Come to the waters, whoever is
thirsty. Drink from the fountain that
never runs dry. Jesus, our living one, gives
you his mercy. Life more abundant in boundless
suffering. Come to the river that flows
through the city, forth from the throne of the Father and
Son. Jesus, our Savior, says, come
and drink deeply. Drink from the pure, inexhaustible
fountain. Come to the fountain without
any money. My one is given without any cause. Jesus, the gracious one, welcomes
the weary. Jesus, the selfless one, I know
the law. Come to the well of a merited
faithful. God has provided an innocent
strife. Jesus is such a compassionate
Savior. ? Draw from the grace that flows
freely from Him ? ? Come to the Savior, the God of salvation
? ? God has provided an innocent strife ? ? Why will you suffer
the law's condemnation ? Take the free gift of the water
of life. I want you to turn this morning to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 1. I hope I have something to say to someone this morning. The Lord Jesus tells us that his words are spirit
and life. I know he doesn't owe us anything. So if he speaks to us, it will
just be because of his grace. But I want us to begin this morning
with a verse that we looked at in
the midweek service when we were talking about angels, about Christ
being seen of angels. Look at verse 13 and 14. But to which of the angels said
he at any time, Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool. He's setting forth the superiority
of Christ the Son over all the angels. He never said to any
of them, sit thou on my right hand. And then he tells us what these
angels are. Are they not all ministering
spirits? Serving spirits? Sent forth to
minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. Heirs of salvation. And that is the title of my message
this morning. It's a question. Are you an heir of salvation? That's God's expression. That's God's title, one of the
many titles he gives of his people. Are you an heir of salvation? But that being true, most preachers
today preach salvation by works. They preach salvation that is
made effectual by something you do. And joined with that is always
the promise of rewards for doing. If you'll do this, God will do
this. And that is always preached. It makes up the better part of
preaching today, no matter what God says. We wouldn't want the word of
God to get in the way of what men want to preach and what they
want to hear. It says they'll heap to themselves,
teachers, preachers, having itching ears. They want to hear salvation
is by works and therefore rewards. And so the preachers will preach
such as that. But God says that his salvation
is by grace. I don't know how many times that
it is set forth as a gift, a gift of his grace. And not only that,
but often, often, often he says it is not of works. You cannot merit it. You cannot
deserve it, and you cannot gain any part of it as a reward. As a matter of fact, God says
things like this. He says this to Abraham, who
we know was a believer. It says, In Genesis, after these
things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision,
saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. Can any sinner merit God? deserve God, earn God? As a matter of fact, Paul in
Romans chapter three, and this is just one of many instances,
he says, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight. By doing, by keeping the law,
by the whole principle of doing, there shall no flesh be justified
or counted righteous in his sight. And all of this being the case,
nothing shows this. and proves this any more than
this title, An Heir of Salvation. Salvation has to do with an inheritance. It has to do with something that
is called an inheritance. And not only that, but since
this word inheritance is used, and also this being an air of
salvation, it closely associates it so much that it cannot be
disjoined from the Lord Jesus Christ. If it is an inheritance, If these
are the heirs of salvation, then Christ and his cross work is
essential to this inheritance of grace because God has given
it in him. How do I know that? I know that
because of what it says in this second verse in this same chapter. In verse 2, he says, God hath
in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things. heir of all things. And by that we're made to know
if the Lord Jesus Christ, if Jesus of Nazareth, if the Son
of God is the heir of all things, then anything we might receive,
we're going to have to get it in Him. He's the heir of all
things. And it says that he is the heir
of all things for a particular reason. And it is simply not
because I say so. And he is not the heir of all
things because you say so, but it says, whom God hath appointed
the heir of all things. He has appointed. We know this because of who said
it. We know that is true because
this is the word of God. And whenever we leave this book,
we leave the authority of God, we leave the standard of truth,
and anybody's opinion after that is as good as anybody else's
opinion. This is the Word of God, the
inspired Word of God, and it says that God hath appointed
him, and that means to place or ordain or set him as the heir
of all things. Isaiah says it in this way, this
is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, this is
the hand that is stretched out upon all
the nations, for the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who
shall disannul, and in his hand stretched out, and who shall
turn it back? You can't undo what God has done. You cannot make untrue what God
has said. You cannot, even after you go
on hundreds of years, you cannot alter that true thing which God
has said because he is unchanging. And he has appointed the Lord
Jesus Christ as the heir of all things. What does that mean? Well, an heir is the successor
to his father in all that he has. I like to think about what was
said of Abraham's servant concerning Isaac. When he told in searching
for that bride that his master's son, his master has one son. That's all he has. He has one
son and he's given to him all things. All that he has. And if you come and you marry
