I'm going to read the first 8
verses. Revelations 21, the first 8 verses,
but I want to dwell on verse 7, one part of verse 7 that just
caught my attention. Revelations. Revelations 21,
1 through 8. Thank you. Let's look at this. I was just
going to read one verse, but this is too good to not read
the first seven verses, and we'll close this morning's message
in verse 8 on a down note. I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away,
And there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride, adorned for her husband. 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 shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he
that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for
these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that
overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God
and he shall be my son." Now stop there. This 7th verse He
says, He that overcometh shall inherit all things. That's what
I want to look at. Shall inherit all things. Now literally, out of the Greek, to inherit all things literally
is to be an heir. An heir. An heir. He that overcometh shall be an
heir over all things. Inherit all things. They're synonymous. and I will be His God and He
shall be my Son." Now let's look at other texts to kind of maybe
expand this thought of inheritance or to be an heir. When you're
talking about an heir, you're talking about adoption. Thomas
Watson, I pulled the old Body of Divinity out the other day,
because I remember from 40 years ago reading that, and he has
a section on adoption that is just absolutely Amazing. So we're not going to talk about
adoption, at least for today. Not yet. But it's just so good.
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. He shall inherit all things. He as the elect. We. We shall
inherit all things. Why? How can this be so? Well, God, at verse one of chapter
one, God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last
days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of
all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Psalm chapter two. Now, if we're in Christ, He's
appointed him heir of all things. If we're in Christ, we're going
to inherit all things. Psalms chapter two and verses six through eight,
Psalms chapter two. And obviously we know who this
is speaking about. Once I begin reading Psalms chapter
two, verses six through eight, yet have I sent my King upon
my holy hill of Zion, I will declare the decree the Lord has
said unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
So he's speaking of Christ. Ask of me and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost part of the
earth for thy possession. And Romans chapter eight, Romans
chapter eight, verses 14 through 17. Romans chapter 8 verses 14 through
17. Again, we're speaking of us as
heirs and what our inheritance will be. Romans 8 verse 14, for
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. For you have 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 bearing
witness with our spirit that we are the children, we are the
heirs of God. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer
with him, that we may also be glorified together. Joint heirs,
joint heirs Christ. The first question, obvious question,
before we get any further and see what this inheritance includes,
how does one become an heir? How does one become an heir? Well, I'll show you how you don't
become an heir. Galatians chapter 3, Galatians chapter 3, Verse 18, Galatians 3, verse
18. We're speaking about inheritance.
Verse 3, verse 18. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it, what? An inheritance to Abraham by
promise. So what is this saying? Law. If inheritance, if you can become
an heir by the law, that is, any principle you and I obey
by the sinner in order to obtain or gain satisfaction or righteousness,
that's the law. If the inheritance be of the
law, free will? No. What about if you do? What about
if you do right and you do good, you're good to your neighbor,
you're good to your wife, you don't beat your animals, you
just do all these good things? That's doing. That's doing. Any principle obeyed by the sinner
or the person in order to obtain or gain satisfaction or righteousness,
in other words, works. Whether they're good or indifferent
by our supposed free will, Not by this means. And I got
to thinking, based on our conversation, if a person is dead and trespasses
and sins, now we're not talking, when Adam died, he said, when
Adam died in the garden, did he die physically? Eventually.
It's not what God was speaking of. He died spiritually. He didn't die physically at that
moment. How can a dead sinner, how can
dead folk do anything, let alone any type of goodness towards
God? Again, the problem is depravity.
The problem is depravity. We've said this from this pulpit.
I've said it because I've heard it from other pulpits. If you're
wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it all. That's, you know,
the privacy of man and the sovereignty of God, those are the two. And
I know substitution, people get all excited about particular
redemption, but the reason why they get excited is because they
don't know how sinful they are. Let's go back to that point.
