and sing hymn number 314. 314.
I am thine, O Lord. I heard Thy voice and it told
Thy love to me. I long to rise in the arms of
faith and be closer drawn to Thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. Consecrate me now to thy service,
Lord, by the power of grace divine. Let my soul look up with a steadfast
hope, and my will be lost in thine. Draw me nearer, nearer,
nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to Thy precious gleaming side. For the pure delight of a single
hour, That before Thy throne I spilt. When I kneel in prayer
and with Thee, my God, I commune as friend with friend. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. There are depths of love that
I cannot know till I cross the narrow sea. There are heights of joy that
I may not reach till I rest in peace with Thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. Besated will sing hymn number
355. 355. From every stormy wind that blows,
from every swelling tide of woes, there is a calm, a sure Retreat
is found beneath the mercy seat. There is a place where Jesus
sheds A bowl of gladness on our heads, a place that all besides
bore sweet. It is the blood-bought mercy
seed. There is a scene where spirits
plead, Where friend holds fellowship with friend, Though sundered,
warm by faith they meet. ? One common mercy seed ? ? Ah,
whither could we flee for aid? ? ? With tempted desolation ?
Or how the hosts of hell defeat At suffering saints no mercy? of their own evil wings we soar
and sin and sins won't last no more When heaven comes down,
our souls to grieve While glory crowns the mercy Good evening, let's all turn
together to Psalm 71. We'll read that together. Psalm
71. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in thy righteousness
and cause me to escape. Incline thine ear unto me and
save me. Be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. Thou hast given commandment to
save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me,
O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of
the unrighteous and cruel man. For thou art my hope, O Lord
God. Thou art my trust from my youth.
By thee have I been holding up from the womb. Thou art he that
took me out of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually
of thee. I am as a wonder unto many, but
thou art my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with thy
praise and with thy honor all the day. Cast me not off in the
time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength
faileth. For mine enemies speak against
me, and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,
saying, God hath forsaken him. Persecute and take him, for there
is none to deliver him. O God, be not far from me. O my God, make haste for my help. Let them be confounded and consumed
that are adversaries to my soul. Let them be covered with reproach
and dishonor that seek my hurt. But I will hope continually and
will yet praise thee more and more. My mouth shall show forth
thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day, for I know not the
numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of
thine only. O God, thou hast taught me from
my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also,
when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not, until
I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power
to every one that is to come. Thy righteousness also, O God,
is very high. Who has done great things, O
God, who is like unto thee? Thou which hast showed me great
and sore troubles shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up
again from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my
greatness and comfort me on every side. I will also praise thee
with the psaltery Even thy truth, O my God, unto thee will I sing
with the harp, O thou holy one of Israel. My lips shall greatly
rejoice when I sing unto thee in my soul, which thou hast redeemed. My tongue also shall talk of
thy righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded,
for they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt. Our kind and gracious and merciful
Heavenly Father, we bow once again, giving you thanks for
that great goodness to us. Thank you for your word that
you've given us. Thank you for this time of worship
where your word is opened and read and preached. Because to
consider your word and what is being taught,
what Being said, we thank you, Lord, for our dear Savior, our
blessed mercy seat, Him to whom we flee, Him to whom we come
and bow before, how we delight in Him. Thank you for Him. Help us to worship Him tonight
and honor Him. May he be set forth and may we
see him more clearly, learn more of him, draw us to him, we pray. Oh, how we thank you for our
dear Savior and the salvation that he brought out, that he
worked out. And our righteousness is in him
and by him and through him. We have none of our own, and
we rest in what he has provided, what he has worked out. Oh, what
rest we find in him. Oh, how we love to just hear
of what he has done for us, what he's accomplished, his great
salvation, his perfect work. And we delight and are thrilled
with recalling to mind his words on that cross when he said it
is finished. How we do rejoice in the finished
work of Christ and his person that's accepted. You've accepted
him and in him we are accepted. That's our hope. That's our only
hope. And we look nowhere else to be
accepted but in him. Thank you for this gathering.
Thank you for the time of worship. Condescend once again and meet
with us. Lord, we cannot. Discern the
things of the Spirit of God unless the Spirit quickens our minds
and our hearts. We ask that you do that for us.
