Alright, let's look again at
Hebrews chapter 9. I titled the message this morning,
The Last Will and Testament of Jesus Christ. We're going to
have a reading of the last will and testament of our Savior.
But really, every time the family of God gathers together to hear
the gospel preached, what we're doing is we're coming together
to hear the last will and testament of our Savior. That is the will
that tells us about the believer's inheritance. It tells us about
all the gifts of God's grace that God has stored up for his
people. This last will in Testament tells us how those gifts were
purchased by the blood of Christ. And this will tells us how God's
children are made children so that they're qualified to be
heirs. They're qualified to receive
this inheritance. And that's what I hope the Spirit
will enable us to enter into to some degree this morning.
Now, this is the last will and testament of our Savior. You
know, often people make changes to their will as their circumstances
change or whatever, they make changes to their will. But our
Lord didn't have to do that. This is the last will and testament
of our Savior. It will never be another. And
matter of fact, this is the only will. the only will and testament
God's ever had. It didn't have to be changed.
It was perfect from the beginning and it was eternal. Look here
at verse 15 of Hebrews chapter nine. And for this cause, he's
the mediator of the new testament that by means of death for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the law or under
the first testament, which is the law, they which are called
might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Now scripture
often calls the eternal covenant of grace a new covenant or a
new testament. The word testament here is a
covenant. Well, the eternal covenant of grace is not new in that it's
newly made like it's plan B. God tried the covenant of the
law, that didn't work. So it came up with a new covenant,
the covenant of grace. Covenant of grace is the eternal
covenant. It's the eternal covenant of
God's grace in Christ Jesus. But it's called new because it's
newly revealed. The covenant of the law was revealed
first, wasn't it? The covenant of grace was the
last will, the second will to be revealed. And the covenant
of the law, God never gave that covenant as a way to save anybody. The covenant that God made with
Adam was never intended to be permanent. That covenant God
made with Adam was obey and live. Don't eat of the fruit of the
tree, the knowledge of good and evil, and you live. The same
thing with the law that God gave Moses. It was obey and live.
But that law was never meant to be permanent. It was never
meant to show or to give away for sinners to be saved through
their obedience to it. The covenant of the law was given
for one reason, to show us the utter impossibility of us keeping
it so that we must have this new covenant, the covenant of
God's grace. And thank God, he ratified the
covenant of grace first. Before God created anything,
he ratified the covenant of God's grace in the blood of Christ,
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In eternity, long
before man ever sinned, God ratified this eternal covenant with an
eternal inheritance for his people And I can show you that in Matthew
chapter 25. This is an eternal inheritance. Verse 34. Then so the king saying to them
on his right hand, come you blessed of my father. inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from when? The foundation of the world.
This has been prepared for you before anything was ever created. The covenant of grace is an eternal
covenant. And under the covenant of the
law, you and I forfeited any right, any claim that we have
on an inheritance from God because we disobeyed it. The only thing
we can ever expect from God, the only thing we can ever expect
to earn from God is wrath against our sin. But our sin, the sin
of God's people can never make God's glorious last will and
testament to be null and void because it's eternal. It's not,
and the sin of God's people can't make this covenant null and void.
You know why? Because it doesn't depend on
you and me. It depends all upon Christ. So that's why our sin, our rebellion
can never make it null and void. And there are four things I want
us to see about this last will and testament. Number one is
this. Christ is all. Christ is all
in everything. That includes this last will
and testament. He's all in this last will and testament. Now,
in order for a last will and testament to be in effect, there
are several things that has to be put together. Number one,
there's got to be a testator. There's got to be somebody that
makes the will, doesn't he? has things, you know, to be carried
out upon his death, there's got to be a testator. Number two,
there's got to be an inheritance. There's got to be something of
value to give. It may be monetary, it may be
emotional, but some way it's got some value. Number three,
there's got to be an heir. Somebody's got to be designated
to receive these gifts. And number four, there's got
to be an executor to carry out the last will and testament.
