Turn with me in your Bibles,
please, to Ephesians chapter three, the book of Ephesians
chapter three. We'll actually read three or
four verses from chapter two before we get in there, but in
Ephesians chapter three, the mystery is revealed, and then
Paul prays. I've always been a little slow
or a little reticent about praying in public. I pray and talk to
the Lord all the time, don't you? But then to stand up here
and lead in prayer, that's a different thing. You that have done this,
you know what I'm talking about. And recently, as I've been going
through the scripture, I've been noticing some of the prayers
of God's men. And I've been praying those prayers.
And you know what? It does the heart good. And I'm
sure the Lord loves hearing His word. repeated. And that's what
we do in prayer, isn't it? That's what we do. Beginning
in verse 19 of chapter 2, Now therefore ye are no more strangers
and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household
of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone,
in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto
a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together
for an habitation of God through the Spirit. For this cause I,
Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if you have
heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given
me to youward, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery.
As I wrote forward a few words, whereby when you read, you may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other
ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now
revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that
the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body,
and partakers of the promise in Christ by the gospel. whereof
I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God
given unto me by the effectual working of his power unto me,
whom less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that
I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and to make All men see what is the fellowship of the mystery,
which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now, unto
the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be
known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the
eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in
whom we have boldness and access with confidence by faith of him. Wherefore, I desire that you
faint not at my tribulations for you, for which is your glory. For this cause, I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named. that he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by
his Spirit in the inner man, that he would grant you that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that he would grant
you that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able
to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and the length
and the depth and the height and that he would grant you to
know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that ye might
be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the
church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Our Heavenly Father, we
come to you Well, I want to go to 1 Peter again, chapter 1. 1 Peter, chapter 1. Start reading
here at verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the stranger. God's people are strangers. Strangers
and pilgrims in this world. The world's strange to us and
we're strange to it. And when you're a stranger, you
want to go back where you're home, and we got a home to go
to. And then they're scattered. throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. God's people are scattered all
over the world. God's got his elect everywhere.
Brother Bruce preached up there, what saith the answer of God?
I've reserved to myself. I've reserved to myself. And
every single soul that God ever saved, he reserved them himself.
Reserved them to himself. And then look what else he says
here. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
Chosen of God. loved of God, foreknew of God,
set apart by God. That's what he says next where
God's elect, an election and chosen. Oh it's a hundred and
I forget how many times it's in the scriptures but it's in
there a lot. Elect, chosen, my people and letting you know that
God has an elect people. And thank God for election. Had
not God chosen me, I'd have never chosen Him. Our Lord Jesus says,
no you're not, you've not chosen me. We would have never chosen
Christ. We would have never done it,
but He chose us. Chose us. And then he said, through
sanctification of the Spirit, the Spirit of God set us apart.
The Holy Spirit of God came and called us, effectually called
us, set us apart, set us apart to the Gospel, set us apart to
know our election, set us apart. And then this is what he set
us apart to, unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Now God told Moses, he says,
now you take the blood, You take the blood and you go out and
you sprinkle all the people with the blood. And then when you
sprinkle the people with the blood, sprinkle all the thing
in the tabernacle with the blood. And then you take the book and
you, the law, and you sprinkle the blood on them. word. So what
he's saying is that God has to sprinkle the blood, and that
blood when it's on you identifies you as God's elect, that your
sins are gone, that you're accepted of God, and we've been brought
through sanctification unto God's obedience, Christ's obedience,
and His sprinkling of blood. The blood of Christ has been
sprinkled on us. His death, we've been made partakers
of His death. When it's sprinkled on us, it
cleanses our conscience, takes away our guilt, and makes us
acceptable to God. And it's the sprinkling of the
blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you, and peace be
multiplied. Now here's the things that I
want to say tonight, if God will help me. 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 or living
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you." Who? God's elect. God's elect. Those
strangers scattered all over the world, sanctified by the
Spirit, sprinkled by the blood of Christ, who are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. Here's seven things that I want
us to look at that's ours. Though we may be strangers in
this world, God's elect, sanctified, obedient to the blood of the
sprinkling. God gives us a heritage. He gives us something. And here's
seven things that He gives us in this world. Seven blessed
things, not only in this world, but also what's going to come
in the world to come. And He says in verse 3, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the
first thing. according to His abundant mercy."
