Look with me back in 1 Peter.
I'm going to bring a message today. I enjoy it for myself. For myself. I thank the Lord for it because
it blessed my own heart so much. Just thinking about it. Just
looking at it again. I'm so thankful for the things
we have in Christ. But I want to bring a message
today on seven choice things of a believer. Seven treasures
that a believer has. And none of these treasures are
of this world. Not a one of them come from this world. In fact,
our Lord said, where your treasure is, that's where your heart is.
If it's on this earth, that's where your heart is. If it's
above, that's where your heart is. You know, your heart's where
your mastery is, where your Lord is. Oh, I'm so thankful. But here
he is, he's writing. You know, there's two things
you need to realize whenever you read something. First one
is, who it is that's writing or speaking. Well, it's Simon
Peter doing the writing. Peter, he says, tell us right
off the bat. And what he does, he's an apostle. He's an apostle
of Jesus Christ. And then look who he's writing
to. He's writing to the strangers. Strangers. That's what we all
are in this world. And these people, these strangers
here, these believers, they're called strangers. And they're
scattered. They're scattered here, there,
here, yonder, and everywhere. A few here, a few there, a few
in another place, a few here, there. And that's what he says.
They're scattered. And not only that, but these
people are elect. They're chosen people. He said,
I'm writing to the strangers. You're strangers. You're chosen
ones. You're elect ones. And you're
elect according to God's foreknowledge of you. God's forelove for you. God's intimate acquaintance with
you. And then not only that, but you're sanctified. You're
already made holy. Through the Spirit. The Spirit
of God set you apart. Set you apart. Took you out of
the world and set you apart. And He set you apart under the
obedience of Jesus Christ. Not to your obedience, to His
obedience. And it set you apart under the obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Set you apart to that
blood that was shed, that blood that when the priest took the
blood behind the veil, he sprinkled it seven times before the altar.
Sprinkled it seven times on the altar, meaning that it was perfect
before God, and meaning before the altar it gave you a perfect
standing. We've been made obedient to the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ. Perfect satisfaction to God,
perfect standing in the sight of God. That's why we've been
set apart. And then he comes to the inheritance,
or the heritage of the child of God. Your heritage, my heritage. Our own peculiar treasure, if
you're one who belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's seven
of them here. And seven means perfect. We have
a perfect number of perfect things. And here's the first thing that
we have, first choice thing, first treasure, is first of all,
mercy. Mercy. Look there in verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of thy Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to his abundant mercy, You see, it's abundant mercy. This is the source of all the
rest of the things that I'll talk about today. It's the abundant
mercy of God. Had mercy refused to help us,
had mercy hadn't stood up in the eternal covenant of grace,
none of the other attributes could have helped us. Justice
cried out for our dead. Truth cried out that, yes, we're
guilty. Our condition, we were in. Nothing
could have helped us. Nothing could have done anything
for us. Had not mercy been for us, there would have been no
hope. You know, mercy, mercy is not merit. If God owes you
mercy, then it ceases to be mercy. Same thing as grace. If God owes
it to you, And that's why we often say God had mercy on them. A young woman had a wreck yesterday
evening. And they called me and told me
about it, and her car flipped over several times. She unfastened
her seatbelt, pulled out the back window, took her to the
hospital. She checked her over real quick,
sent her back home. What an abundant mercy. Kyle's
prettiest daughter. Ain't that something? She didn't
deserve that. She didn't deserve that. That
God intervened. Whether she realizes it or not,
Kyle Landy realizes it. And see, the condition we were
in. What condition? We were sinners by nature. Sinners
by practice, and not only sinners by nature and practice, but sinners
by choice. We done what we wanted to do
because we enjoyed it. And our case, our case, I don't
know about yours, but my case required abundant mercy. Look
with me at Psalm 130. My case, and your case, I'm sure,
required abundant, abundant mercy. You know, people who don't need
mercy, who are trying to pay God, you know, we're sin-abounded.