Well, Christ is all for those things. Christ is the testator. God is the one who decides what
he's going to give and who will get it. Just like when you make
out a will, you make that decision, don't you? Well, Christ is the
one who decides what to give and who he's going to give it
to. Salvation is completely dependent upon the will of God, completely.
A sinner Can't just decide to be saved, because deciding to
be saved, you know what that means? I've decided that I'm
going to be an heir of God. I've decided that God's going
to give me an inheritance. I'll tell you what, you try that
with Bill Gates and see how far you get. Try that with just a
man, just a rich man that you might know. Try that, see, I'm
going to be your heir. I'm going to get an inheritance
from you. No, you're not. Salvation, this giving of the
inheritance is completely dependent upon Christ because He's the
testator. Look at John 17. Christ is the
testator. He decides who's going to receive
this inheritance. John 17, verse 2. As thou hast given Him power
over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given Him. Who's going to give it? Who's
the testator? Christ is. He gives eternal life to as many
as thou hast given. He's the testator. Well, then
the last will and testament's got to have an inheritance to
give, doesn't it? Now, the inheritance is something
that the testator earned. It belongs to the testator. He
earned it. It belongs to him. And the testator
decides to give it freely just because he will. That's what
inheritance is. It's not something you earned. It's something you
receive as a free gift because somebody else earned it. Somebody
else saved it up and somebody else gave it to you as a free
gift. You can't earn an inheritance, can you? Can't be done. You receive
it as a free gift from the testator. Look back at Deuteronomy chapter
10. Christ is the inheritance in
his last will and testament. And he gives us a picture of
that in Deuteronomy 10 with the tribe of Levi. You know, when they, If Israel came
into the promised land, each tribe had an inheritance, a portion
of land that was given to them, but not Levi. Look at verse 9
of Deuteronomy chapter 10. Wherefore, Levi hath no part
nor inheritance with his brethren. The Lord is his inheritance. According as the Lord thy God
promised him, the Lord is his inheritance. Now, Levi is the
priestly tribe. Every believer is made a king
and a priest. Just like the tribe of Levi,
Christ is our inheritance. I tell you this often, salvation
is not a thing. Salvation is not a state of being.
Salvation is a person, is a person. Everything God's people receive
in this last will and testament is Christ. Everything we receive
is Christ. Part of this inheritance is the
salvation of our souls. Christ is our salvation. In this
inheritance, we receive righteousness. God's people are made righteous
in Christ, who is our righteousness. Christ is made unto you wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It's Him. In
this inheritance, we receive forgiveness of our sins in Christ. We receive peace with God. Christ
is our peace. We receive eternal life. Christ
is our life. Christ is the inheritance. He's
all of it. And I can't think of a greater,
more precious inheritance than the Lord Jesus Christ. And every
believer has the exact same inheritance. One is not more favorite than
another. One does not receive more than another. Every believer
has the exact same inheritance. You know, we think of Abraham
as He's up here, isn't he? You know, you who believe, the
youngest, weakest believer in this room has the exact same
inheritance as Abraham. What did God tell Abraham? Abraham,
your inheritance is not a bunch of kids. Your inheritance is
not a bunch of land. Your inheritance is not a bunch
of riches. I am thy exceeding grateful. Christ is our inheritance. And it doesn't get any better
than that. It doesn't get any richer than that. Well, then
the last will in Testament has to have an heir. And Christ is
the heir. He's the rightful heir. Now,
heirs are normally children, aren't they? Well, Christ is
God's heir because He's the Son of God. Look at Hebrews chapter
1. Remember, we studied this just not so awful long ago. Hebrews
1 verse 1. God who at sundry times and in
diverse manners, spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things. Christ is the heir and he gets
it all. Christ gets everything that God
has, which is everything, because everything belongs to God. Remember
Abraham when he came to die. Abraham, you know, for a long
time had no children. He ended up with a bunch of children
and he gave gifts to the children of his concubines and he gave
them gifts. Then you know what he did? He
sent them away from Isaac and he gave everything that he had
to Isaac. Isaac was the heir of everything. That's the Lord. Isaac's a picture
of Christ. All right. Where do you and I
enter into this thing? Because we just saw the believer
receives forgiveness of sin, eternal life, righteousness.