Now, His abundant mercy, this is the source of all the rest
of the things that we've just dealt with and will deal with. Had mercy refused to have helped
us, none of the other attributes could have helped. Had mercy
not come and it had not been in abundance, what else could
have possibly helped us? The condition where we were in,
lost and undone without God and without Christ, had not mercy
been for us, there'd been no hope for us either. And our case,
my case, and I believe all of our cases, required abundant
mercy. A little bit of mercy is not
good. I mean, God does things on a grand scale. Whatever he
does, he does it on a grand scale. You know why? Because he's grand.
And you know, he don't give just a little bit of mercy. He gives
abundant mercy. And you talked about the height,
the breadth, the depth, the length of what? The love of Christ.
And then he turns around and said, I want you to know that.
And then he turns around and said, it passes all knowledge.
So by the time you learn it, you lose it. Oh, listen, that's what I read
tonight in the office tonight. If God should have smark iniquities,
who should be able to stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared. And all our case required abundant
mercy, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That's
what I mean. God gives in abundance. And you
notice it says it's God's mercy. The God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ according to His abundant mercy. God, everything
about Him is in a grand scale. Look in Exodus 34. Look what
He says here about mercy. Exodus 34. Look what He says
about mercy over here. Thank God for mercy. Thank God
for mercy. And you know what? The scriptures
tells us that his compassion fell not and his mercies are
new every morning. Every day you get up, he has
new mercies for you. Well, we go about living our
lives, and every morning when we get up, unconscious of it,
God has new mercies for us that day. But look what He said here
in verse 5, And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with
him there with Moses. and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the
Lord, the Lord God." Listen to this now, merciful, gracious,
long-suffering, and here comes abundance again, abundant in
goodness and truth. Now listen, keeping mercy for
thousands. forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sins, that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the
iniquities of the fathers upon the children of the children's
generation of the third and fourth generation. But he may do that,
but yet he keeps mercy, keeps mercy for thousands. He keeps
it for them. God's great in power, great in
wisdom, and His mercy is like all of His other attributes.
It's God-like mercy, infinite mercy. Measure our Father's Godhead,
and then maybe, maybe you can measure His mercy. Measure His
mercy. And then look what else it says
about it. It's the mercy of the God and Father by Lord Jesus
Christ. It's the mercy of God in Christ.
That's where everything God has for us is in His blessed Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. All spiritual blessings are given
us in heavenly places in Christ, and God's mercy is always special,
always special. You see His mercy in nature,
you see His mercy in providence, but oh, that He gives us His
mercy in the Son of His love. Oh, how merciful He was. We sang
that hymn, oh, how merciful, oh, how merciful. O how merciful
thou art to me! But O the mercy that he shows
us in the Son of his love, that mercy that he gives us in Christ! O how merciful is God in Christ
to sinners! That's how, beloved, He keeps
mercy for thousands. And His love in the incarnate
God, His mercy given to us through that sacrifice of our blessed
Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is mercy's best. Our Lord
coming, our Lord bleeding, our Lord dying, and God giving us
mercy in Christ. And since He gives us mercy in
Christ, it has to be abundant. And then it's called the mercy
of the Father. I know we ain't looked at this
in a long time. Psalm 103. Psalm 103. I could quote this to you, but
oh, for us to read it together. Psalm 103. Psalm 103. Oh, it's
the mercy of the Father. It's not the mercy or the pity
of a stranger, but the pity and mercy of a father for his son.
Look there in verse 8. The Lord is merciful, gracious,
slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither
will He keep His anger forever. I love this. He hath not dealt
with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquity.