Ask that you do that for the pastor as he endeavors to preach
and opened your word. Help us to hear. Speak to us in this hour what
you'd have us to hear. Lead us and guide us and teach
us. Remember those that don't know you, Lord. We know their
only hope is that you would come to them where they are. And intervene. Make yourself known. We ask you,
Lord, to do that for those that we love. Our children, our grandchildren. Help us as we. Speak to them
to speak of thee and tell him about Christ. Help us to be a
witness for for the gospel of Christ in this,
our generation. Thank you once again for providing
for us. Lord, we, all things come from
thee. We don't have anything that we've
not received, and you've made us to differ. If there's a difference,
you've made that difference. We owe it all to thee. We ask
all these things in Christ's dear name, amen. Page 20 in our course books. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood From
Thy wounded side which flowed, Me have sinned, the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure,
not the labors of thy hands. And, O Phil, thy love's demands
could my zeal ? No respite, no ? ? Could my tears ? ? Forever
flow ? ? All foreseen good ? ? Nought atone ? ? Thou must save ? ?
And thou alone ? Nothing in my hand I bring Simply to the cross
I cling Naked come to thee for dress. Helpless look to thee
for grace. How I to the fountain fly. Wash me sin. or I die. While I draw this fleeting breath,
when mine eyes shall close in death, when I soar to worlds
unknown, by judgment thrown. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself Let's turn to 1 Peter chapter
1. 1 Peter chapter 1, if you will,
this evening. And let me make a couple announcements
while you do that. Be no Wednesday night service
this week because of the holiday. We'll be traveling ourselves,
Shirley and I. And dinner next Sunday, and it's
going to be a very simple one. Bring a pot of soup and a bologna
sandwich, bologna and cheese sandwich, and we'll be happy.
That's about all it amounts to. Can't get simpler than that.
Make it easy on you, because we just had a real good meal
at that service. Well, I'm going to. Read these first five verses
here. Hopefully bring a message from
them. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered
throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience of the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ, grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to His abundant mercy,
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. to an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time." You know, when you read the scriptures,
you got to read who's talking and who they're talking to and
what they're talking about. Well, Peter is talking to the
strangers. He said to the strangers, to
the apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers. David said,
I'm a stranger with thee as were my fathers before. We're strangers
and pilgrims on this earth. And then they're scattered. These
strangers are scattered. They're scattered in all these
different places. And just like they are now, the
Lord's people scattered in all different places, and they were
then. But here He makes a distinction about them. Not these strangers. There might be strangers to the
world, and they might be even strangers to themselves, but
here's what they are. They're God's elect. They're elect. they are elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. We already
talked about that foreknowledge. He had an intimate knowledge
of them. They were elect according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father. And then look what else
he said, through sanctification of the Spirit. Now, when God
calls us, He sets us apart, And he uses that again in 2 Thessalonians
2, the sanctification of the Spirit means that the Spirit
comes and sets us apart to Christ, to the Gospel. He sets us apart. We can't set ourselves apart.
People talk about you need to be separated from the world,
you need to be separated from this and that. The only way,
when you're really separated, God separates you by the Spirit
and sanctifies you, sets you apart for Himself. And you can't
be no more holy than you are in Jesus Christ. Now let me say
this, holiness is a state of being. Can God be more holy than
He is? And if we're in Christ, if we're
in God, we're sanctified by the Spirit, we're that holy too.
Holiness does not have, sanctification does not start here and get better
as you go. Sanctification is one and once
and for all a thing that God does. You know why you're a believer? God elected you by His foreknowledge,
and then He set you apart. He said, They re Mine! They re
Mine! They belong to Me! They re strangers
in the world, but look what else He goes on to say. And then what
does He bring them to? Until the obedience of the sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, the Scriptures tells us
that Moses, everything in the tabernacle was sprinkled with
blood. The book All things were sprinkled with blood. Well, he
says that we've come unto the obedience of Christ's sprinkling
of the blood. And Christ, as Moses sprinkled
everything in the tabernacle, and then God takes the Holy Spirit
and he sprinkles us. We've come to the obedience of
Christ's sprinkling. You know why our conscience don't
bother us? Because the blood's been applied. Everybody here has got blood
sprinkled all over them. And who sprinkled it? Christ
did. God did. The Spirit of God did.
And that's why we don't, in this sprinkling of blood of Jesus
Christ, and then grace be unto you. Oh, it always starts with
grace. We got to have grace. And then
peace. And let that be multiplied, not
just once, not just twice, not just three times, but just let
it be multiplied. Every time we meet, it's multiplied.
