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Start with verse four of first Peter chapter one.
First Peter chapter one.
Four is in the middle of a sentence. I hope don't won't mind if I back up to verse three, but maybe we should try to confine the comments to verse four. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fate is 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.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found on the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Whom having not seen any love, in whom though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable.
And full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
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Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently.
Who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow?
Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they administer the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into.
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober.
And hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust and your ignorance.
But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written.
Be holy, for I am holy.
And if ye call on the Father, who, without respect of persons, judge us according to every man's work.
Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear, for as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's.
But with the precious blood of Christ.
As of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times. For you, who by him do believe in God.
They raised him up from the dead.
And gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.
Senior purified your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit.
Unto unfeigned love, the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.
Being born again, not a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever.
And this is the word which by the gospel.
Is preached unto you.
Remember to think a little bit.
Of the people to whom this letter was written, they were Jews. They were Jews who had now put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and become part of the Church of God.
But they had been born to.
And they had, as a Jew, a certain anticipated inheritance.
They were an earthly people and so their inheritance was connected with the earth.
The land of Israel, as we call it today, was the inheritance.
And prosperity and long life were all connected with that land.
Now think of it as the time when the Lord Jesus was here on earth.
And he dies.
It says here an inheritance incorruptible. The inheritance, if you will, that they were anticipating at that point in time was very corruptible.
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It was that which was defiled. It wasn't undefiled inheritance. They were to be in a land separate from the heathen, as we had them last night from the nations that were a corrupted set of people. They were to be in a land in an inheritance that they were to be separated from them so that they could live before God in purity and in holiness. But at the time the Lord Jesus was here.
That land was defiled by the Gentile and by their own idolatry that they had previously been in and still had effects from, and so on. It was a defiled inheritance. And then it says that fadeth not away and.
They'll never get that inheritance on the ground of their first covenant with God, and in fact, God has to and has done through the work of the Lord Jesus.
Set the foundation for a new covenant with them in which they will come into the inheritance and it will be undefiled and it will be an unfading one for them, and so on. But as they saw it at the time this letter was written, they weren't going to get it.
It was a fading away kind of thing. And every person that has a sense of inheritance connected with this world can see these three things in it, and they're always going to be connected with anything that has to do with Adam's race. It's a spoiled race and everything connected with it is defiled and fades. And later in the chapter, the glory of man is seen to be like the flower that comes and.
Has its little day and then it's gone. It fades, it's corruptible. But brethren, Peter is bringing before them and us.
We have a different inheritance. We have an inheritance that connects us with the Lord Jesus Christ and heaven. And the characteristics of it that ought to encourage our hearts is it's incorruptible, it's undefilable, and it will never fade away. And so we are encouraged to put our hearts in the enjoyment.
And of anticipation of that which God says we shall inherit with Christ.
And we can have enjoyment of it now can't wait. The full enjoyment of it will be in a future day. But we have the capacity now all things that pertain unto life and godliness and the capacity now to enjoy our our inheritance. You know, and brother Dawn was mentioning how that the children of Israel in the Old Testament, they had an earthly in an earthly inheritance. And the land of Canaan really typifies to us.
That which is our inheritance in a spiritual sense, it's that vast panorama of spiritual blessings that are brought before us in Ephesians and other places in the New Testament, and often people think of the land of Canaan.
As something that we are going to enjoy after death, after the Jordan, when we get to heaven, and so on. And as I say, we're going to have a far greater enjoyment of it in that day. But Canaan is something that we can enjoy right now because we are linked by the Spirit of God to our risen head where he is now, as we spoke of at some length yesterday, the Lord Jesus.
Is at the right hand of God, He is the forerunner there we are linked to him. We have divine life, we have the Spirit of God and we can have an enjoyment of heaven before we get there. But I believe that this.
Portion here must have answered an enigma that these believers had at this time.
Because they must have wondered with the inheritance in the Old Testament.
It depended. The enjoyment of it depended on their faithfulness and their obedience. God told them if they were obedient, he would establish them in the land. They would enjoy their inheritance, They would, as Dawn said, have long life. He'd increased their lands and their cattle and their families and so on. But here were these believers now, and they were had been seeking to be faithful to the Lord in Christianity, and they must have wondered what had happened.
They'd lost their land. They'd been driven from their homes, They'd lost everything, naturally speaking. And they must have wondered, well, we've tried to be faithful to the Lord. We were taught under the old order of things that faithfulness, when we were faithful, there would be an increase in the blessings we would have. And it really must have puzzled these believers. But Peter writes them to answer this question that they must have had. No, he says, you might have lost everything, naturally speaking.