that son, Isaac, then you get joined to all things. But an heir of God, the heir
in this sense is Christ who is the possessor and the dispenser
of all things. This heir, this inheritance is
in a man, the man Christ Jesus, because God hath appointed him
to be such. And that's why Christ is called
the firstborn. He's called the last Adam. The firstborn is what is the
title given in reference to his right of inheritance. He's the
firstborn and the firstborn is the heir of all things. And Israel, as a people, as well
as all men and women in general, they rejected him because of
this very thing. Christ spoke the parable in Mark
12. It said, but the husbandman said
among themselves, when the master of the vineyard sent The heir,
it says, the husbandmen rejected him, slew him, and they said,
this is the heir, come, let us kill him and the inheritance
shall be ours. And that sure happened to this
heir. That sure happened to the Lord Jesus Christ. That sure
happened to him in his crucifixion. You see, that suffering man,
that dying man, that bloody man, humiliated, slain on a cross,
that God man, he was the heir. The heir. But death couldn't hold him.
As a matter of fact, the fact that he was the heir was also
his reason for coming into this world to die. You see, he rose from that death
because his death merited the right to possess all things and
dispose of all things as he will. But it meant more. It meant that not only that,
in his death he justly satisfied God's law and justice, on the
behalf of all those whom the Father had chosen in Him and
given Him before the foundation of the world, all these heirs
of salvation. And by His blood, He redeemed
them. Now, I hear people saying, And I know they mean well, but
they say things like this, Christ purchased all these things for
us. But I don't believe that's what
the Bible says. The Bible says that all these
things that we come to know as being gifts of his grace are
the things that are freely given to us. But it doesn't matter how much
you give. How many gifts you give to a
man if he's sitting on death row, there is no way possible
than he could use or implement or do anything with any of them. That's why the heir had to redeem
the heirs of salvation. In other words, he had to redeem
us from the curse of the law. He had to redeem us so that we
could justly receive this inheritance because the heirship of Christ
not only involves him having all things, but having all the
heirs of salvation. before any of his people could
enjoy any of these blessings that God had freely given them
of his grace, they had to be redeemed from their sins. They had to be released from
their bondage. They had to be delivered that
they might freely receive his gift. What good does an inheritance
do to a man who's sitting on death row? Well, they say he's
the inheritor of an estate worth millions. Doesn't matter if he's
sitting there condemned. So Christ as the heir, came to
redeem all his people. And he says in John chapter 17,
as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. In other words, the Father gave
Christ, the people, these heirs of salvation, and He gave them eternal life
that they might know Him who is eternal and that they might
receive every gift that He has to give. But the problem is, This means something that is
altogether against our nature of sin and pride. To be told that in ourselves
and of ourselves, we have nothing, We are nothing, we can merit
nothing, and we'll get nothing apart from and except from the
air. That's a very abasing thing. And people start with all the,
you mean preacher that. You mean that there's nothing
I can do to be saved? You mean that all my efforts
to be good don't mean anything? You mean that all that I've tried
to do in religion, it doesn't count? You mean that all that
I have sought to be in my honesty and everything, it don't, you
mean it doesn't count as anything for salvation? It counts as one thing, sin. Man at his best state, on your
best day, doing the best you can, doing the best you've ever
done, man at his best state is altogether vanity. The only way you'll have anything,
the only way that you could possess any of the things of God, most
especially eternal life, is in the air. Because He's the air of all things. And all we are And we hate this
so bad, it's so against our pride. All we are is beggars and bankrupt
sinners and spiritual paupers. We proved it in our birth and
we're gonna prove it again in our death. Paul writes to Timothy and he
said, For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain
we can carry nothing out. No matter what we think we are,
no matter what we think we can do, no matter what we think we
possess, one day we're gonna lay down in death and prove that
it was all nothing. Well, somebody might stand over
you and lie and say some good things about you. People may
remember you as a good person comparatively, but before Almighty God, before
that God we sung about in the opening hymn, holy, holy, holy,
it will amount to nothing. There is none good, none righteous,
none that understands, none that seeks God. That's what the Bible
says. We've all together become unprofitable. We're debtors with nothing to
pay, nothing that a holy God will accept, nothing that can
satisfy his broken law and offended justice. We owe the debt of sin
that we can't even begin to pay. And we'll say things like, well,
I don't know anything about the whole sin business. You will. You will. And I got a feeling you'll know
at least sometime before your death when you begin to look
death in the face, and you'll know that the matter of sin is
a most vital, important issue. But listen. Listen to this gospel
of the crucified Christ. Because on that cross, he is
paying a debt that he did not owe for sin. He is paying the
debt of the people that the Father gave to Him, these heirs of salvation,
and if they are a part of His inheritance, which they are,
He must stand as their substitute and pay it in full if they are
to live and be free from this debt, to honor Him and to glorify
Him forever. They've got to receive. what God has promised them. That's what an inheritance is.