It'll be multiplied this morning, multiplied this evening, and
it'll be multiplied when you get up tomorrow. He multiplies
that grace and preach to you. And now he comes down to some
things that the believer has. some choice things that a believer
has, that's the seven of them. And I wanna look at, and seven
is the perfect number, perfect number. God created the earth,
six days rested on the seventh, perfect, perfect, perfect. And
I want us to look at these things and seven choice things. And the first one I want you
to look at there in verse three is this, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what I want you to
look at. According to His abundant mercy. That's the first thing. That's the first choice thing
that God gives us. Abundant mercy. Now mercy, we
love mercy. We delight in mercy. God delights
to show mercy. But the mercy is, abundant mercy
is the source of all the rest of the things that we have in
this life. Had mercy refused to help us, none of the other
attributes of God could have helped us at all. None of them
could have. Look at the condition we were
in. Had not mercy, had not mercy been for us, there would have
been no hope, been no hope whatsoever. And then our case, our case required
abundant mercy. The condition we're in, it required
abundant mercy. A little bit of mercy wouldn't
do. But you know, Bartimaeus said, Lord, have mercy on me. How much mercy did Christ give
him? He gave him the mercy of being able to see for the rest
of his life. How much mercy is that? And oh
my, and I tell you what, it's an abundant mercy. You know,
the scripture said over in Psalm 130 in verse three, it said, Lord, if you should mark iniquity,
if God started marking iniquities in our lives, what we thought,
said, and done in any given day, in any given hour, if thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquity, who'd be able to stand before you? But he said, there is forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Oh, the mercy of God. And I'll tell you what, it's
God's mercy. It's God's mercy. That's why it's called abundant
mercy. You know why? I want you to see something.
Keep 1 Peter. Look in 2 Corinthians 1. This
is one of my favorite, favorite verses. I've used it so many
times over the years. But oh my, it's God's mercy,
it's His abundant mercy. But look what He said here in
2 Corinthians 1, 3. And here we go again. Blessed
be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies,
the Father of mercies. We got a Father that's a Father
of mercies. What a Father of mercies. And
then not only that, but when He gives us these mercies, He
gives us comfort with them. Everything in God is on a grand,
grand scale. His power is great. His wisdom
is great. And His mercy is like all of
His attributes. It's God-like mercy, infinite
mercy. You measure His Godhead and you
can measure His mercy. You can measure His mercy. I
want you to look with me over in Psalm 51. I heard a young man preach on
this the other day, first time he had ever spoke, and oh, how
God blessed him. But okay, Psalm 51. This is David now. And oh, look
what he says. Now this is where he committed
that crime with Bathsheba and Uriah. And this is what he says. Have mercy upon me, O God. Here's the king of Israel. Have
mercy upon me, O God. And then he goes on to say, according
to how much loving kindness you have, oh, you're a very loving, kind
God. And listen, according unto the
multitude, listen to this, multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. Tender mercies of God, abundant
mercies. And you know what, back over
in our text, it's the mercy of God the Father and our Lord Jesus
Christ. God gives us all mercy in Christ. And I'm gonna tell y'all something
right now. And believe me when I tell you this, you can't find,
you know, God only shows mercy to his elect. He does not show
mercy to the world, no more than it shows grace. You go through
this blessed book and find anybody that God, that everybody asked
for mercy was ended up getting mercy. Everybody out here in
the world has Lord have mercy, and it's a byword. But when we
talk about the mercy of God, God's mercy is like His grace.
It's only for those that He's chosen to show it to. And that's
why He said, oh, blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which according to His abundant mercies, His abundant
mercy. And God's mercy is always, always
special. Oh my, you look at His mercy
and His love, mercy in His providence, mercy in His Son, His love and
He sent His Son to be incarnate in this world. His mercy when
He gave us the Lord Jesus Christ to be our sacrifice to put away
our sin. And then there's the mercy seat
where He told us to come. This is mercy's best when He
gave His Son. Oh Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ
bleeding and dying. And as you said, when He cried
out, it is finished. Mercy. accomplished what we and
you could never do. And God's mercy in Christ, oh,
how abundant it is, how abundant it is. In fact, Jeremiah said
it like this, his mercies are new every morning. You know, you go to bed tonight
after you've heard this message and after you had this morning
and you'll get up tomorrow and you'll have brand new mercies
When you open your eyes, new mercies right there. And you
know how long you'll have them? All day long. All day long. I gotta show you another thing
before I move to my next point. Look over in Exodus chapter 30.