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As far as what was promised in the Old Testament under the Jewish order of things, that's faded away, that's gone. But he says you have something now that is eternal. You have now the unsearchable riches of Christ.
You have spiritual blessings, you have heaven secured and nothing, no unfaithfulness on your part can ever change that. Just like to say this too and make this as real and practical as we can. There are two things in this 4th and 5th verse that I think go very well together. You know, if if we're given an an earthly inheritance, suppose someone.
Leaves you an inheritance, no matter how vast that inheritance is.
And no matter how careful you are with that inheritance, every time you go down to the bank and draw on that inheritance.
The inheritance becomes less and we've heard stories and read stories of those who through mismanagement and squandering.
Have lost inheritances. But even if you're careful, every time you draw on that inheritance, the inheritance becomes less. But not so with our inheritance. You can draw on your inheritance in Christ time and time again. You can go down, if I can put it this way, to the spiritual bank. And no matter how often or how much you draw on that inheritance, it never will become less. But not only that, suppose someone promises you.
That when they die, they're going to leave you an inheritance, a big a large sum of money.
But you know, maybe 221 of two things may happen. Maybe by the time the person dies, the inheritance is used up. Maybe in the end of their life they needed assisted care living or something like that and the inheritance wasn't reserved for you it it was used up. But something else might happen too. You might predecease the person, you weren't reserved for the inheritance. And so when the time for the inheritance to be passed on comes, perhaps it has to be given to someone else.
Because you died first. But brethren, either way we can't lose. We have this inheritance. It's undefiled. It fades not away. It'll never be used up. It's ours to enjoy now, and it will be ours to enjoy and appreciate for all eternity. But not only that, we're reserved for the in the inheritance. It's ours. It's secure in Christ. And because of the finished work of Calvary and brethren, that ought to rejoice our hearts, that ought to quicken our footsteps through the wilderness journey.
To give us joy amidst the circumstances, as he's going to go on to speak of, because the inheritance is reserved for us and we're preserved for the inheritance.
I'd like to make a comment actually with this inheritance because, uh, there is, there is an aspect where there were those in the Old Testament that had an appreciation, umm, for that which was going to be theirs, which was not down here.
And I say that because we, we read in the, umm, if you look at the subject of the inheritance, you know, it first comes up in the, uh, in the book of Genesis, and we read it many times. And so we have Abraham and the, the Lord hasn't looked through the land and he says, look through it and walk through it and enjoy it. But you know, we read in Hebrews that Abraham, he looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. So although he had many things promised down here, obviously his sights were not necessarily.
Down here and I was thinking particularly, uh, and I would, I would just like to make this comment particularly to those who are younger. Uh, could you turn with me to the book of Joshua just for a moment?
The book of Joshua, the 13th chapter.
It just seems that something we can see, something we can feel, something we can touch just seems to have a little bit more pizzazz than something we can't see. And we see that when our children are, are, are born and they're and they're real young, they want some toys and they get a little bit older and they want, not necessarily toys. They want a wagon and then they want something, perhaps they want a bicycle and then it moves on from there and they want their first car.
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And it's always things that they can touch, feel and see.
But I tried to put my myself in the in the, uh, position of the Levites. Now notice what it says in these chapters 13 and on we have the land is divided up amongst the various different tribes. But notice what it says about the Levites.
Umm, uh, we could. We could read earlier in the chapter, but let's just read the last verse of Joshua 13.
For unto the tribe of Levi, Moses gave not any inheritance. The Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them. So you know, I've tried to picture myself as a young Levite.
And, and going to his father and says, you know, dad, I'd kind of like to have a garden. Umm, I kind of like to have a few cows. I kind of like to have, umm, uh, a few goats. I'd kind of like to have a few sheep. And to hear father Levites say, well, you know, son, umm, uh, that's not really our portion. We, we really can't have that. Umm, our, our inheritance is the Lord's. And you can hear the young Levites with this quandary in his mind, saying, you know, the Lords aren't here. He says, well, how does that work?
And you know, the best way for someone who is older to portray to a young Levite that the Lord was his inheritance was to be in the full enjoyment of the Lord himself.
And so he could tell us that all the things that the Lord has done, and they would have been a marvelous encouragement to his own heart if he was enjoying them. Now, if he was not enjoying them, you know, he could portray whatever to his son and his son would still think, you know, that I'd still like to have a few cows.
