paul asked this church in Corinth,
he said, you know, did you receive the Spirit by the obedience to
the law or by the grace of faith? How did you receive it? Did you earn it or was it in
mercy? See, it can't be a combination
of both. It's not a mixture. There's no amount that you can't
mix works and grace. You can't mix mercy and merit. You can't. It's either or. How did you receive it? We all
received it by great mercy. Great mercy. He came to us in
great mercy. He came to us in the moment of
our greatest need. When was the moment of your greatest
need? Wasn't it when you were sensible of your sin? When God
made your sin real to you. See, depravity to me at that
time was no longer a doctrine. It was real. I knew before that
all men were depraved. I knew all of you were depraved. But when God came to me, I knew
this, I was depraved. I knew I had no hope. And he
came to me in that moment in great mercy, in great mercy. And what did he do in great mercy?
He gathered me. You know what the Lord Jesus
Christ said, I lay down my life for the sheep. And he said, other
sheep I have of this fold, them I also must bring. I must gather them. I must. And you remember what he said
about gathering, he said, my sheep hear my voice and I know
them and they follow me and I give unto them, I give unto them eternal
life and they, they shall never perish, neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. This is great mercy. This is our inheritance, the
mercy of God. Now God said, I will be merciful
to whom I'll be merciful. You know who He meant? Me. That was my inheritance that
He gave me, His mercy. Mercy. Now in this inheritance,
even of God's mercy, are there not times that we do not feel
His mercy? You know, Newton said, will thou
pursue thy worm to death? Newton didn't feel mercy. He
felt anger of God. He felt the wrath of God on him. But is that true? No. No, oftentimes we feel like Asaph. My feet are almost gone. My steps
have nigh well slipped. I know this is my experience
in this pilgrimage that I look around and I see the prosperity
of the wicked. I see these people over here.
They're not sick. They're not in despair. And we
may be sick. We may be in despair. And we
say, what? Where's your mercy? Looks like
you're being merciful to them. No, he's not. You know, I spent
some time out on a farm, you know. Got the hogs over here,
and that trough is full. You think the farmer's going
to have, is that mercy for the hog? No, they're fattening him
up, getting ready to kill him. That's what's happening to the
world. They're just fattening up for
the kill. What is God doing for us? Keeping us. He's sustaining
us. He's causing us to grow in faith
and love and using these trials. Why? Because of his great mercy.
with great mercy. You know what, in 1 Chronicles
chapter 16 it says, Give thanks unto the Lord for he is good.
He is mercy forever. How long is God going to have
mercy? This part of our inheritance. It's good, okay, he had mercy
back then, but what about now? No, God's mercy is not a one
and all thing. It is a continual, constant gift. He is forever merciful to you. Forever merciful to you. And
so I ask you this morning, you need mercy? Do you need it? Well, that's
good, because that's your inheritance. You have it. I don't deserve
it. Isn't that the definition of
it? Isn't that the definition of mercy? If you earned it, it
ain't mercy. So no, you don't have to earn
it. God says, I'm going to give you great mercy. And this is
the evidence. I'll gather you. Has He gathered
you? Was it little mercy that gathered you? Or was it great
mercy? Great mercy. And His mercy is
endurable. In Romans 9 and 16, He says,
So then is not of him that willeth nor him that runneth, but God
that showeth mercy. That little ETH is present perfect
tense, which means he had shown mercy. He is showing mercy and
he shall show mercy. Why? Because this is our inheritance,
mercy. The second thing of our inheritance is love. The love of God is your
inheritance. Look at this in verse 10 of chapter
54 in Isaiah. Look at verse 10. He says, For
the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed. But my
kindness, my love, shall not depart from thee, neither shall
the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy
on thee. See how they're intertwined?
Why does He have mercy on you? Because He loves you. He loves
you. And what does God say about His
love? It will never depart. Never depart. God declares this,
that the hills and mountains will depart. You know, one day
there's coming a day when the Lord comes back and this whole
world will be burnt up. Everything. Everything, everything
you see is going to be burned up. These mountains and hills,
consider the greatness of a mountain. You can build on a mountain but
you can't move it. Mount Everest. You can climb
it, you can look on top of it, can you move it? God says, one day, I'm gonna
do it just like a kid. You know, a little kid gets in
a sandbox, build a castle, sandcastle. He takes a stick and he just,
whoosh. That's how God's gonna do this earth. He's just gonna,
whoosh. It'll be all clean and perfect, and he's gonna make
it, gonna make it better than it was in Eden. Why? Because at that time, there's
not gonna be any more sin in it. It's gonna be a beautiful
place. But these mountains here is not
talking about the mountains that we see. These are figurative
mountains. It's talking about a refuge.