You see, by one man's disobedience, we were made sinners. We were
made sinners. And so by one man's obedience
we were made righteous. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, sin, that's sin, you know, sin, the consequences of sin
is death. And the consequences of obedience
is life. Well by one man's disobedience
we were made sinners, that brought death. By another man's obedience,
his obedience, we were made to live and we were made righteous.
Where sin abounded. And oh how it abounded. It abounded
in Adam, it abounded in our parents, it abounded in us, and we're
soon abounded. God come in grace. Through the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself sent grace to abound. It's like putting
out a match with a whole bucket of water. Look here at Psalm
130 in verse 3. This is what I'm trying to say.
If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, Mark iniquities. You know, you
go and you have these tests, you kids in school, and you know,
your teacher gets it. She starts marking all the things
that's wrong. This is wrong, that's wrong, and all that. This
is wrong. Well, if God starts marking iniquities,
He can't put down a good mark nowhere. He can't put down a good mark nowhere,
can He? If thou shouldst mark iniquities,
O Lord, you'd go stale. Oh, but listen to the next one. But there is forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared. Oh, bless this holy name. And
let me show you another one. Look over in 2 Corinthians chapter
1. You know, not only is it abundant
mercy, but it's God's mercy. It's God's mercy. You know, we
show mercy to one another occasionally. I remember asking a man, you
know, can't you show a little mercy? And I asked a cop here
a while back, I said, Lord, would you have mercy on me? He said,
well, why? He said, well, why? And I was
so taken aback that he didn't understand mercy that I just,
I couldn't say, I just dumbfounded him. We show mercy to one another
and sometimes we don't. But oh, this is God's mercy.
This is God's mercy. That's what makes it abundant.
Look here in 2 Corinthians 1-3. Blessed be God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I love this title of God
right here. The Father of mercies and the
God of all comfort. Where does mercy start out? Every
mercy starts with the Father. The Father of mercies. Every
mercy we have, He's the Father of it. They come from Him. They're
begotten of Him. They come from Him. And He keeps mercy for thousands. Keeps it. Keeps it. As the Father
of mercies. And as the Father of mercies
of thousands of generations. Thousands of generations. He
keeps mercies for thousands of generations. You see, everything
in God is in a grand scale. A great scale. He's had great
empower, great wisdom. And His mercy is like all of
His attributes. It's God-like mercy. It's infinite
mercy. You measure His Godhead, and
then you can measure His mercy. Old John Bunyan said, He has
yet bags of mercy never broken on. Keep them for thousands of
generations. You know, when you need one,
guess what He'll do? He'll begat anew and send it to you. And
see, it's the mercy, and I love this, it's the mercy of God and
Father by Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it is. It's the mercy
of God in Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
by Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. It's the mercy of
God in Christ. It's the mercy of our God and
Father, the Lord Jesus. And God's mercy is always special,
always special, always great, always abundant. Look at His
mercy in nature. Look at His mercy in providence,
like with that young lady yesterday afternoon, and how many times
with us. But His mercy in the Son of His
love, His mercy expressed in incarnate God. His mercy expressed,
given through that perfect sacrifice. This is mercy's best. Our Lord
coming. Our Lord bleeding. Our Lord suffering. Our Lord dying. Our Lord expiring. This is God's mercy in Christ. And how abundant is it. Oh my. And it's called the mercy not
only of God, an abundant, given to us in Christ, but it's the
mercy of a Father. It's the mercy of a Father. Look
at Psalm 103 with me just a moment. You know, I've got a picture
in there in my study of an old man. Wounded, no doubt, in World War
II, maimed. And another young man there wounded
in Iraq with an arm missing. And they're hugging one another,
the young and the old. And that old man had pity on
that young man because he'd been there. Saw him and he started
weeping and grabbed him and hugged him. But if you think that old man
had mercy and pity, that young man, You imagine what his own
father felt when he saw him. He saw his son that went off
and came back with an arm gone and an eye put out. How much
would the father pity him? How much would the father have
mercy on him? How much would it touch the father's heart?
If it touches my heart and your heart, how much more would it
do the father? Well, look here in Psalm 103 and verse 13. See, it's the mercy of the father.
Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him. Why? He knows our frame. He just knows how weak we really,
really are. He remembers. We're just dust,
and just a little wind can blow dust away. Oh, it's the mercy
of a father. It's not the pity or mercy of
a stranger, but of a father to his child. Then I look back over
in our text. And they give you another one
of these treasures, another one of these blessed choice things
that we as children of God have. Not only do we have this abundant
mercy of God, mercy of our Father, mercy of the Father of Christ,
but also He hath begotten us again. He hath begotten us again. He's given us new life. He hath
begotten us. You go through the scripture
and it says, so and so begat, so and so begat, so and so begat,
so and so. Well, when you look at the heritage
of the children of God, God begat us. God gave us life. God has begotten us again. God
has saved us. As in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive. As that first man was of the
earth and of the dust, even so the second man is the Lord from
heaven, a quickening spirit. He comes and quickens us and
gives us life from the dead. We were dead in trespasses and
sin, and he quickened us together with Christ. You see, it's God
who has saved us. God has given us this life, not
according to our works. No. No. We didn't do any work
to get our first life, to come into this world the first time.
No. We didn't have any part to do
with that. And we don't got no part to do with our second birth.
He begot us again. It's God who saved us, not according
to our works, but His purpose and grace, given us in Christ
before the world began. He regenerated us by the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Isn't that
right? Look over here at 2 Peter 1.
2 Peter 1, there is some, you know,
and this word regenerate means to Create anew! Create anew! Oh my, look here at 2 Peter 1,
or 2 Peter 2, excuse me, in verse 4. whereby through Christ, according
to what Christ did, and the knowledge of God given to us in Christ,
we have given to us exceeding great and precious promises,
that by these promises, by this power, by this what Christ did,
we might be partakers of the divine nature, and by that escape
the corruption that's in the world through lust. May partakers
of the divine nature and all beloved What the new birth is,
is God taking a seed. God taking a seed. And in that
seed, creating life in that seed. He plants the seed. The seed
is the Word of God. Ain't that what is said here
in 1 Peter 1 down here in verse 23? Ain't that what it says? You see, without the second birth,
the first is a curse. Being born again. Not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible. By the Word of God. It's the
seed, it's the Word of God that comes and God uses. And that
seed brings forth life. It begets us. It produces life. And it feeds the life. And it
nurtures the life. And it causes the life to grow.
And all beloved, that's why by his own will begat he us with
the what? Word of truth. That's why it's
so important. That's what's necessary. Absolutely
necessary. That men hear the gospel. God's
not going to regenerate people with a lie. He's not going to
regenerate people with emotions. He's not going to regenerate
people with entertainment. He's not going to regenerate
people with stories and tales and illustrations. He regenerates
people with the gospel, with the word. That's why the gospel
is preached unto you. The gospel. You see, beloved,
God brought into existence when He... and you just take your
own self for instance. There was a time you weren't
interested in God. You didn't understand the Bible.
You didn't have a clue what the Bible said. And then there was a day you
didn't care, and then there started to be an interest. What was that
interest? That's grace going before grace.
Well, grace went out there and brought you under the sound of
the gospel. That's provenient grace. And grace going before
grace. And then what God does is when
you get, when you're under the sound of the gospel, He takes
that gospel, that power of God that's unto salvation, and he
takes that seed. And we're seed sowers, that's
what we are. Preachers are seed sowers and
water boys. One sows a seed, another come
along and water it. And when you plant that seed
in the ground, it comes out different than the seed you put in it.
And that's the stuff that's in the natural world, that's the
way it is in the... You know a husband and wife get together,
and next thing you know there's a seed there, and then a human
being comes out of that seed with eyes, ears, and that's the
same way it is with the gospel. God brings you in, you hear the
gospel. And that seed's sown in your heart, and that seed
regenerates, that seed starts growing in your heart, and then
one day when it's time for you to be brought forth from the
womb, so to speak, BAM! How do you know you got life?