That's the problem. So again, I ask the question,
how does one become an heir? Well, the scripture says, by
the election of grace, which is according to promise. Turn to 1 Peter 1. First Peter chapter one and verse
23. Being born again, says Peter,
all who are born again of not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible
by the word of God, which lives and abides forever. Second Thessalonians
chapter two. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, Paul
says to the Thessalonians, but we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brother and beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of spirit and belief of the truth. They're all interconnected. You
can't say I'm saved and then live an unholy life or could
care less. And I think I put it in this bulletin, the article
by Moose. Yeah, I think so. About Moose
Parks. He says, if somebody says they
got saved, first of all, when they hear the truth, they think
it's a pure form of the truth. When they hear the gospel, God
on the throne, man in the gutter, Christ saving sinners, when they
hear they will acknowledge that God doesn't save through our
meaning and he doesn't do that. But then yet they'll hang on
to that profession. He said, and I think he said, Musa, there's
two things wrong with that. One, is God doesn't use the heir
just to save sinners. He doesn't use falsehood to save
sinners. And two, they're unwilling to let go of their profession.
That's the two issues. So how do we become an heir?
How do we become an heir? If we are to inherit all things
because we're heirs, how is this done? It's done by election of
grace. It's done according to promise,
not of merit, not of worth, not of works, but of Christ and His
work for us. Now, back to our text. Those who overcome shall inherit
all things. What do these redeemed sinners
inherit? It says all things. Well, we
just stop right there. What benefits he daily loads
us with? What is such the beauty of this? These are just some things, some
benefits that he daily loads his people with. But before I
go there, what is so beautiful about this inheritance? Well,
that's according to promise. In 1 Peter 1 and verse 3 and
4, you don't have to turn there, it says, blessed be God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again, adoption unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, to an inheritance. That's what we're talking about,
inheriting all things. This inheritance, if it comes
from God, is incorruptible, it's undefiled, It fades not away,
and it's reserved in heaven for the heirs, for you. That's 1
Peter 1 verse 4. So it's this inheritance, all
that it includes, includes two things. Inheritance in time,
right now, and in eternity. And in reality, they're one and
the same. If you have this inheritance
now, if God has revealed himself to you in grace and mercy and
truth, has revealed to yourself what you are, what I am, we can
already enjoy the inheritance. It's just a foretaste of what
we're going to enjoy hereafter. In time, this inheritance is
the first fruits. In eternity, it's the harvest. In time, this inheritance is
the earnest. In eternity, it's the full sum,
nothing held back. There is an inheritance here,
there's an inheriting here below, and there's an inheriting above.
Here below, we inherit God's grace. We didn't know Him. In
the fullness of time, He revealed Himself to us. We didn't know
grace. We didn't love God. We weren't interested. And now,
we're adopted. We're interested. We heard the
truth. He turned us from ourselves and unto Him. We're interested.
That inheritance is God's grace. It's God's love. It's God's mercy
experienced. And then, in eternity, it will
be fully realized. We have peace here within, but
glory hereafter. Pardon below, and glorification
above. The beginning of rest, but then
the fullness of rest in heaven. The believer does have rest.
You know, there's people that I've seen who know the gospel,
and the Lord, and they come to the end of their life, and you
can't shake them. They're just so restful, so peaceful. So this is all done by the sovereign
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast, or any woman, or any boy or girl should boast.
And I ask you these questions as far as inheritance. Looking
back at David, what did David do to become king? He was out
in a field tending sheep when the prophet came and said, to
Jesse, where are your sons at? Oh, surely this is the one, surely
this is the one, surely this is the one, this, this, don't
you have any more? Yeah, but he's just a little
ruddy, know nothing, he's out to get them, to get them. What did he do? He was chosen
of God. Okay, I ask you, what about Samuel?
What about Elijah? Elijah, these prophets, what
did they do to become prophets? They were chosen. They were called. And I ask you, what did we do
to gain this inheritance? This inheritance, how did we,
what did we do to become an heir? Nothing. It's just like our birth. We had nothing to do with our
birth. Not a single thing. Blessed be the God and Father
who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. who chose us before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. That's what we had to do. We're
recipients. We're recipients. And if we ever get into looking
at adoption, it's just, you just want to either holler for joy
or just bawl and cry because we're so unworthy. Even after
salvation, we just, we don't, we're not thankful enough. But
while below, we realize these blessings are in Christ Jesus.