Let me see, where in the world am I at here? In Exodus, I think
it's 35. I wanna say it's 35. I think that's where I am. Let
me see. Yeah, Exodus 34. Look over here
in Exodus 34. Look down in verse 6. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God. Listen to this
now, merciful and gracious, long suffering, abundant in goodness
and truth. Listen now, keeping mercy, keeping
mercy. It belongs to you. He keeps it
for us. He's got it for us. I'm gonna
keep mercy. Listen to this. Keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and sin and transgression. Keeping mercy for us. Oh my,
you think about that. And it's the mercy, it's the
mercy of our fathers, what he said over here in our text. He's
the mercy, it's the mercy of the father. Oh, David said, The
Lord pitieth his children, even as a father pitieth his children,
the Lord pitieth them that fear him. You know why? He remembers
that you're just dust, just dust. Oh my. And I tell you what, it's
not the pity or mercy of a stranger, but the pity, mercy and grace
of a father for his children, for his children. Now look what
else it says in this text over here. which according to His
abundant mercy, and listen to this now, hath begotten us again. That means He regenerated us. That means that we got new life.
He hath begotten us again. And that s what it is. Without
the new birth, it d be better for a man never to be born than
if he hasn t got the second birth. You know, God hath saved us.
That s what it says. And I tell you, you know how
many times it talks about begotten in the Word of God? He hath begotten
us. He gave us a new nature. When
He saves a man, when God saves a man and regenerates a man,
He gives him a new nature. He brings into existence a man
who never existed before. It's called a new creation. It's
called a new creature. He made partakers of the divine
nature, as was said in 2 Peter 1. We're made partakers of the
divine nature of God Himself. And here's what happens when
God regenerates a man. He gives him a new heart. People
say, give your heart to Jesus. He don't want it. He's got to
give you one, and He gives you a new heart. He washes you and
cleanses you. He gives you a new mind. He gives
you a spiritual mind that you never had before. You didn't
care a thing about God. You didn't care a thing about
Christ until God comes along and He changes you. He regenerates
you. He brings you from death to life.
He gives you life that you never had before. He puts the life
of Christ in you. And that new person, that new
creation that God gave and made, that's the nature that's got
every one of us sitting right here listening to the gospel
tonight. If you didn't have that nature, and that's what Brad
said, Lord, we cannot spiritually discern things without the Spirit
of God. It'd just be a closed book. But you know that's what happens.
God gives us this mind to understand spiritual things. I didn't understand
the spiritual thing when I was a fundamentalist legalist. All
I understood was works. doing the best I could, just
work, work, work, work, work, never no peace. But when God
separated me by the gospel and revealed Christ in me, and that's
what he does, he quickens a man, quickens a man. And when he quickens
a man, he brings into existence someone who's never there before.
And when that happens to you, you know exactly what happens. You may not jump up and tell
everybody it happened. And sometimes it don't happen
all at once. You know, look over here. Look over here in 1 Peter
1, verse 23. This is what I'm talking about
here. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed. That's all we got, corruptible
seed. But of incorruptible, by the word of God. And this word
of God lives and abides forever. All flesh is grass, and the glory
of men is the flower of grass. The grass wither, the flower
thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endueth
forever, and THIS is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. Now, you know, being born again,
that's what it says. There's two natures right there.