But you know, it's not different today, and it's been a challenge to my own heart to try to portray to my children the things that I really like, because the enemy of our souls would try to present things down here of real value.
And so the, the, the, the Apostle Peter, he, he, he writes to these believers and, and these, these believers were going through real difficulty.
Their trial was such that as as Jews, they were hated by the Romans.
The Romans hated them because they were Jews, but then the Jews also hated them because they were Christians, so it didn't matter where they looked, they were hated.
But I just so appreciated that in the Old Testament there were those, there was the Levites, and their inheritance was beyond this scene. And they could understand that concept that Peter was seeking to write here.
I know what an encouragement it is to my own heart what I see. I mentioned Brother Judd this morning. He's someone whose sites are not down here and they haven't been for a long time. And it's been such an encouragement to my own soul to see those who are older truly enjoying the inheritance that is ours, or maybe try to enjoy that ourselves so we can portray it to those who are younger that which is really life.
That I'd like to make a comment about Brother Judd.
And it was commented that he was right at the end of this journey.
What came to my own mind was the Lord's anticipation and joy of having patiently waited so long.
To have a desire of his heart fulfilled.
And as the Lord enables Lloyd to anticipate the Lord's joy of his being brought into His presence to be forever together.
It's a triumphant entrance. The apostle Paul had that same anticipation in his own soul of the joy that he, but more important that the Lord would have of their being together. And always in the Scripture when it's the thought of being with the Lord and the Lord's side of it is presented.
It isn't. I've got a mansion just over the hilltop that comes really, really far short of the true sense. But it is the Lord Jesus.
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Having the desire, he says, Father, I will that those also whom thou hast given me be with me. When it talks to the Rapture, it's in Thessalonians. It's that to be forever.
With the Lord and He is the primary.
Anticipation of what we might call the inheritance. It's also good to go on and recognize here and Scripture too. We might say, well yes, I'm going to have the Lord. There's this side of it too, and that is.
Our inheritance is to be coheirs with him.
In other words, he says everything that I inherit.
I want you as my bride, to share with me.
And so the anticipation for us is the bridegroom and his love for his body. The church won't take his inheritance until it can be shared with those that are coheirs with him.
He patiently waits for his inheritance. He doesn't take it. Ask of me, it says in the second Psalm, and I'll give you, but he won't ask. He will not take it until those that are his Co heirs can be with him. And so brethren, let's try to remember this morning as we seek to enjoy these things. Let's satisfy his heart. Let's satisfy his heart. His heart is.
I won't take my inheritance without you.
I wanna wait until you're with me and then we'll share it together.
And I'm waiting, I'm anticipating, I'm looking forward to it. And the desire of his heart, I believe the desire of the Spirit of God for us this morning is that there would be a flow of response within us to have the same desire to say, Lord, it's going to be wonderful to be together. And then when we're together, if I could put it this way, the inheritance will take care of itself.
I'd like to just develop that a little bit because I believe it is the appreciation.
Of the inheritance in our hearts that is going to give us the proper character.
Of strangers and pilgrims here in this world. It's not just to be able to go over these things and enumerate them from Scripture, as good as that is, but these things need to affect our souls. And so we find that later on in this epistle, in the second chapter, he speaks to them as strangers and pilgrims. Again, in Hebrews there were those who didn't receive the promises, but they saw them afar off.
But more than that, they embrace them and they confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. What gave them that character? It was not just that they saw those things. They knew about them, but they really embraced them in their souls. And I'd like to just go back for a moment to Joshua again to the 15th chapter, and see an individual that this is was true of in connection with the inheritance in the Old Testament. Brother Dave brought before us the Levites, but.
We have an individual in the 14th chapter and I think it's very instructive in this regard.
Just two before we I read this, we realize that the children of Israel had been in the wilderness for 40 years. They were strangers and pilgrims. They had been brought now through the Jordan. They had been told to go in and possess their inheritance, the land of Canaan, and with the Lord's help to drive out their enemies. And we know that through the wilderness, before the wilderness journey, there was a man named Caleb.
Who had been very, very faithful. He was one of the spies that went in to spy the land.
And he and Joshua alone had brought up a good report of the land.
Of the inheritance and it's interesting that during the 40 years in the wilderness where they turned back.
Because of their unbelief and because they rejected the testimony of Joshua and Caleb.
For the testimony of the other ten, we find that Caleb from that point to this point I'm going to read of now.