You start calling on God. You start saying, Oh Lord have
mercy on me. Oh God save me. And you know
it's like a baby when it starts crying. The crying don't give
it life. The crying proves it's got life.
And that's what we do. We start crying out to God. We
start listening to God. We start paying attention to
His voice. I mean, when we start paying attention to his voice,
we start listening, we start saying, hey! You know what the
Lord did for me? I sat here! And how many times
has that happened when somebody's been listening and you watch
their eyes light up and they say, they finally hear him. That
was life! Oh, brought into existence a
new creature with a new nature. And I'll tell you what, let me
tell you something about this new nature. You never had a problem
with sin until you was forgotten again. You didn't have a bit
of problem, you know you never had no problem with your old
nature until you got a new nature. And they wouldn't fight more
than nothing. Ain't that right? And that's
the way, you know, I did not have a problem with sin, with
pride or self-righteousness. I had a problem with other people's
sins, other people aggravate me. Back when I was in legalism,
I had a problem with everything everybody else was doing, I had
no problem with it. But when God saved me by His
grace, put Christ in me, the hope of glory, gave me that new
nature, begotten me again by that word, that nature in there
is a new nature that can commune with God and talk with God and
walk with God and enjoy God, and we couldn't do that in our
old nature, could we? And so we got this new nature,
and because of this new nature, that old nature wants to come
back and take over again, and that new nature won't let it.
And then you're just a muttonhead all the time. The flesh wrestles against the
spirit, the spirit against the flesh, and you cannot do the
things that you would. And it's called being born from
above. It's called the seed of God,
the Word of God. It's called a passing from death
unto life. Salvation is of the Lord. And
to as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become
the sons of God." Now here's how you've done it. Which were
born, not of flesh, not of blood, not of the will of man, but of
God. And oh my, this is the difference
between what we believe and what Arminianism believes. Arminianism,
everything outside of the grace of God, teaches that a man gets
born again when he repents and when he believes. That when he
repents and believes, that's when God gives him his new life.
We teach And preach, and the scriptures teach us that you
can't repent, you can't believe until you have life, and it's
the repentance and the faith that gives evidence that life's
already there. It's like a baby crying. The
baby coming out of the womb crying doesn't give evidence it's got
life, or doesn't give it life. It's giving evidence of it's
life. Ain't that right? That's why
we don't look to our faith. That's why we don't look at our
repentance. That's why we don't look at our works. Salvation's
of the Lord, isn't it? Where that heart comes from,
that new nature comes from, it looks to the author of it. To
God the Father. To the Lord Jesus Christ. Can't
help but look there. Does that make any sense to y'all? Huh? And then not only did he
begot us again, gave us new life, but look down here now. He begotten
us unto a lively hope. Give us a living hope. He begot
us again to have a hope that's alive. A living hope. Can a man live without hope?
No. Hope deferred makes a man sick.
And it's this hope that he's talking about. Hope always has
to do with the future. Hope always has to do with what's
out in front of you. And it's a hope that's within
us. It's a living hope it's called. It's a real hope. It's a true
hope. It's an operative hope. Not just
a wish. It's not just hoping when I die
I get to go to heaven. No. It's a hope based on what
Christ accomplished. He begot us again to this living
hope. It's a hope now, beloved, that's
alive, that can look and can taste and see reality in something
that the black natural man can't see. And this hope moves us to
action. It moves us to do. It purifies
us. It purifies our heart. And it makes us patient, waiting
for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look what he says
down here in verse 13. Verse 4, dirt up the lawns of
your mind, be sober, and hope to the end. For the grace that is to be brought
to you, when? When Christ comes again. The grace that is going
to take us to glory. That is the revelation of Christ.
Hope, beloved, it cheers us. Oh, when we start hearing about
what Christ has done, what He has accomplished, that hope just
starts acting. Start stirring up. We start looking
to the future. We start looking to the end.
And it cheers us. It lifts our spirits. Gives us
confidence when we're in trials. Gives us confidence when we're
in storms. When our faith, if it need be,
that we're in heaven is through manifold trials. And our faith
is being tried. What keeps us keeping on, beloved? It's that hope that the sun's
going to shine! The sun's going to come out!