Where do you and I fit into this thing? If Christ is the heir,
Christ gets it all, where do we fit in? The only way a sinner
like you and me is ever going to receive anything from God
is by being in Christ, the heir. So that we're joined to him,
we receive everything that he receives. Look at Romans chapter
8. It's by being in Christ, by being
joined to Him. Romans 8 verse 15. We have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but we've received the spirit of
adoption. We've been made children whereby
we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself, itself, if
you haven't done it yet, you ought to cross that out, write
himself. The spirit's not an it, it's a him. The spirit himself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. See, that's how any son of Adam
is ever going to receive an inheritance, be made an heir of God. It's
by being joint heirs with Christ, by being in Christ. And the best
example I can think of is me and Janet. We're one. We are
one flesh. Anything I ever have, if it's
an inheritance, if it's something I've earned, whatever, everything
I have is hers, just as much as it is mine, because we're
one flesh. But everybody who's joined to Christ has everything
that Christ has. They inherit everything that
Christ inherits, because they're joined to Him. They're one with
Him. So Christ is the testator. Christ is the inheritance, Christ
is the heir, and the last thing a last will and testament needs
is an executor to carry out, to enforce the will, to make
sure it's carried out just exactly like the testator wants it. Well,
Christ is the executor. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only person who lives to guarantee his last will and testament is
carried out. Christ purchased everything for His people. He
purchased this inheritance for them by His death. And He lives
to ensure they receive it, just exactly like He promised. You
know, a man might make up a will and he dies. He's got absolutely
no control over what happens in his will. It's all up to the
executor, up to the courts, and somebody might try to change
it. And you know, a man may not be a faithful executor. He might
try to finagle stuff around so he can keep more than he's supposed
to. Or he might finagle stuff around so one person gets more
than another. It might be just dishonest. But that's never going
to happen to the last will and testament of Jesus Christ because
he's the executor. He lives to enforce it and he's
honest and faithful. Faithful is he who calleth you
who will also do it. Oh, that's the executor we need.
He's going to carry out his last will and testament to a T. And he's all of it. All right,
here's the second thing. The death of Christ put this
last will and testament into effect. Back in our text, Hebrews
9, verse 16. For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a
testament, a last will and testament is a force after men are dead. Otherwise, it is of no strength
at all while the testator liveth. Now, here's a person who makes
out a last will and testament and designates heirs to receive
certain things. Well, the heirs can't go just
take possession of those things today, can they? No, that would
be stealing because the testator has not died. Well, God's people
receive an inheritance. and they don't do it dishonestly.
God has a last will and testament, his covenant of grace, his promises
to give grace to his people. And the Lord Jesus Christ died
to put that last will and testament into full effect. Christ died
so his people would receive the inheritance. Look at verse 15. For this cause, he's the mediator
of the new testament. that by means of death for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
If you leave out that phrase between the commas, this is what
that verse says, that by means of death, they which are called
might receive the eternal inheritance. They received the eternal inheritance
because this will was put into full effect by the death of Christ. And the death of Christ removed
every obstacle to God's people receiving the inheritance. There's
nothing left to be done. Christ died to remove the transgressions
of his people so they could freely receive the forgiveness of sin.
Christ died to make his people righteous. Christ died to make
his people God's children. So they got God's nature. They're
partakers of the divine nature. There's children. They're qualified
to be joint heirs, they're in Christ. Christ died to remove
the curse of the law so his people could inherit eternal life. And
none of that would have been possible without the death of
Christ, the testator. Christ sealed the covenant of
God's grace in his own blood. Now, this time of year, everybody
is mighty interested in a babe in a manger, aren't they? Everybody
is, oh my. And I'm not being what Bro. Henry
called a Christian Scrooge in any way. Believe me. Please understand this. I'm thankful.
Oh, how thankful I am that Christ was born as a man, a real human
being, come in my nature to be my representative and my substitute.