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Is never mentioned in those forty years, but we find that He went on quietly for 40 years in the wilderness. We never read of anything He says or does until we come to this point. Let me just read here from the sixth verse.
Joshua 14 verse six. Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua and Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jefuna the Kenazite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, The man of God, concerning me and thee in Kadish Barnier.
40 years old was I when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadish Barnea.
To aspire out the land. And I brought him word again, as it was in mine heart.
I believe that last expression is the key, that why, how could Caleb go on for 40 years amidst fault finding and murmuring and the governmental hand of God upon his people because of their moral condition and so on, and all the physical things that he no doubt dealt with from day-to-day in the wilderness. You say how could he do it?
When he knew they could have gone up and possessed the inheritance immediately. I believe it's just what he says here.
The inheritance that got into Caleb's heart. He had seen it. He had seen the pomegranates, he'd seen the the grapes cut down and carried on the shoulders of two men. He had seen the lushness of the inheritance. And it had so affected Caleb's heart that it caused him to quietly go on amidst all the failure that he saw amongst his brethren without a murmur or complaint that we read of all those years.
Because his heart was affected. And was the inheritance any less to Caleb after 40 years than when he had gone up to spy out the land? Not one bit. It was still as real in Caleb's soul. And notice what it says in the 13th verse. And Joshua picture of Christ. He blessed him and gave unto Caleb the son of Jefuna. Hebron for an inheritance. Several connotations to Hebron, but I would just say that was not only the place of death, but it was the place of communion where Abraham.
Had an altar and spent many happy hours of fellowship with his God. And Caleb receives this. And it's interesting that Caleb is the only one that we read of that got a personal inheritance in the land. Every other their inheritance by tribe and family. But Caleb got a personal inheritance. Why? Because he appreciated in his heart the inheritance that he had seen.
And he got what his heart desired, the place of communion. Yes, there were difficulties there, but those difficulties paled and connect in relationship to his desire to have the place of communion and fellowship. And I thought, I just say, if the inheritance gets into our hearts, we read these things and it affects our souls, it's going to give us the proper character as strangers and pilgrims. And what this world offers is like Paul said, it's going to be nothing.
It's gonna, we're gonna count it as done, that we might win Christ.
Our inheritance, uh, we're Speaking of our inheritance, and I know our chapter does this and it's somewhat in a general, in a general sense, but could we have a little description of what God has prepared to give in that inheritance?
Inheritance is brought before us in different aspects in Scripture. I think Don alluded to it, but in Ephesians, the inheritance there is all created things, and the Lord Jesus is going to take it back, not only as creator, but in redemption in a coming day. And we're going to share in that. He's not going to take it back until He has his own by his side, his bride by his side, and then he's going to take it back just like a young man.
He may buy a very nice home and you say to him, well, why don't you move into the home? You've got it nicely decorated and furnished and you're living in a little bachelor apartment. Why don't you move into that home? Oh, he says, I'm waiting till the day I have my bride with me. We've set the wedding date and I don't want to take to share that. I don't want to take possession of that home, live in that home till I have my bride with me. And then we're going to enter that home together and we're going to share it. Well, the Lord Jesus is waiting for that day.
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When he has his bride and then he's going to take the inheritance. But there's another aspect too, as we said earlier.
And that is what we have illustrated to us in the land of Canaan, because, as I said earlier, the land of Canaan.
Typifies to us all that spiritual inheritance that is ours now. It's, as I said earlier, that panorama of spiritual blessings that we have been given. It's all that is secured for us in Christ Jesus that we can have an enjoyment of now. It's that which lies ahead when we're home in the Father's house and then we'll no longer know in part and prophecy in part. It's everything really that has been secured for us in Christ.
And again, this must have been a great comfort to these Jewish believers who had lost everything naturally speaking as far as any earthly inheritance. But in the language of Matthew, they had something where moth and rust don't corrupt, thieves don't breakthrough and steal. They had something that was secured for them for their enjoyment now and for all eternity, and something that will never diminish.
No matter how much we draw on the resource and enjoy it.
In Acts chapter 4.
Acts Chapter 4.
And verse.
32.
The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they all. But they had all things common, and with great power.
Gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
And great grace was upon them all.
Neither was there any among them that lacked. For as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles feet. And distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which being interpreted the son of Consolation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet.
And enjoyed thinking here's a Levite that owned land.
But his heart got regained and he sold that.
And he laid that money at the apostles feet. His inheritance was more properly focused on things above.