Dang, God's going to get us through this! We're going to make it!
God's going to sustain us! Oh my! Let me tell you why it's
called a living hope. Because it can't perish. It's
an impregnable hope. Now a lot of people's hope's
going to perish. The scripture says the hope of the hypocrite
is to perish. The hope of the hypocrite isn't
going to perish. The hope of kings is perished. Many hopes of many mothers has
perished. Many hopes of many wealthy people
have perished. But that hope, that sure steadfast
hope that's anchored behind the veil, We have a sure and steadfast
hope anchored behind the veil. That steadfast hope that's fixed
on Christ, thy hope will endure. Why? Because it's a good hope
through grace. You know, when these hurricanes come, they anchor
them ships. Them big ships, you know, they
just drop that anchor and they stay. Now that wind may cause
that thing to go like this, go like that, go to the end of that
road. But it ain't going to work because it's anchored. And that's
the way we are. Whoa up here and whoa down there. All the waves go over. And oh
my, that ship's got an anchor and it's behind the veil. You
know why it won't perish? It comes from another world. And then it's a living hope because
you know why? It deals with life. It deals
with life itself. You see, the Lord may come. The
Lord may come. Oh, what a blessing. Christ's
going to come? The Lord's coming? Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,
is going to come through that eastern sky like lightning shining
from the east to the west? Power and great glory? Oh, the
Lord may come, but most likely, you and I will go by the course
of nature. Who'll have to go to the grave?
Who'll have to go by death? Are you afraid of it? Dread in
it? Are you afraid to be done with
fightings without? Are you afraid of being done
with the fears that you have within? Are you afraid to put
on incorruption? Are you afraid to be taken to
a place where you'll never sin again? Are you afraid to go someplace
where you'll never ever make another sigh or be discouraged?
Are you afraid to rise up with glory? To be with Christ? Is that to be dreaded? No. Oh, we have a living hope. Why? Because we have a living
Savior. How many of you all would go
back to living in them old houses and go back to the old houses
and carry water from a and living with a kerosene lamp. How many
of y'all want to go back to that? Why would you want to stay here
when you've got perfection on the other side? What's to be
feared and dreaded about that? Oh, Lord Jesus, come! No wonder John said, Amen! Even so come, Lord Jesus, even
so come. We have a living hope begotten
by a living word that anchors us to a living Savior. And look
what else He did for us. Not only begat us again, give
us abundant mercy, and give us a living hope, but He gave it
to us. And here's one of those choices.
None of these things are of this earth. Here's one of the choice
things we have, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh,
we have a risen Savior. That's a choice thing we have.
We have a risen, living Savior. Our Lord said, because I live,
you shall live also. You know, God would not suffer
our Lord Jesus Christ, his flesh, to see corruption. And I mean
immediately, immediately, when death comes, corruption starts
in. But since he had no sin, God
said he wouldn't suffer his flesh to see corruption. And I, Lord
Jesus Christ, went into the grave Friday afternoon, early Sunday
morning came out, first day of the week. And why did God raise him from
the dead? Because God was satisfied with
what he had done. He was delivered up for our offenses,
for all of our offenses, for all of our sins. He was raised
again for our justification. So we have a risen Savior, a
living Savior, sent at the right hand of God. Now He's the Judge
of all the earth and He must do right. If He promised His
Son that He would not let His flesh see corruption, Well then
he must raise his son from the dead. He must give his son life. If his son said it is finished
on the cross, then salvation was finished. So he must bring
him again from the dead. He died in reality and he arose
in reality. You take the resurrection out
of what we believe and you got nothing. Absolutely nothing. They go over to Mohammed's tomb. They go to Buddha's tomb. But
that ain't nobody know where Christ's tomb was. They say they
know where it's at, but they don't have a clue where it's
at. Huh? We're not worshiping a tomb,
we're worshiping a risen Savior, a living Savior. Amen. God will
believe it. No more than we worship a grave
of somebody who loves Him. We love Him who's gone on. Ain't
that right? Oh my, he died in reality. Oh,
but he was seen above 500 brethren. He was risen again by many infallible
proofs that he was given life. And all believers are one with
him. And what happens to him, happens
to us. Was he risen again? We rose in
him. Did he set out? We set out in him. He coming
again? Coming after us. Oh my, that's
why when we go to the grave, We go with great, great hope. Great, great hope. Our Lord just
made the grave as the passing place to go to glory. That's
all He done. Then He begat us not only do
we have a risen Savior, but we have an incorruptible inheritance. Look here in verse 4. He gave us an inheritance incorruptible. You know, God's made us sons.