But as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy. them that fear him. As far as
the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgression
from us. Now listen to this. Like as a
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them also.
that fear him, for he knoweth our frame, he remembers." We're
just dust. And I tell you, people say, I
don't want pity. I want pity from God, I do. You know why I want pity from
God? Because I'm a pitiful person before God. Pitiful person. All
right, look back over here with me now in 1 Peter 1. Look at
another thing here. Oh, what a blessing, what a blessing
here that God give us abundant mercy, not just a little, abundant.
much great and then look what he says here hath begotten us
again hath begotten us again now beloved this is one of the
greatest miracles that can God will ever, everything God does
for us is a miracle, considering who it is that does it and who
he does it for. But hath begotten us again, the
scriptures tells us that as in Adam, we all died, dead, dead
in trespasses. But in Christ, we're all made
alive. And you know what we did to be
in Adam? Nothing. You know what we did
to become sinners? Nothing. We were born with an
evil nature. We died in Adam. We lived in
Adam. And then when Christ came, as
we were dead in Adam, what would we do to get in Christ? And how
did we become alive in Christ? Where did we get that life in
Christ? We died in Adam, in Christ we have life. Now how in the
world is that? We didn't do anything to be in
Adam, we didn't do anything to be in Christ. We didn't do anything
to become sinners, we don't do anything to have life. We didn't
do anything to become sinners, we didn't do anything to become
righteous. That's why it says here, He hath
begotten us again. It's God who hath saved us. And oh my, and this word begotten
is the same word as regenerated. REGENERATED! BORN AGAIN! BORN
BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD! And I do know this. Look over
here in 2 Peter 1.4 with me. 2 Peter 1.4. Look what it says. Oh, listen. WHEREBAR I GIVEN
TO US EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES, THAT BY THESE, listen
to this now, YOU MIGHT BE PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE. Now, I
tell you what, we're partakers of the divine nature. Christ
is a divine person. He is God manifest in the flesh.
And so when God regenerates us, Christ is who is put in us. Life,
the life of Christ, the new birth, the life of God himself is put
in us. We're made partakers of the divine
nature. Now, I know some men who says,
you know, that that word there means we have fellowship with
the divine nature. That's not what it says. When
you partake of something, that means you have part in that thing,
and we have part in the nature of God Himself, and we've been
begotten again unto a living hope in our Lord Jesus Christ,
and hath begotten us again. And what He did, He brought into
existence. brought into existence a new
creature, a new creature, a person who never existed before. He
has new motives. He has a new nature. And I'll
tell you this, he has a sinless nature. Can Christ sin? You know,
that incorruptible seed that in us cannot sin. Can Christ
sin? Neither that new nature that
is in us can sin. And I know this, that you and
I never had a problem with sin until God gave us new life. Now ain't that right? We never
had a problem with this flesh until God gave us new life. We
never had a problem with our thoughts until God gave us new
life. Their motive is and our nature
is to love God, serve God with all of our heart and all of our
souls. But the flesh, that other nature,
won't let us. But we have a nature in us that
cannot sin. I can show you that in 1 John
3. I can show you that. Look here at 1 John 3, 9. I believe
that's where it's at. And we're talking about being
begotten again. Sinless nature, new nature, born from above. But look what it says here, verse
9, Whosoever is born of God, he said, he has begotten us again.
That's a birth. So-and-so begat, so-and-so begat,
so-and-so begat, so-and-so begat is a birth. And God begat us. He has saved us. Nicodemus, you
must be born again. How's that happen? By the water
and by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God comes
along and He brings and He puts a seed in our heart. And the
seed is the gospel, the seed is the Word of God. Being born
again by the interruptible seed, the Word of God. And then he
goes on to say, He that's born of God doth not commit sin. You
see, when we turn around and say that's all we are, in this
body, in this flesh, we are. But we got a man in us that cannot
sin. We got a man in us that cannot. Can Christ sin? And he said,
Christ is in you the hope of glory. And that's why we're called
holy. That's why we're called new creatures.
That's why it gives us a new nature. That's why it gives us
a holy moment. That's why he turns us to himself. And the scriptures tells us it's
a passing from what? Death unto life. Listen. You know, we know that we're
gonna pass from life to death one of these days. That's not,
there's nothing mysterious about that. Nothing mysterious about
life leaving this place and going from life and this body dying. But now I tell you what, it's
really, really something that man can't do is pass from death He hath begotten us again unto
a living hope. Oh my. Salvation to the Lord. Salvation to the Lord. And then
look what he hath begotten us again. Oh, I tell you, God, if
He, this birth, without the second birth, without the new birth,
the first birth is nothing but a curse. By His own will begat
He us with what? The word of truth. All right,
look what else He did. Not only if He gave us abundant
mercy, has begotten us again, but He give us a lively hope,
begotten us again unto a lively hope or a living hope. I remember
years ago when I got back into the world and spent so much time
in hospitals, I actually lost all hope. that I'd be able to continue
to live. I was so miserable, and in such darkness, and such
pain, and such agony of heart, and mind, and soul, that I dreaded
the day to start, and I dreaded for it to get night. I couldn't
stand the mornings, I couldn't stand the night. I mean, I just,
oh, just didn't have, but can a man live without hope? I continued
living, and then somebody told me one day, there's hope in the
Lord Jesus. Red light comes. Just a ray.