God says, for the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed. He's talking about a man's refuge. In this day when this was written,
mountains were used as fortified positions, refuges that build
cities inside of the mountain for protection, shelter from
the storms. and enemies. God says to everyone
who has a refuge of lies, to all false religion, to all who
are trusting in the mountains and hills of their works, trusting
in their deeds, God says they shall be removed. Remember in
Isaiah 28, God says, You say, I have made a covenant with death
and with and the overflowing scourge shall not come to me."
This is what religion tells us. It says, I've already made a
covenant with God. I'm good. Me and God, we've got a covenant.
He said he's going to save me if I just do my best. That's
not what he said. That's what you say. God says there's only one refuge.
He said, I laid in Zion a stone, a precious stone, a tried cornerstone. He that believeth shall not make
haste. Anyone on that refuge is fine. But he said, I'm going to lay
the righteousness to the plummet, and anything not on this stone,
not on this rock, is going to be cut off. And in that day,
you're going to find out something. The bed is shorter than a man
can stretch himself on, and the covering narrower than he can
cover himself with. What is he saying? Your righteousness
is not enough. In that day, you're going to
find out something. Your works are not enough. God says, I'm going to remove
those mountains and those hills. But us who believe on Jesus Christ,
we are sons of God. We have an inheritance and this
is the inheritance that shall not be removed. The love of God. He said, I'm going to remove
all those false refuges. I'm going to remove all those
things. Isn't that what He did for you? Did He not sweep clean your false
refuge? He did me in great mercy. He
showed me my refuge was lies. I was hiding in a refuge of Calvinism. I was. I thought because I knew
Calvinism that I was saved. No, I didn't know Christ. And
what'd he do? Like a little, like that kid
just wiped it clean. And then what? I found something greater than
my refuge. It was a refuge of God's love.
God says, I'm gonna remove those mountains and hills. But something
I'm not going to remove is my love, my love, my kindness. This is what it is. This is what
we look at, look to now and have assurance for all eternity is
this, the love of God. Let us see that as long as we
live in this world and all the things that are given to us are
only tokens of God's love. You know what he says in Isaiah
43? He said, I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior.
Consider this. I gave Egypt for thee. Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Why? Since thou was
precious in my sight. You have been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee and people for thy life. See, the evident token of his
love is that all men are given for thee. Why do you think kingdoms rise
and fall? Why do you think that our country's
in such turmoil now? Why? For you. For you. Your benefit. Your benefit. Isn't this how He moved all providence
and all those men around us so that we should come to a place
and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ? You think that was by
accident? What was God doing? He was giving everything so that
you should hear His gospel and believe. Why? Because He loved
you. He loved you. So we have been saved. God placed
us where we are and moved all things that we should come in
here and be drawn by his great mercy because he loved us with
what kind of love did he have? What kind of love does God have?
It's everlasting love. Why? Because God can't change
friends and whoever God loved in eternity, he will always love. I know this. Even your love for
your spouse is fluctuating. The one you love the most in
the world, what, it fluctuates. Doesn't it? And sometimes you
don't know if you got any love at all. You're just being honest.
God's love's not like your love. God's love's not like your love.
His love is never fluctuating. There's never a moment He didn't
love you. That's astounding for the most
unlovable person. If you see yourself as you are,
you know you're the most unlovable person. And yet, he loved me. Yay. I like that it begins with
the word yes. And don't even question ask yet,
and he said, yes, I have loved thee. Do you love me? I've loved
you with an everlasting love. What's that? How do I know? Therefore
with loving kindness have I what? Drawn thee. See how tender mercy
and love go together? The evidence of that love is
what? His mercy to draw us. So he loved us. Next look at
this covenant. He says this, Though the mountains
depart, hills remove, my kindness shall not depart from thee. Neither
shall the covenant of my peace be removed. covenant of his peace,
in order for us to be made to sit in heavenly places we must
have peace with God, we must have peace with God.