He begot us again and so we're new creatures. We're living children
of God. We're called sons of God. Called
children of God. Called heirs of God. And God
made us sons. We didn't make ourselves sons.
God made us sons. You know, somebody say, well,
I just like my own son. Or I love you like I love my
son. But that don't make you the son. God makes us sons. owns us as sons. And then if
we're sons, then we're heirs. Heirs. You know, families receive
the inheritance. And since He's given us this
new life, and with this new life, He gives us heirs, He gives us
possessions. Heavenly born children must have
a heavenly inheritance. Let me give you a four-fold description
of this inheritance. First of all, it's incorruptible.
that's incorruptible. Now you know anything on this
earth that's incorruptible? Everything on this earth is corruptible.
Oh, look at what's already perished. How many homes have been built
since the beginning of time and are gone? How many dynasties?
How many empires? How many kings? How many people? Oh, how many fortunes perish
incorruptible? They're corruptible. But iron
heritage is incorruptible. Can't be corrupted. Can't corrupt
it. Can't mess it up. If it was left,
you know, you see, I've seen people press and fight. Somebody
told me just now, I don't remember who it was, said, you know, I
don't want to leave nothing for my kids to have to fight over.
You know why they'll fight over? Because they're corrupt and they'll
corrupt inheritance. Ain't that right? They'll corrupt
the inheritance. You lend it to them and they'll
mess it up. Think about it now. Don't look
at me like that. You know that's the truth. Your
kids gonna mess it up. You got one child, maybe they
won't. But I'm telling you, they'll
corrupt it. But oh, what God gives us. We can't mess it up. We're not fighting over it. Anybody here, Freddie ain't going
to get his inheritance from the Lord? No, we're going to all
get it. And it's pure. Ain't that what
it says? It's pure. That means it's undefiled. It's undefiled. All men have
grown rich by fraud, by defiling things. But our inheritance,
our wealth, it's undefiled. Why? Because it was won by an
obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Won by the suffering of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Won by the protection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And you can't defile it. You
can't defile it. And oh my, it's an inheritance.
Maybe it'd be the fowl, but not this one. This is in heaven.
And then it has beauty. Watch this. And that fadeth not
away. Oh my, we watch things fade away
all the time. I'm fading away. You're fading
away. Flowers fade away. But oh, this one never fades
away. It's just as glorious as it was
to the first child, the first one Now Noah, when Enoch went
there and got his inheritance, when Enoch was not called God
took him. When Enoch got his inheritance,
it ain't faded away yet. And all the people who got inheritance,
it's still not faded away. It's still brand new to everybody
that gets it. And then it's an inheritance.
Watch what it says. It's secure because it's reserved
in heaven. Guess who it's reserved in heaven
for? You. Put your name in there. Who are
you? Who are you? I'm one of those
forgotten again. I'm one that has a risen Savior.
I'm one God's given abundant mercy. Oh my, who are you is
secured, is reserved in heaven for you. There's a portion there
for you that no one else can have. There's a place no one
else can feel. And men are not arguing over
it or scrambling for their inheritance. There, it's reserved for you. And then look at the security
of these. This is a choice. Choice, choice, treasure. Look
at the security of it. In verse 5, who are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last hour. The security of this inheritance
is kept for you, and here not only is it kept for you, but
you're kept for it. Kept for it. How are you kept?