But this hope within us, it's a real hope. It's a true hope. It's an operative hope. Hope
operates in us. It's like faith. It actually
works in us. Hope works in us. That's why
it's called a living hope. Faith is living faith. Christ
is a living Savior. It's not just a wish. And hope
moves us to action. What does hope do? It looks for
the blessed appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. It ain't sitting down twiddling
its thumb. hope the Lord comes back. Listen, we sit with patience
waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ to come back. We're looking for
the appearing of our, this is the blessed hope we have, the
appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This moves
us to action, we're looking for him. It purifies us, it makes
us patient. Oh my, and hope, boy you get
to preaching about going to be with Christ and going to be changed
in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Oh my, they was talking
about this this morning, we was talking about people being ejected
from an airplane, you know, just ejected, throws them way up in
the air. Well, I tell you what, boy, these
days God's gonna, we're gonna be ejected. in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye. Now that hope begins operating
on you when you talk like that. When you talk about this corruption
putting on incorruption, this mortal putting on immortality.
Oh, it cheers and lifts our spirits. And I'll tell you something else,
when you're in a storm, when you're in a storm, you know what
keeps you going in that storm? Yep, it's going to pass. We'll
patiently wait. The Lord, this is going to pass. And it's called a living hope
because it won't perish. It won't perish. The scripture
says the hope of the hypocrite shall perish. But you know where
our hope's at? Hebrews 6 says we have a hope,
a sure hope anchored within the veil. The Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we, our hope, not only
is living, but it's got an anchor to it and we're connected to
that anchor. Our Lord Jesus Christ in glory, huh? And it's called
a living hope because it actually deals with life. It deals with
life. The Lord Jesus may come and bless
his holy name. I hope he does. I hope he does. I hope I'm alive and I hope I'm
alive when Christ comes. I'd love for him to come. If
he came tonight, he said, even so come Lord Jesus. Every one
of us, I mean, we wouldn't even see, none of us will see one
another change in a moment. It just happens so fast, we couldn't
see it. He wouldn't know it when he comes. And that's the living
hope. But most likely we'll go with the course of nature. We'll
go to death. We'll go to death. Oh my, that's
not fearful, that's not dreadful. Let me ask you something, talking
about this living hope. Are you afraid to be done with
fightings without and fears within? Are you afraid to put on interruption? Do you dread to be without sin
forever? Never be discouraged. Never be
down. Oh, to rise with glory, to be
with Christ. Is that to be dreaded? Oh, you
know, the Lord, you know, this is such a blessed thing. When
God takes a believer home, You know, may take Ruby soon, may
take you soon, we don't know. But we do know this. This is
the way I react. And I reacted this way with my
wife. I reacted this way with a lot
of people over the years. When I hear I know people that
you love. Of course, we mourn, we sorrow,
we miss them. But here's the thing about it.
The minute you hear that they're going to be with Christ, the
first thing you say is, thank you, Lord Jesus. Blessed be the
Lord God. They are now rejoicing with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, who wants to keep anybody
here that can go be with Christ? Oh, my! Get out of this old sinning,
sinning body, sinning name. Oh, listen. We have a living
hope because we have a living Savior and Lord. And oh, here's
what happened. He begot us under this living
hope. Look what else it says now. By the resurrection, verse
3, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Oh my,
we have this, we have a risen Savior. And you know what this
tells us? That everything that God gives
us, He gives us with Christ and we are together with Christ.