But now you listen to me. That babe in a manger can't save
anybody. Can't do it. Salvation is in
the crucified. dead and the dying Savior. He died to put the sin of His
people away. He had to die to put this last
will and testament into full effect. People want to make a
religious holiday out of December the 25th, and they want to celebrate
the birth of a baby. And I'm convinced of this. I'm
just convinced of this in human nature. People want to celebrate
a baby. We love babies. Somebody has
a new baby and brings it here. Everybody just, man, you don't
know where everybody's gonna be. Where's that baby? It's where the group
of people are. Everybody just loves a baby. They don't feel
threatened by a baby, do they? No, they don't feel threatened
by a baby. They feel like that baby is dependent on them. Now,
it's true. This is a, this is, blow your
mind. This is a true statement. The
baby Jesus was completely dependent upon Mary, completely and utterly
dependent upon Mary. And at the same time, Mary was
always completely and utterly dependent on that baby. This is God in human flesh. Like I said, don't get me wrong
now, I'm not against the birth of Christ. I'm thankful he was
born. But salvation is not in that
baby. Salvation is in a crucified, risen Savior. And every one of
us is just exactly like Mary. We're completely dependent on
him. Completely dependent on him to save us. Completely dependent
on him to give us faith and repentance. Completely dependent on him to
give us eternal life. You know, the church is never
told to celebrate the birth of Christ. Not one time. You search
scripture, not one time are we told to celebrate the birth of
Christ. The church is told to celebrate his death. in his resurrection. That's what we have in the Lord's
table, the broken body, the shed blood of Christ. The only way
his body is broken, the only way his blood is all out of his
body is if he died. That's what we remember the sacrifice
of Christ. In believers' baptism, we confess
and celebrate the death, the burial, and the resurrection
of Christ. That's what we're to celebrate,
not his but his death, because his death put this glorious covenant
of God's last will and testament in place. Thirdly, this will
can never be contested and it can never be changed by men.
Christ died to put this last will and testament into effect
and he lives to enforce it. Now that first covenant, the
first covenant revealed, the covenant of the law, that covenant
had to be disannulled, didn't it? I mean, that thing's got
to be disannulled. It's got to be done away with.
Well, the death of Christ made the covenant of the law null
and void. And it's a good thing. It's a
good thing. Because that covenant could never
save anybody. Look back a page here at Hebrews
chapter 7. Verse 18. For there is verily a disannulling
of the commandment going before, for the weakness and the unprofitableness
thereof. It had to be disannulled because
it's weak and it's unprofitable to anybody. Here's why it was
weak and unprofitable. For the law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope did, and it's by that hope
which we draw nigh to God. See, that first covenant had
to be made null and void, but God's second covenant The new
covenant, the covenant of grace can never be made null and void.
Galatians chapter three. Galatians three verse 15. Brethren, I speak after the manner
of men, though it be but a man's covenant, Yet if it be confirmed,
no man disannulleth or addeth thereto." A man's covenant, a
man's last will and testament, at least it shouldn't be contested
and shouldn't be changed. Nobody should subtract from it
or add to it. It shouldn't be. But verse 16, but it does sometimes,
doesn't it? Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds as
of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. See,
the promise was made to him. He's the heir. And this I say,
that that covenant, this last will and testament that was confirmed
before of God in Christ, the law, which came 430 years after,
cannot disannul that it should make the promise of none effect. Nothing of the law can ever make
the promise of God's grace, the promise of inheritance in Christ
of none effect. Nothing can ever happen to make
The last will and testament of Jesus Christ, null and void. But that happens with a man's
covenant, a man's last will and testament, doesn't it? What could happen? What are some
of the things that could happen that would make a man's last
will and testament to be null and void? Well, if the testator
is not of sound mind and body, those words somehow are put in
the beginning of the will, aren't they? Sound mind and body. Well, if we discover somebody
is not of sound mind and body, their will would be made none
of void. You know, they left their entire estate to their
cat or something, you know. Somebody might want to question
that. But nobody can ever say that the Lord Jesus Christ is
not of sound mind and body. There is no blemish in him. People tried to find one. He
was closely examined, but they couldn't find one. The scribes
and the Pharisees, they wanted to do away with him. But their
problem was always this. Mike, they couldn't find a blemish
in him. He never did anything wrong.