Through the preached word, we see our inabilities, our vileness,
our corruptions, and we're made to see by the Holy Spirit's illumination,
ourselves, our Savior, and all things necessary unto salvation,
pardon, and acceptance with our great and holy God. And we can
enjoy this inheritance upon earth. as the Holy Spirit witnesses
with our spirit that we are the sons of God. We can enjoy it.
You know, years ago, I'm not going to mention any names, but
there was a couple that was a part of us for many, many years. They
never smiled. Just stoic and just nothing. Nothing. Where's the joy? Where
was the excitement? You know, I'm not saying you
be giddy. And some people emotionally, you know, we're all different
and different areas, but these folks just never ever smiled. Maybe because they were schoolteachers,
I don't know, I'm just kidding. We, by a second Timothy chapter
1 verse 12, though we have varying degrees of trials and difficulties,
we know whom we have believed and we are persuaded that he
is able to keep that which we've committed. We know that, and
therefore we're glad. So this inheritance, it's in
time, but it's also in eternity. It'll be the full possession
of our chief love will be Christ be no more tears as this passage
said up a few verses No more tears. No more sorrows. No more
trials. Satan will be eliminated completely No more weak flesh
to hinder no more worldly inclinations to tempt us and try us just pure
Uninhibited worship and hymns all giving glory to God in the
highest. That's what we're gonna hear
it That's what we're gonna hear it But as I looked at this, I kind
of skipped over the first part because some people say, well,
there's me. He that overcometh. So I got
to get to it. That's actually overcoming. It's
like Peter, unto whom coming, we continue to come to Christ.
We don't get baptized and then that's it. Never see you again.
No. It's a confession of a good conscience and obeying what the
Lord says. He that believeth is baptized.
But it's just the same thing. He that overcometh is overcoming. Well, maybe we're not sure or
comfortable with that first part of the verse. To him that overcometh. Well, like anything, the Word
interprets itself. Go to the Word and see what the
Word says. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Here's the
answer. We'll start in verse 31. What
shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? There's one. He that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? All things. We inherit
all things. There's two. Who shall lay anything
in the charge of God? It's God that justifies the world,
yourself, your flesh, Satan. There's answer number three.
Who is that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
is risen. Who is even at the right hand
of God? Who also makes intercession for us? He continually makes
intercession for us. Why? Because he says he would
and we need it. Answer number four, five. Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation,
distress, How about persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword?
As it is written, for thy sakes, we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things, we are more than conquerors, overcomers, through him that
loved us. There's the answer. To him that
overcometh, we're more than conquerors, through him that loved us. Oh,
and incidentally, Paul was persuaded that death, life, angels, principalities,
powers, things present or things to come, nor height, depth, or
any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus, we're heirs. And the inheritance
goes, you can't separate them. It goes right along together. So my question is, before I look
at this last verse, the sobering, Are you, am I, are we in Christ? Are we in Christ? Do we love
Him? Do we believe Him? Do we trust Him? Not trust ourselves,
not in the slightest. Trust Him without delay. I implore
you, I beseech you as though God did beseech you by us. Be reconciled to God because
if not, If not, look at verse eight. But there's always two
sides. There's grace and there's wrath.
But the fearful, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, whoremongers,
sorcerers, idolaters, liars shall have their part in the lake which
burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. There's
no middle road. There's one way to glory, and
there's one way to hell. But the fearful, oh, I've never
murdered, I'm not a whoremonger. Well, spiritually, yes, we are. Yes, we are. If our life is not
devoted singularly, a divided heart can't stand. It's not Christ
plus something, this or Christ plus mammon. No mammon, no. But if you can't check the list
off just all liars, that's us. So we're guilty. Trust in Him. Look to Him. Believe on Him. And you're an heir. You have the inheritance. What
more could we ask for? Amen. Amen. Brian, would you
close us?