There's the corruptible seed and the incorruptible seed. 1
John 3, 9 says that he that's born of God cannot sin. Did you know that? He that's born of God cannot
sin. You look it up when you get to
the house. I'll show you. But 1 John 3, 9, he that's born
of God cannot sin. Now, this is a mystery that only
believers, you know, and we believe it. There s one of us that do
nothing but sin, this old rotten, corrupt flesh, old wretched man
that I am, but there s this new nature this HOLY NATURE, this
SPIRITUAL NATURE that God give us, that nature right there,
it cannot deny the GOSPEL, it cannot sin before God, I mean
God Himself says that He counted, you know when God says all your
sins are gone, you know why they're gone? Because we can't do it
anymore! God looks at us and He looks
at us as SINLESS! That's what the mystery of the
new birth is. It's a mystery. It's God who saved us. James
said it like this. Every good and perfect gift cometh
down from the Father of lights, and he hath begotten us again. How? Through the word of truth. I've begotten two children. Some
of you have begotten more. But when, and your children,
they're just like you. But when God begets a child,
it's just like him. Ain't that right? You know, we beget children like
ourselves. When God begets one, he begets
one like himself. I love it. I love it. Oh my goodness. I tell you, born from above,
oh my. Salvation, oh, from start to
finish. To as many as received them,
which were born, not of the will of the flesh, not of man, not
of the will of man, not of blood, but oh, He was born of God. He gave the power, you know,
to be born of God. So, oh my, He hath begotten us
again. He begotten us again. You know, there's a people, there's
a people, and there's some preachers that I know, and I've had some
conversations with them. They believe that man only has
one nature, that there's only one nature a man has. But now, if there's only, man
only has one nature, I was born with one nature, and it was a
fallen nature. If a man only has one nature,
that's the only nature I was ever born with. So if I have
only one nature, tell me what nature that I can understand
the Bible with. Tell me what nature I call on
God with. Tell me what nature that produces
joy in my heart. Tell me what nature that gives
me peace. Tell me what nature that causes
me to be able to stand up here and preach God's word, if I only
got one. What nature am I using? If I got one, I'm in trouble. But oh my, blessed be the name
of the Lord. I've got two. And you know the
one that gets to go to glory is the new one. The old one has
to stay here. The old one gets to stay here,
the new one gets to go. And I tell you what, after we
just, oh, for God to do that for us, give us a new nature.
Oh, I tell you what, He hath begotten us again. Then look
what else He begot us to. Not only hath He begotten us
again, but He begat us again into a living hope, a lively
hope, a living hope. You know, you didn't have a hope
until Christ saved you, until God saved you, you didn't have
a hope. You had a wishful, you had wishful thinking, wishful
thinking. But oh my, can a man live without
hope? No, he can't, he can't do it.
And hope within us, this hope that he's talking about, it's
a living hope. It's real, it's true, it's operative. Oh, it's
not just a wish, And I tell you what, it moves to action. You
know, this living hope moves us to action. It purifies us. It makes us patient. And oh my,
it cheers and lifts our spirits. Oh, this hope cheers and lifts
our spirits. Just like when I was talking
about that new man just went to heaven, everybody in here,
you just almost feel the joy that come over the whole congregation.
You know why? Because you got a living hope,
and that living hope jumped up and said, yeah, I got it, I got
it. It cheers our spirit, lifts our
spirits, gives us confidence, sustains us in storms. Hope,
hope, our hope's a living hope, a living hope. And you know because
it's living, it can't perish, it cannot perish. Job says the
hope of the hypocrite shall perish. The hope of the hypocrite shall
perish. And I'll tell you something,
the living hope that God gave us here, it cannot perish. You know why? Because He said
it's living. It's a lively hope. It's a living
hope. And oh my, the hope of the Hypocrites
shall perish. I don't care if he's a king whether
he's a rich whether he's poor. It don't make no difference But
the hope and this is what God said there's a we have a hope
the scriptures tells Hebrews 6 that's a that's anchored, we
have a hope that's anchored behind the veil. Now who is behind the
veil? The Lord Jesus Christ is. And
what does an anchor do? It holds everything still in
a storm. And our anchor is behind the
veil, it's with Christ, and you know, who's gonna get up there
and move that anchor and cause our hope to perish? Who's gonna
get up there and do that? Oh my, oh my. It's fixed on Christ and it will
endure. And I, you know, I gotta show
you this. Keep 1 Peter and look over 2
Thessalonians. Talking about a hope, talking
about a hope. Look in 2 Thessalonians, chapter
two. Oh my, a living hope. You know, it's a living hope
because it deals with life. It deals with our life, it deals
with our life with Christ. Oh my, look what he said here
in verse 16, 2 Thessalonians 2, 16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself, and God even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath
given us everlasting consolation, and listen to this, and a good
hope through grace. A good hope, how'd you get it?
Through grace, through grace. You know, this living hope deals
with life, the life we're living right now, and the Lord may come
But most likely, most of us will go by the way of the course of
nature. We'll get old, we'll die. But
it's not fearful, it's not dreadful. Fearful to be done with fightings
without and fears within. Fearful to dread to put on incorruption,
to never sin, to never be discouraged again. To rise with glory and
be with Christ, is that to be dreaded? We have a living hope
from a living word and from a living Savior. It's living, it's living. And we have a living Savior,
that's why it lives. And okay, let's look here again
at another thing. Let me give you the fourth choice
thing here, look what it says. By the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, Oh my, that's a choice thing, ain't
it? Everything we got by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We served it, we read it, sang
it this morning. I serve a risen Savior. How do you know? Because He lives
within my heart. You know, the Scriptures tells
us that God would not suffer His Holy One to suffer corruption. And over in Acts chapter 2, it
says, it was not possible that he should be holding of death.