By the power of God. By the might of God. And this
word kept, it's a military term. It's word. An army comes in and
it goes around the city, it garrisons the city, it mans itself around
the city, and it defends the city. And that's what this is.
God garrisons himself around us. Huh? He mans himself around
us. He defends us. We're going to
be a camp. Oh, the enemy may attack. Boom,
boom, boom. Shoot these cannons. Dogs may
bark around the fence. But oh, we're a camp. And now we're kept by the power
of God through faith. Let me show you this quickly.
Let me show you. I know I'm taking a little long,
but look in Jeremiah 32 with me. Just a moment. Oh, we're
kept by the power of God through faith. Jeremiah 32. You know, God has means, and
he ensures that the means work. And this kept garrisoned, real
man defended. No man is able to pluck them
out of my hand. No man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. And look here in verse 40, if I say
at 32. Now look what God says. There's two things here I want
you to look at. God says, I'm going to make an everlasting
covenant with them. I'll do that. I'll do that. It's
something that I do. And in this covenant that I make
with them, I'll not turn away from them to do them good. That's
kept by the power of God. I promise in this covenant, I'll
never turn away from you to do you good. And then also in this
covenant, kept through faith, I will put my fear in their hearts
that they shall never depart from me. So I'm going to keep
them by my power, and then they're going to believe me, because
I'm going to put my fear in them. Kept by the power of God through
faith. All right, let's go back over to our text. And I'll tell
you something, beloved, this keeping is complete. This keeping
is continuous, because it's based on everlasting covenant. And
that's why it says kept under salvation. Kept under salvation. Ready to be revealed in the last
time. In our last time. There's going
to be a last time that we're going to hear the gospel. There's
going to be a last time we're going to gather. There's going
to be a last time we'll open a Bible. In our salvation. But we have been saved. We are
being saved. And we shall be saved. I've got
to show you this. You've got to see this. Psalm
73. Psalm 73. Just a moment. Just
a moment. I'll be done, honestly. Oh my, the security of these
blessings. We're kept. Oh, what choice things
we have. What treasures we have. Psalm
73, looking down at verse 24. Oh, it's going to be kept. Thou shalt
guide me with thy counsel. What's His counsel? His blessed
Word. And afterward, Salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time? Afterward, you'll receive me to glory. It's going to be
the last time. The Lord is going to guide us with
His Word. And then it's going to be the last time. Away we
go. Away we go. And then look here. The best of all is this. The
best of all. I'm talking about these choice
blessings. These treasures that we have. The seventh treasure,
the seventh choice blessing is this, a blessed God. Look back up in verse three.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh,
a blessed God, the blessed God. It's a joy to have new life. It's a joy, a blessing, to have
an inheritance incorruptible in the heavens. But the greatest
of all, of the blessings we have, the choicest things we have,
the treasure we have, is to have my God, is to have God Himself. My own Savior's God. The God
and Father by the Lord Jesus Christ. My Father is my own Savior's
Father. I'll be their God, they shall
be my people. We were not a people, but now
we're called the people of God. And He has given us much. Oh,
He's given us abundance. But of all that He has given
us, He has given us Himself. Huh? Given us Himself. God has given
us Himself. Herod said, I'll give half of
my kingdom. But God hasn't given us half
of anything. He didn't even give us the whole
of His kingdom, but He gave us Himself. He gave us Himself. Here, I'll be your God. I'll
be your God. You'll be my people. He's not
ashamed to be called our God. What can we do? Let's show our
gratitude, show our joy by blessing God, to live into God's glory.
And I've said it so many times, man's chief end is to glorify
God and enjoy Him forever. Seven choice things, seven treasures. Oh, what a blessing. Our Father,
our blessed, blessed Savior, blessed be Your name. for being so wondrously, abundantly,
blessedly, gracious and merciful to us, your children. Father,
thank you for the gospel. Thank you for your Word. Do your
work here. We trust you to do your work
here. Know you will. Know you will. That your will
will be done. and you'll accomplish your purpose
in us and in those that are here. We bless you and praise you in
Christ's name. Amen.