Now we by nature know this, we were not at peace with God, by
nature we were at enmity with God, we were in rebellion against
God, not just by our actions but our very nature was in rebellion,
See, men think that just because they don't act rebellious, that
they're not rebellious. No, the very core of our being
is in rebellion. Paul said the natural mind, natural
man is at enmity against God, for it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. And so then everything we did
was offensive. was treasonous. But by Jesus
Christ, our Lord, He has fulfilled the covenant of peace. God willed
that we should be at peace. By nature, we were not at peace.
But listen, Christ made peace. This is the part of the covenant.
This is part of your inheritance, is that Christ, by this covenant,
made peace with God for you. for you. He made peace with God. There's a covenant of peace. Now these Galatians were trying
to be brought back under the covenant of bondage. They said,
yeah, Christ made peace, but now you need to go back under
the taskmaster. You need to go back under the
bondage of the law. But we who are heirs of God are
heirs at liberty. If there is peace, my friend,
there is what? There's liberty. There's no animosity. There's no wrath. We are brought
to peace. Colossians 1 20 says, having
made peace, very expensive price of peace, very expensive by his
blood, he made peace. He made peace by the blood of
His cross, by Him to reconcile all things to Himself. By Him
I say whether things in earth or things in heaven and you. Now listen, you got that? He
reconciled all things to Himself, heaven and earth, but listen,
and you, even you, who were alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled you. How? He reconciled you through
the work of the Holy Spirit by applying this blood to your heart. This is your inheritance, friends.
Peace with God. A covenant of peace. We are heirs
of peace with God, believers. God does not deal with you as
bastards, but sons. Now, let's talk about chastening,
because that doesn't feel like we're at peace. God chastens
His children. Why do you suppose that the wicked
are allowed to be free and doing what they please and seem to
be prosperous at? Why? Because they're bastards
and not sons. You see some other child over
here running around and being obnoxious and what do you do?
Nothing. He's not your child, not your
son. But you let your son get out of whack and what do you
do? You discipline him. If you love him, you'll discipline
him. Why? Because you don't want him
to act a fool. You don't want him to be hurt.
This is what God does for us. We are sons, therefore we are
chastened of our father because of his love. Not to hurt us,
but why? Paul said that we are chastened
so that it might yield a what? Peaceable fruit. Peaceable fruit. And so then are you chastened?
Do you feel like often the walls are closing in? I feel like God's pressing me from
all sides. And to be honest, I felt these
last five years as though God has pinned me to the mat and
He has not let me up. That's just true. I feel like
he has just put his foot on my neck and said, no further. Well,
you know what gives my heart liberty is this understanding
of my peace with God. It may feel that way. That's
not how it really is. It may feel as though God's trying
to destroy me. That's not how it really is.
Why? Because I have peace with God. Look at your text back at
54, and look at this. Look at verse 2. He tells those
barren women to sing, and he says, Look, enlarge the place
of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitation.
Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy space. Expand
it! Now listen, whatever you think
about the peace of God, I want you to expand it. Go further. However much you think God loves
you, go further. However much mercy you think
God has had on you, I want you to go further. You can expand
this. The universe can't contain how
much love He has for you. The universe cannot contain how
much mercy He's had for you. The universe cannot contain the
amount of peace that Christ purchased by His death. So in this covenant of peace,
it is a large place. You feel trapped? You're not
trapped. You're in a large place. You're at peace with God, a wide
open space. The rock of our salvation, friends,
is not a pebble. It's not a... People think, oh,
I'm going to fall off. No, expand the tent. It's wide. So great. Our foundation is so
great that we're never going to fall off of it. We fall on
it, but we're not going to fall off of it. I'll tell you, there are many
times I've fallen on it, and I've been broken, but I've never
fallen off of it. Why, it's too large. The peace
he made is too far expanding for me to defile it. Why, he
says, my peace shall not be removed. Over in Jeremiah, He said, I'm the one that gives
the sun and the moon and the ordinances, right? God says this
to Jeremiah. He said, I gave the ordinance
of the sun and moon. It comes up and it goes down
at my command, doesn't it? He said, the day they stop listening
to me is the day I'll reject you. When is the sun and moon going
to stop listening to Him? See, it never... When is He going
to stop being at peace with you? Never. See how big this is? But you don't know what I've
done. But you don't know how much His blood paid for it, do
you? But I don't feel at peace. What
does that have to do with anything? He's made a covenant of peace,
and Christ ratified it by His blood. His peace is sure. So we have the mercy of God,
we have the love of God, and we have the peace of God. And thirdly, we have the righteousness
of God. The righteousness of God. Look
at verse 17 again. He said, this is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is, where
does it come from? Oh, it means the inheritance of righteousness.