Not possible that death could hold him. He said, you know,
David told about the one that would come. David, we'd go to
his grave, he said. But David prophesied before,
he says, thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to seek corruption.
and neither would thou let the grave keep him. And our Lord
Jesus Christ, they came out, they come out, and they said,
now, they put stones across his grave, across his tomb, and early,
early Sunday morning, that's the first day of the week for
the Jews, early on Sunday morning, Mary and them went out there
and said, now, when we get out there, who in the world's gonna
move them stones? Who's going to move these stones
so we can get in there and be with our Lord? They wanted to
be with Him and even stand. Well, they got out there and
the stones was gone. You know, it says, and then when
they got there, there was an angel sitting over here and there's
an angel sitting over here. Two white glistening men. And
they said, Who are you seeking? Who are you looking for? Jesus
of Nazareth. He s not here. He s not here.
Where is He? He s risen again. He said, Go
over to Galilee. And when you get over there,
He said, He s going to meet you over there. And tell you what,
you tell Peter too. And the scriptures tells us that
over 500 men, 500 brethren saw him after he resurrected from
the dead. And by many infallible proofs
was he resurrected from the dead. People say, people don't resurrect
from the dead. He did. And guess what? He's the first
begotten from the dead. He's the only one that raised
from the dead by his own power. Everybody else is going to come
out of the grave is going to come out by this by his power
He's only one give us life. He's only one give us eternal
life He's only one change this corruptible body and make it
into corruption incorruptible oh my And I'll tell you what
God was satisfied with him and the judge of all the earth must
do right He died in reality and he arose in reality And I tell
you, all believers are one with Him, and what happens to Him
happens to us. And now let me give you the fifth
choice thing here. Now look at this one down here
in verse four. This is the choice thing. He
has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Christ. We've had abundant mercy. We've
been begotten again. And look what we've begotten
again to, to an inheritance incorruptible. an inheritance. You know, I got
nobody to give me no inheritance. My mama didn't have anything.
My daddy didn't have anything. All I got from him was a bad
name. That's all. My mother used to say to me all
the time whenever I'd be around her, you don't be a looking thing. She despised my dad so much,
you know, she despised me, I think. But anyway, to make a long story
short, we have an inheritance. Now, some folks here are gonna,
hey, they got something they're gonna leave as an inheritance.
Well, Christ is gonna give us an inheritance that's incorruptible. Oh, my. God's made us sons, made
us children, and made us heirs, and He's given us a new life.
And with that new life, We have to have some possessions. We're
heaven-born children of God and we must have a heavenly inheritance. And this inheritance got four
descriptions to it. First of all, it's incorruptible.
Everything on this earth is corruptible. Everything is corruptible, corruptible. But oh my, and look what's already
perished, dynasties and empires. But we've got it, and it's incorruptible. An inheritance incorruptible.
And then look what else it says. It's undefiled. That means it's
pure. It's undefiled. You know, a lot
of men have grown wealthy, very, very wealthy by fraud. By fraud. A lot of people have made millions
by fraud. defrauded insurance companies,
defrauded people out of money. I mean, there are people that
have become very, very wealthy by fraud, but not us. Not us. Well, our inheritance
is undefiled. You know why? Because Christ
gave it to us. He's undefiled, he's pure. He
was warned by the obedience and suffering, the perfections of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something,
after you get an inheritance, if somebody leaves you an inheritance,
you know it can be defiled after you get it. Most folks, if they
get an inheritance, unless they ain't got much sense, they'll
end up defiling that inheritance. They'll waste it and spend it. First thing most people get when
they get inherited, go buy a brand new car. Gotta have a new car.
Huh? Oh, I gotta have a new car. Oh,
you know. But they'll defile, it'll be
defiled. You know, a person, when they get, it can be defiled
after it's possessed. But all night, this one won't,
it won't be defiled. It sins, and then look at its
beauty. It fadeth not away. It fadeth
not away. Everybody's inheritance will
one of these days, whoever they leave it to, it goes on to family,
to family, to family, and eventually it'll fade away. It won't be
anymore. But this one here will not fade
away. Not fade away. It's beautiful.