Our living hope's in Christ. We'll be gotten again by Christ. God gives us abundant mercy in
Christ. And God would not suffer His
Holy One, His flesh to suffer corruption. And the reason our
Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, is because he
says that God was satisfied with him, accepted him, and raised
him, and he stayed here 40 days and 40 nights, above 500 men,
saw him, and then he ascended back up to glory and sits at
the right hand of God, and as he sits there right now, he's
our justification for everything we believe and all the hopes
we have, he sits at God's right hand. Listen, I've said this
a lot of times. What's my justification to say
that I'm righteous? Sits at God's right hand. What's
my justification that one day I'll be with Christ? He sits
there at God's right hand. What's my justification that
God loves me in Christ? There he sits at God's right
hand. What tells me that I have no sin, that all my sins is but
a way? There he sits at the right hand
of God. That's my justification for everything
I believe and everything's ever happened. Ah, there he sits.
And us believers, we're warm with him and what happens to
him happens to us. He has quickened us together
with Christ and he says we are seated together in heavenly places
in Christ, in Christ. Now look at another thing here
we have. Oh my, some of the things that God gives us. Look at this
fourth, look at fourth verse. He gave us this living hope,
this abundant mercy, give us life, give us a living hope,
resurrected us with Christ, and listen to this, to an inheritance
incorruptible. You know, I'll tell you something,
I've been an heir a couple of times. You know, sometimes it
didn't amount to anything. It wasn't nothing to split. But
here's the thing about it. Anything that's left to you,
if it's a house, if it's a car, if it's money, whatever it is,
it's corruptible. It's corruptible. You don't have
anything in this world that ends up not being corruptible. Our
bodies are corruptible. Our houses are corruptible. If
you don't keep them up, they'll fall down around you. Ain't that
right? But God hath made us sons, made
us heirs, he's given us new life, and with this new life, as sons
of God, he gives us inheritance. And as our life is incorruptible,
We've been begotten by an incorruptible seed, and He gives us an incorruptible
inheritance. Huh? He gives us heirs. He gives us this new life, this
new life. He gives us heirs. He gives us
possessions, and heaven-born children have to have a heavenly
inheritance. A heavenly inheritance. Oh, my. In fact, You know, Herman left
me his house, and it was in such bad shape, I told the fellow,
I said, man, it's gonna take you more money than he gave for
it to fix it back up. So I, you know, I ain't got nothing. The thing was, it was in such
bad shape, it'd take everything, it'd take thousands of dollars
to put it back together. If it'd been mine, I'd have set
a match to it and said, come on out here and watch it burn.
I'd have given the fire department something to do. No, I'm serious,
that's an inheritance that's corruptible. That's an inheritance,
that's corruptible. But look at this inheritance. First of all, look at fourfold
description of this, it's incorruptible. Look at everything that's already
perished, dynasties, empires, bodies, homes. All gone, gone,
gone. And then look what else it says,
that it's undefiled. That means it's pure. It's pure.
It's undefiled. Men go rich by fraud. We've seen
a couple of men that they've got them by fraud and they've
got them for getting their money by deceit and every kinds of
ways in the world and everybody, you know, they get what they
get by defrauding people and stealing from people and all
and and doing all things to get thanks,
but our inheritance is pure. It's not defiled. Nobody can
defile it. We didn't make the inheritance.
God gave us this inheritance, and He's undefiled. Christ's
undefiled. We're undefiled. He gives us
an inheritance that cannot be undefiled. It's pure. Won by
the obedience and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ and
His perfection. And inheritance may be defiled
even after it's possessed, but this one here can't. This one
here can't. And look at its beauty about
it, and that it fadeth not away. Oh my, it won't just fade away. You know, one of the most blessed
things that people used to leave their kids is that they would
make quilts. Years ago, people would make
these wonderful, beautiful, beautiful quilts. And one of the things
that they'd say, I'd sure want one of Mama's quilts. And they'd
leave you this quilt. And I mean, I saw a lot of people,
if I could just have one of Mama's quilts, and Mama'd leave you
a quilt. And it'd be all, it'd be beautiful, and all the patterns
in it, and just gorgeous, you know, filled with diamonds or
or a double wedding ring or dust boy or something, you know, and
it's laying out there all beautiful. In a few years, you go look at
it and fade it away. Colors has faded, things, but
this ain't gonna fade. It's as bright and shining now
as it was when God gave it to us. Oh, it fades not away. And
then look what it says, reserved in heaven for you. This inheritance
is secure. Got a reservation, a reservation
in heaven for you. When we went to this last wedding,
they had all these tables. And when you went in, you looked
to see what table you're sitting at. And then when you got to
that table, your name would be on the table where it's sitting.