Now, how many righteousnesses are
there? Are there varying levels of righteousness? No, either you're righteous or
you're not. It's an all or none principle, friend. And there's
only one righteousness. It is the righteousness of God.
That's the only righteousness. The righteousness of God. There is no other righteousness.
The only thing that separates the righteous, It separates the
righteousness of the saints and the righteousness of God. Righteousness
is essential to Him. What I mean by essential is that's
His nature. He is righteousness. And so that's the only separation
here. And so God's sons, the righteousness of God, which
is essential to Him, is then imputed, charged, and then imparted
to us who are his sons. God alone is righteous in himself,
but our righteousness is that righteousness of God which Christ
made and is given to us as our own. He says, listen, their righteousness. You got that? He said it's yours. Does God give like we give? Your son does something, your
child does something, you give them a gift. You say, oh, you're
such a good boy, here's a gift. And then they go off and do something
horrible. What do you wanna do? You wanna
take it back. Man, I was so, shouldn't have give that gift
to that child, I knew it. God doesn't do it that way. No,
God gives, it's forever. And what does he say? Their righteousness. Their righteousness is not of
themselves. Their righteousness is of me. It's my righteousness
given to them. Paul says in Romans 3, even the
righteousness of God which is, how is it merited? By the faith
of Jesus Christ. Then, given unto and upon all
them that believe. So behold, we who knew no righteous, I've never felt righteous. I
don't know what it's like to feel righteous. Do you? I know
what it's like to be self-righteous, which is nothing but unrighteousness. I don't know what it feels like
to be righteous. Does that mean I'm not righteous?
Has nothing to do with it. No, he made me righteous. He took the righteousness of
Christ and made it my own righteousness. That's my inheritance. The righteousness
of God. And what can then take this away?
Nothing. Nothing can take it away. It's
my inheritance. Therefore, the scripture says,
who is he that condemneth? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that condemns? It's Christ that died, yea rather
has risen again. And so then if I am made righteous,
if God has made peace by the blood of His cross, if He has
gathered me by His mercy, who then shall separate me from His
love? That's what Paul said. Who then shall separate me from
His love? Name it. Name the person or the event
that's going to separate me from the love of God. Well, you sinned. I'm sorry, did you condemn me?
God justified me. Christ died for that sin. Are
you going to accuse him again of it? No, you can't. So who's going to separate me
from his love? That's my inheritance. I'm righteous. I'm righteous. This is our inheritance, even
the righteousness of God. See this, that all men need this
more than anything else. Is there anything else you need
more than righteousness? You can't be accepted with God
unless you're holy as God. But guess what? That's my inheritance
too. He has perfectly purposed that
I should be made holy. Now what it said in Ephesians
1, according as He had chosen us in Christ for the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him. In love, having predestination
on the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of the will, praise of the glory of His grace.
We praise God We praise God, all who have come
to Christ, we praise God because he has made us righteous. Therefore we are free from all
condemnation, free from the law, free from the law's condemnation.
As a hymn we sing, It says, there's no condemnation. Jesus provides
a perfect salvation. Come unto me, hear his sweet
call. Come, and he saves us once for all. Once for all. Now, I don't have time to go
over the rest. I know I've got several more. But I want you
to take these right here. And then, right now at the end
of this, let me take these ones that we've mentioned here, mercy.
Now compare that to the inheritance of the law. What's the inheritance
of the law? Is it mercy? No, it's a curse. Cursed is everyone
that continueth not. But the inheritance of the covenant
of promise is what? Mercy. I will have mercy. I will have great mercy. We think of the peace with God,
of the love of God. Does the law gender love? Does
the law gender love? No. What does it testify of? It testifies of my enmity against
God. It testifies of God's wrath against
me. But the law, the covenant of
promise testifies of what? That God loves me with an everlasting
love. And His love will never depart. Never depart. Peace with God. Does the law testify of peace?