That's why it's called a promise oftentimes. But the only way they can receive
it, if he dies in their place, if he delivers them, If he makes
them free from sin by the blood that he sheds, if they're made
the righteousness of God in him, then they're free to receive
all that God has to give. And this is the good news of
gospel, of the gospel. It is that God, according to
His own sovereign will, because He would, He made some people joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. Look over in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and verse 14. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now stop right there
and let me ask you, where does the Spirit of God lead people? If I'm led of His Spirit, where,
or I should say, to whom am I led? He said, when the Spirit is come,
He will take the things of mine and show them unto you. The Spirit
of God does not lead men to works, works, works. He leads men to
Christ. So as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. All these people being
led into this religion and that religion and all these works
and everything, all these sacrifices that they make and all these
things that are done in order to just show the flesh, they're
not the children of God. He says, for you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear. Wait a minute. Here are all these people. They're
scared to death. They're brought into further
bondage. That's not the spirit of God.
For you've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but
you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father. The spirit itself, or himself,
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. You say, am I a child of God?
I'm afraid I can't tell you. I know these preachers can. They
say if you walk down an aisle, shake my hand, and say a prayer
that amounts to a few words, don't ever let anybody again
tell you you're not a child of God. That's blasphemy. I can't tell you. But this spirit
bears witness with our spirit, if with the sons of God. If we
receive that spirit whereby we can cry, look to God in Christ
and cry, have a father. If we can pray, our father. If it's based on a relationship, that we are the children of God.
Now look at that next verse. And if children, then heirs. Now, men are promised a bunch of things if they'll fulfill certain deeds. qualifications. But it sounds
like to me, just like it sounds like in inheritance, that all
that God has to give is based on relationship. He says, if children, then heirs. If you do good, then heirs. If you're a Baptist, then no. If you don't do all these other
things, smoke, drink, lie, steal, no. If children, then yes. Now you tell me how that can
be based on works. You tell me what the promise
of rewards is, but a lie. If children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. There it is right there. That's
where our inheritance is. That's how we can have it. That's
why it's sure, joint heirs with Christ. The only ground of any sinner
receiving inheritance from God is based on this relationship
that we didn't establish. The child does not choose the
parent. The parent chooses the child. If children, then heir. How? Joint heirs with Jesus Christ. He didn't say here he's the Lord
of all things, though he is. We can't be joint lords, but
it says he's the heir of all things. And grace has made believers
joint heirs with Christ and in Christ. So the gospel cannot be a message
telling you or I how to do something to please God or for God in order
to be blessed by God, but rather it's an announcement, a proclamation
to all the heirs of God as to what God has given them in Christ. Turn over to Galatians chapter
4. Look at verse 4. But when the
fullness of the time was come, all that means is the time that
God had appointed, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. In other words, we don't believe
in Christ to become sons. We believe in Christ because
we are sons. And for that reason, God sends
forth His Son, the Spirit of His Son, into our hearts to make
known to us that we are, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Next verse. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. There's no being an heir of God
apart from Christ. An heir of God, not just in Christ,
but through Christ, through His work of righteousness, which
He did in coming into this world and dying on the cross. If by grace God in his mercy
has placed us in union with Christ, redeemed us by his blood on the
cross, redeemed us from the curse of the law, redeemed us to God,
redeemed us to receive the inheritance in Christ. What kind of inheritance is it? It's so sad, so sad to think
about what men and women say in their ignorance of the scriptures. Just this morning, a good friend
of mine that I highly esteem in the flesh, a good man morally,
a good man, just a good friend, he sent me a message this morning
because he knew it would be the first Mother's Day without my
wife. He knew this would be the first