Everything he did was right. So they finally had this mock trial,
and here's the way they worked around that problem. They just
got witnesses to lie. But they couldn't find any fault
in him. Pilate examined him, and he said publicly, I find
no fault in this man. Now, the scribes and the Pharisees,
Pilate, they're just men. Maybe somebody could pull something
over on them. But not the father. Not the all-seeing
eye of the father. And the father closely examined
his son. And he spoke from heaven so he
wouldn't mistake what he was saying. This is my beloved son.
And I'm well pleased. Well pleased. He's perfect. He
is perfect. His soul, his mind is perfect
and sinless. And his body is too. His body
died, didn't it? But he was raised a glorious
body, spotless, that will never die again. So the Lord's will
in the Testament can't be changed because he's a sound mind and
body. But then a will could be made null and void if the inheritance
was gotten by dishonest means. Suppose a stockbroker just wipes
out thousands of people's inheritance in a Ponzi scheme. And he's got
all that money hoarded up and he leaves it as an inheritance
to his children. Well, the courts aren't going
to let him give that money to his children. It's not his to give. He stole
it. He needs to go back to the people that was, you know, it's
rightfully theirs. That inheritance is not his to
give. He got it dishonestly. All right. The Lord Jesus Christ
has an inheritance for his people. He is, and it's his to give.
He rightfully inherited everything from his father. He's the son
who pleased his father. He's the only heir. It's his
to give. And as if that wasn't enough,
he went one step further. Jonathan, he purchased it. So eternal life is his to give.
He died to purchase it. Forgiveness of sins is his to
give. He died to purchase it. Righteousness is his to give.
It belongs to him. It's his to give, and he'll never
take it back. Nobody can. Then, a will couldn't
be carried out if the inheritance simply didn't exist. Now, if
Janet and I would go at the same time, I suppose like every married
couple, we just, we're gonna, we've determined, you know, that
we're just gonna go, you know, together, lay in our bed, holding
hands, and we'll just go at the same time. If we go at the same
time, there's our heirs. sitting right there. She's sitting
right in the middle of our heirs. And I could, in my will, there's
my daughter Holly. I bequeath a million dollars
to my baby. She's my heir. And there's Savannah. I bequeath a million dollars
to her. She's my baby. She's my child. And I tell you,
while I'm at it, these are my sons. They're mine. I bequeath
a million dollars to Doug. And I bequeath a million dollars
to Clark. Woo-hoo! That'd be great. But there's
just one problem. I don't have $4 million. I hardly
have $20. That will could not be carried
out because the inheritance doesn't exist. This gospel we preach is no pipe
dream. God's people will inherit the
inheritance that is spelled out for them in the last will and
testament of Jesus Christ. It's all there. Eternal life
is there. It's real. And it's Christ to
give. He gives it to His people. The
forgiveness of our sin, as great as our sin is, that forgiveness
of sin, to completely wipe it out, is there. And Christ gives
it to His people. They're going to receive it.
Righteousness is real. He has made us the righteousness
of God in Him. And if the Lord Jesus Christ
has bequeathed it to us, we're going to have it. We're going
to have it. Now, I'll tell you this. This is just me. This is just the way I do things.