No, the law speaks of wrath. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. What does the covenant of promise
speak of? Of an inheritance of eternal peace with God. Bought by the blood of Jesus
Christ. What about righteousness? Law testifies righteousness?
Yeah, it testifies I don't have any. That's what it tells me. Curses to everyone that continue
on in all things written in the book of the law to do them. It is evident by the deeds of
the law no flesh should be justified in His sight. That's just evident.
But the covenant of promise says this, I am now made the righteousness
of God in Christ. I'm righteous. I'm righteous. And friends, this
is our eternal inheritance. This is what Peter says. Look
what Peter says about this inheritance. And we'll close. Look at chapter 1. He said in verse 3, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy, there's one of them, according to his
abundant mercy, what'd he do? He hath begotten us again to
a living hope. He gathered us, isn't that part
of this covenant? Said he's gonna do it, gather
us. How? By the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to what? To an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled that fadeth not away. This inheritance is incorruptible. You can't corrupt it. You can't corrupt it. It's incorruptible. You can't defile it. It's undefiled. It's not like an earthly inheritance
that fades away. It's not one that starts out
really big and then over the years it just dwindles. I remember
when my parents, they had a nice company. And man, my dad was
really wealthy when I was very, very young. Well, now it's kind
of dwindled. It's kind of come down to almost
nothing. That's not like this inheritance.
It doesn't dwindle. It doesn't fade away. Listen,
reserved. this mercy, this peace, this
love, this joy, all the benefits of our covenant. Listen, we haven't
yet fully understood the fullness of these things yet. There are,
I just don't fully understand them. I fully believe them. I fully trust in God's promises. And I know this, all those promises
are summed up in one person, Jesus Christ. I believe Him. All my inheritance is in Him.
I believe that, know that. But I've not yet fully experienced
all of it. But listen, right now it is reserved
in heaven for you. For you. Who are kept by the
power of God. See, I can just go on and on.
There's another one. Part of this inheritance, you're going
to be kept. You'll be protected. Nothing's going to take you out
of His hand. Nothing's going to remove you from this covenant.
Nothing you do, nothing you say, nothing you don't do, nothing
you don't say. It's not about you. It's about
Christ. It's all in Him. If He was successful,
there is nothing to deter God from giving me these things.
Nothing. Why? He removed all my sin. That's
the only thing that deterred me from God from giving me these
things. It's sin. My sin. My guilt. My shame. His justice. His holiness. Guess
what? Christ did away with all that.
Satisfied God's justice. Did away with my sin. Made me
righteous. Made me holy. Made me acceptable.
Did it all. Who then in the world is going
to take me away from this covenant? It's reserved. Reserved. was that him we sing more happy,
but not more secure, the glorified spirits in heaven. You know,
those saints that have gone before us there, we know they're safe. They're happy, but they're no
more safe and secure than I am. They may be happier than I am.
I'll tell you what, they're no more secure than I am. Because
I am a beneficiary of the covenant of God's grace. I'm a son. If a son, then what? An heir. How? Through Christ. Not through Christ and me. Through Christ. Period. Isn't that joyful? It is! I'm a son and heir, Paul
said in other places, heir and joint heir with Jesus Christ. So whatever he, I tell you this,
find what he deserved. Find what he earned. And you're
a joint heir with him. Whatever he merited, whatever
he earned, so did you. I pray that God blesses and I
pray God will be gracious to give us comfort. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer. Our gracious Father, pray you
dismiss us with your own blessings and pour out this message to
the hearts of your people and show them the inheritance that
you have purposed, that you have promised to give, and that Christ
has already purchased. And Father, the Spirit has already
come, which is the down payment of our inheritance. And Father,
these things we see through a glass darkly. We know that you're merciful
to us. We know that you love us. by
giving your son for us, by calling us. We know that we are at peace. We know that you have given us
the righteousness of God through Christ. I pray you keep us and
protect us even according to your promise. And I ask you to
forgive us our sins and lead us in Christ's name. Amen.