one I had to face without her. And he sent me a message, and
I thank him for it. I appreciate it. But then he said, I wonder what
kind of mother's day it'll be in heaven today. My, my, my. He doesn't know. This inheritance is more than
about being with your family, Mother's Day, all the things
that people say. It includes all things. Deliverance from all things that
are against us. Acts 13, Be it known unto you,
therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are
justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. All these things. all things that pertain to our
standing and acceptance before God, the gift of righteousness,
the righteousness of God imputed to us, the gift of faith, the
gift of repentance, all spiritual blessings. I always wondered what these
preachers do with that, or if anybody even bothers to notice
when they're promising their rewards. And he's already said
he gives us all spiritual blessings in Christ before the world began. You can't add any more blessings
to that. If Christ is the heir of all
things and we're joint heirs with Him, we have all things,
what am I going to do to be able to get more than all things? No, we're complete in Him. How could there be a reward based
on merit if all things are a gift of God's grace through the heir of all things? I don't have to worry about not
having all God has to give if I'm ajoined there with Christ.
I don't have to worry about you getting more than I get. That's all pride-based. I have all things if I have the
air. Turn over to 1 Peter, and I'll try to hush. Chapter 1. Verse 3. 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. He raised Christ from the dead.
because the debt was paid and everything he stood to stand
for was dealt with, and God pronounced him free of all that, free of
all my sin. And therefore, he's begotten
us to a living hope because of that, to an inheritance incorruptible That means it isn't ever going
to rot away. And undefiled, that means there's
nothing ill-gotten about it or unjust about it. And that fadeth
not away, reserved in heaven for you. I believe if it's reserved for
me, I'm going to get it. I believe if it's never going
to rot away, I'm going to get it. I believe if it's not gotten
by ill-gotten means unjustly, undefiled, I'm going to get it.
Fade it 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. All things we need in life. I
may not get all I want. All things we need in death. All things we need every minute,
all of them in Christ. If you need, if you're a child
of God and if you need something, you're going to have it. I say
need it, but God only knows what we need. So the preaching of the gospel is a whole lot like the reading
of a will. You got an inheritance, you got
there some heirs, and we're going to find them out. We're going
to sit and listen to the will read. This is the last will and
testament of Jesus Christ. He's dead, raised, is ratified
by His blood, must be read because somebody is an heir of salvation. Let's see if your name is in
there anywhere. Oh, it won't be by your given
name, because somebody might have the same name that you've
got. If you want to find out something
interesting, just type your name in the computer and hit enter
one time, and you'll find out that you're not by yourself with
that name. Christ told those disciples to
not rejoice because they were able to cast out devils, but
because their names were written in heaven. What are the names? Sinners? Christ came into the world to
save sinners? ungodly. Christ died for the
ungodly. He didn't come to call the righteous,
the sinners. Came to seek and to save those
that were lost, guilty. All of them are my names. May not be your names, but they're
my names. All those who trust Christ alone
for salvation, for everything, they're the heirs of salvation. Now, I don't know whether you're
trusting Him alone or not. But Christ and only Christ is
the heir of all things. And the only way we're the heirs
of salvation is being in Him, looking to Him, trusting in Him. And that's a fixed thing. There are not going to be any
people who don't claim this inheritance. If they're an heir, they're going
to claim it. because he's going to see to it that they do. Are you in there? It's a good thing to think about
it. I always think about this example. It happens every day where some, as we say in the
South, some sorry child Worthless. Won't work. Won't do. Causes trouble. His parents die and he's left
a fortune. It almost makes us mad, don't
it? They worked so hard for it. But he gets it because of relationships. Not because he deserves it. He
gets it because he's an heir. That's grace. That's grace. Our Father, we thank you in Christ
Jesus, our Lord, that you've made him unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. You've given us all things freely
in him. You made him our salvation. You made yourself our reward. What can we do? Nothing but thank you and praise
you and seek to live for your glory forever. We thank you in his name. Amen.