If I had $4 million to leave in a will to my four kids right
here, you know what I'd do? This is just me. This is what
I would do. I'd give it to them now. And part of that's selfish. Part of it is I'd want to watch
them enjoy it, you know. I'd want to watch you just enjoy
being able to be a stay-at-home mom. I'd want to watch it. I'd
want to watch you just be able to enjoy, knock out a wall, put
that big old refrigerator. I'd like to watch that. I want
to enjoy that, you know. That's what I'd do. Do you know our God's already
done that for His people? He's already done it. This is not
something He's reserved in heaven. You can't have till you die and
someday you're going to... No! He's given it to His people
now to enjoy. Christ the testator, Christ the
inheritance, the heir, the executor has already taken full possession
of it. He ascended into heaven and sat down and our forerunners
taken possession of it all. And we have too if we're any,
because if we're any, when he sat down, we did too. When he
took possession of it, we did too. And he's given us the forgiveness
of sin right now. that your mind isn't like those
poor people that we looked at in Matthew chapter 4. Tormented,
to be tormented, constantly tormented with the guilt of sin, the fear
of condemnation of sins. Our Father's given that to us
now to enjoy, to enjoy. Oh, what an inheritance, what
a testator he is. And then lastly, this inheritance,
man's inheritance, man's last will and testament, are not always
sure, but this one is. God's covenant of grace has an
inheritance that is sure. It's because of the nature of
the inheritance. An earthly inheritance, maybe if I had four million dollars,
possibility I'd waste it before I died. Y'all would end up nothing.
Possibility. I might waste it on other things,
you know. An earthly inheritance might
be lost. Maybe it'd be burned up in a
fire, maybe lost in a stock market crash, or maybe a moth would
come eat it up or something, you know. Earthly inheritances
can all be lost because of the nature of the inheritance. They're
earthly. They're affected by sin. They're
affected to decay and go away. But look at 1 Peter 1. Not the
inheritance we have in Christ. It's sure because of the nature
of the inheritance. First Peter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again into a lively, a living hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance. Here's the
inheritance. Here's the nature of the inheritance.
It's incorruptible. It's undefiled. It fadeth not
away. reserved in heaven for you, who
are kept by the power of God through faith under salvation,
ready to be revealed at the last time. See, Christ's inheritance
is incorruptible. There's no sin, there's no possibility
of it being corrupted, so it can never decay. Everything in
this earth decays, doesn't it? All our bodies decay, our stuff
decays, everything decays because it's defiled by sin. But the
believer's inheritance can never decay. because it's undefiled
by sin. There's no sin there to cause
it to be corrupt or to be lost. The inheritance we have in Christ
can never fade away. It's perpetual. The value of
it can't be lost. It's eternal. And Christ's inheritance
is secure because of where it's kept. It's not in a bank that
can be robbed. It's not in a stock market that
could crash. It's not in a house that could be burned up. His
inheritance is reserved in heaven, and there's no sin there. There's
no moth. There's no rust. Nothing there can corrupt it.
No thief can break in there and steal it. It's reserved for you.
Now, one more scripture, Revelation chapter 21. I know that God's
given us, His people, these things now to enjoy, but things do rob
us of the joy, things of this flesh, just rob us of the full
joy of it. But there's coming a day when
God's elect are going to have full ownership of everything
God has given them. And we've seen, here's some things
that are in the will that's left to God's people. I want to close
with telling you a couple of things that you'll never find
in the will. Before a reading of a will on
earth, there's going to be some tears shed in there. There'd
be some sorrow, some loss that the testator has died. Those
things are never in this will. Look, verse three, revelation
21. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold,
the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them
and they should be his people and God himself shall be with
them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears.
from their eyes, there's no tears, there's no reason for sorrow
and crying in this will. And there should be no more death,
no more funerals, no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying,
neither shall there be any more pain, for all those former things
are passed away. Those are things that we find
in the flesh, but you'll never find those things. Death, crying,
tears, and sorrow, and pain, you'll never find those things.
in God's covenant of grace, because he that sits upon the throne
as the executor says, behold, I make all things new. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our father. How we thank you
for your sovereign will and your sovereign purpose of grace and
mercy and life to your people in Christ, our Savior. Father,
how we thank you for him. How we thank you for him who
willingly sacrificed himself, willingly gave himself to death
to put your will, your purpose of grace in full effect for your
people. How we thank you that it's sure.
Oh, Father, how we thank you this grace, this acceptance,
this forgiveness does not depend in any way upon us sinful creatures,
but it's sure, it's certain because it all depends on Christ. perfect
Savior. Father, how we thank You. And
I pray that You'd give us faith this morning to leave here believing
Him and rejoicing in Him, to leave here this morning being
found in Him. It's in His precious matchless
name that we pray and give thanks.