And then it's secure. Look what it says here. It's
reserved in heaven for you. We got a reservation. We went
to eat last Thursday night with Todd and Lynn. We took them to
a place to eat and we got there and they took us to a table and
had reserved on that table, had a little thing on the reserved. Well, God's got us an inheritance.
He's got a reservation. Donnie Bell's got a reservation.
and it s not a card with my name on it. It s not in a table either. I have an inheritance, oh my
goodness, it s reserved in heaven for you, all of you, every one
of you. And I tell you something, it
s a portion that no one else can have. It s a place that no
one else can fill. And oh my, men are not arguing
over scrambling for their inheritance, it s reserved for you. It's reserved
for you. And oh my, you think about that. God Almighty got a place reserved
for you, prepared for us. You know, I've used this before.
Say you got four children. Mom and daddy die and they leave
everything for four children. And it's a pie, everybody gets
one-fourth, one-fourth that pie, gotta be cut four ways. Got six,
gotta be cut six ways. But God's inheritance for us,
we get the whole pie. Every one of us get the whole
pie. It don t have to be split up.
I get the complete inheritance like nobody else gets it, and
you get the complete inheritance like nobody else but YOU get
it. Now, that s how glorious God
is, that He can give every one of us the EXACT inheritance,
EXACTLY the same thing, and stay as wealthy as He ever was, and
give us ALL an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for us. You know what? You can worship
a God like that. You can bow down for a God like
that. You can bless a God like that. You can give thanks to
a God like that. Oh my. Well, let me give you
the last one. Let me give you the last. This
is Sabbath. Look what it said here now, in verse three. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The best of
all to me is the blessed God. Blessed be the God. Now it's
a joy to have new life. It's a joy to have heaven. It's
a joy to have an inheritance. But the greatest of all we have
in this world is to have God to be our God. To have God Himself
to be our God. You know, to have God to be my
Savior, to have God to be my God. I'll be their God and they
shall be my people. That's what He said. He has given
us much, but the most He ever gave us when He gave us Himself
gave us Himself to have God Himself. Oh my, what a blessed thing to
have God Himself. Oh, Heard said, you know, I'll
give you half of my kingdom, but God don't give us half. God
gives us Himself. And oh my God, If you read it
tonight, oh God, without this my refuge, my hiding place, the
place that I go. And oh, what gratitude we ought
to have, what blessing to have to bless God for being God. He
calls himself the blessed God. Let's bless him for being God.
Give thanks to him for being God, for being our God. And you
know the old timers used to say it like this, man's chief end
is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And that's what we look
forward to. I enjoy Him here very, very much.
I enjoy God here very, very much. I enjoy salvation here very,
very much. But you imagine what it's going
to be like when we get there. You're talking about enjoying
it. It's pretty enjoyable to me here.
Huh? I hope it is for you, too. Blessed be God. Seven choice
things. I hope they were a blessing. Our Lord Jesus, our blessed God
and Father, our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you for your
abundant mercies. Thank you for the living hope.
Thank you for the new birth. Thank you for our inheritance.
Thank you for being our God. Lord, you measure, we read tonight,
one of the men did, that you measure the waters in the hollow
of your hand, stretch out the heavens as a span, You call the
stars and you call them all by name. And, oh, Lord, all the nations
are counted as a drop in the bucket, and yet you say you are
God. Oh, blessed be your holy, glorious
name. None is like unto you that could
take such rebels, such sinners, such ungodly people, choose them, call them, give
them life, and then give them inheritance. Give them brothers
and sisters in this world. Oh Lord, blessed be your name. Thank you for this Word you gave
us tonight. Thank you for our brothers and
sisters. Thank you for the scriptures that was read. Oh, they were
such a blessing. Lord, there's nothing like your
word. And Lord, instruct us in your word. God bless these dear
saints as they go their way. And Lord, let us all be mindful
of those new mercies that we have every morning. And bring
glory to yourself through us. for Christ's sake, amen, amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look
full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow
strangely dim. in the light of His glory and
grace. I hope you all have a wonderful
holiday. I hope you have a great big meal
and you enjoy one another's family. Enjoy one another and being with
your families. And I'll see you next Sunday. Remember, we'll
have dinner next Sunday. Good night and God bless you.