They had a table reserved for you, your name on it. I didn't
look at the thing, so I just sat down anywhere. I just went
and sat down. But here's what I'm saying is
this. God's got a place, a portion, a place reserved for no one else
but you. When I get there, I'm going to
have a portion nobody else gets. I got a place where nobody else
can stand. I got a place that God's reserved
for me. No one else can fill that place.
Men here argue and scramble over inheritance. There, He's got
it reserved for us. I've said this a lot of times.
When, you know, when you got a big family, and you know an
inheritance has to be split between six persons. It'll be lots and
lots of stuff to give away, lots of money maybe left or something
like that. And they'll take this, they'll take it and they'll start
splitting it up. But our Lord Jesus Christ, it's like a pie.
It's like a pie. You know, they have to slice
the pie and give everybody a piece of pie. But our Lord Jesus Christ,
when we get Him, we get the whole pie. We get it all. Don't have to share with anybody.
And we all get the whole pie. Every single one of us get the
whole thing. All right, let me hurry. I'm
taking too long. Look at this next one here. Not
all this inheritance. It's secured. Look what it says,
it's this inheritance secure for us. Reserved in heaven for
you who are kept. We're kept for this inheritance.
The security of the inheritance is kept for you and you're kept
for it. You're kept. And this word kept
is a military word. It's like a city or something
that's defended and well manned by an army around it. Well here's
what God does. He keeps us for this inheritance. He keeps the inheritance for
us. And oh my. what keeps us? The power of God. The power of God keeps us. God's
power. Not our power. Not the church's
power. God's power. And oh, my. And I'm kept by the power of
God. And look what he says, through faith. He gives us this faith
and kept by it. And this keeping is complete. This keeping is continuous. And
then look what he says, kept by unto salvation, kept till
we're finally saved, when God reveals our salvation to us at
our last time. Oh, ready to be revealed. And I tell you what, this salvation
is going to be revealed one of these days, like I've already
said. And it's revealed to us now, but one of these days it's
going to be a wondrous revelation when all of us have it at the
same time. We have been saved. We are being
saved. And we shall be saved. And our
final salvation is ready to be revealed. Ready to be revealed.
And here's the best of all. Look at this. The best of all.
Look back up in verse three. This is where it all has to start.
A blessed God. Blessed be God. That's where
it all starts. The mercy, he gave it. Blessed
be God. Blessed be God. Blessed be God
who gave us inheritance. Blessed be God who gave us a
living hope. Blessed be God. Oh, what a joy
to have a new life. What a joy to have an inheritance
in glory. What a joy to be saved by the
grace of God and have the abundant mercy of God. But the greatest
of all is to have God to be our God. God is my God. As I said, blessed be the God. To have God is my own. Christ
is my own. The Father is my own. And look
what it says, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God
says, I will be their God and they shall be my people. Look
over here in 2 Peter 2. Look here in 2 Peter, and I'll
wind this up. He has given us so much, so much,
but the greatest thing He give us is Himself and His Son. Gave us Himself and His Son.
Look what He said here in verse 9. Where did I say? 1 Peter 2,
9, not 2 Peter. 1 Peter 2, 9. I'm sorry. Got
in a hurry. 1 Peter 2, 9. Look what He says
here. But you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood. and holy nation, a peculiar people,
a holy nation, peculiar people, that you should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. Now listen now, which in time
past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which
had not attained mercy, but now you've attained mercy. Here we
were, not the people of God, now we are. didn't have any mercy.
Now we do. Who did that? God called out
of darkness over these marvelous people. Herod, Herod told his
stepdaughter when she danced in front of him, said, ask of
me and I'll give you half of my kingdom. But God hasn't given
us half of anything. God gives us the whole. And He
gives us Himself. He gave us Christ. He gave us
life. He gave us everything we have.
And you know, all we can do is turn around and say, Blessed
be God. Blessed be God. Blessed be His
holy name. Blessed be God now and forever
and ever and ever. Praise be unto our God. What else can we do? Just back
up and say, Mm.