Verse 5.
So I answered the question, what are we living for?
It says here who are kept by the power of God through faith.
Unto salvation.
Well, we are living for that inheritance that we have in heaven.
Otherwise we would live here in vain. We would just live here to die, just like an animal.
That goes through the cycle of their life and then die and they don't know God.
But we are live in order to receive an inheritance which we have in heaven.
But in order to get that inheritance.
We have to do something the same like the Levites had to do.
They carried that Tabernacle through the wild wilderness for 40 years. Well, what for? Did they do that?
Because they needed it to sacrifice to God for their sins.
And that's why. Why did it take so long?
Because they didn't have faith.
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To go get that inheritance.
And it's the same with us if we don't know the Lord Jesus.
Then we don't know what we're living for.
But how do we get to know him? We have to be taught.
Who He is and that and why He was here on the earth, and that He did come in in the 1St place and then He came for a purpose and then He made a promise.
Place is in heaven, which we were going to inherit. But then young people often said why we don't see anything of that today. We're going to have to have something that something tangible, something that we can get a hold of.
Well, if you want to greatly rejoice, as it says in the sixth word, have to know the Lord Jesus more personally.
Enjoy what he did, enjoy what he said.
Enjoy everything that you can find out about him. You find a lot of it in the Gospels and and the rest of the New Testament. You find everything about the Lord Jesus.
And if you want to go deeper into it and rejoice more, you find why it was all pointing to him in the Old Testament, why they did carry the Tabernacle through the wilderness for 40 years.
Because they were looking forward to getting through that land and to inherit it. Well, so are we. We're looking forward to inherit. And that was the Lord Jesus now has in heaven.
But we have to know about it first. We have to know him.
Call Mama to the second Psalm, Psalm 2.
Verse two. Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord. Uh.
And against his anointed.
And then down in, uh, verse.
Seven, I will declare the decree. The Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen.
For thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Comment on it in a moment, but turn over to Psalm 8.
Psalm 8, verse three. When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon, and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man?
That thou art mindful of him.
And the Son of man, that thou hast thou visitest him.
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.
Thou mayest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen. Yeah, and the beasts of the field, and so on. Now over to Colossians, Chapter One.
Colossians, Chapter One.
And verse 12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance.
Of the Saints in light, who have delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son.
16 For by him are all things created that are in heaven and earth, visible and unvisible, invisible, whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him.
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And He is above all things, and by him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead. Now finally over in Ephesians chapter one.
Stop.
Ephesians chapter one, verse 18, The eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints.
And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power?
Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.
Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And have put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the Church.
Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth.
All in all.
When God created man and put him on the earth in Genesis chapter one, the very first word spoken to man.
Or be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the earth. God placed man over the earth to have the dominion over it as the sphere over which He was responsible, and in that sense you might have said it was his inheritance.
But man failed God, and consequently man could not receive from God an inheritance that was permanent because he was not in a condition to receive it or to administer it either. And so the Lord Jesus as a man comes into this world, he becomes a man, he comes into the world, He lives fully, completely, perfectly to the will of God and honors and glorifies God in all that was given him to do.
He was rejected of the first man in all his race, and he dies. God raises him from the dead.
And then he takes him up to the supreme place of honor as a man. A man had never been in heaven before. A man had never been at the right hand of God in peace to sit there. And in the second Psalm, Jehovah says to him, You ask, and I'll give you everything.
This earth rejects the heathen rage. They rebel. They say we don't want God. The earth's ours.
This is man's world.
And they have Centennial celebrations in honor of man and his world.
In true rebellion against the true owner, the one who has the right to give. And yet in the Lord Jesus there's a man and the inheritance. The primary really to me thought in it is what's he get?
What does God want to give him?
In the second Psalm he gives him the earth and all the fullness of it. In the 8th Psalm he says you can have the whole creation, angels, animals, the world, the stars, the moon, everything. The that's created is yours.
To have and inherit.
But also in Genesis, when God created man.
He said it's not good for man to be alone.
You might have a lot, but if you have it alone, it's a loan.
You might inherit a billion dollars, but if you only have it for yourself, it's a loan. It's not fully satisfying in that character. And so God, here's a man, a man in the glory, a man that's been been given everything as his inheritance. And the question is, will he have it alone?
No, no he won't.
It's not good for man to dwell alone, and so God gives him a bride.
And she becomes the fullness of him that felleth All in all, that last verse in Ephesians 1.
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He's incomplete without her, but.
She is brought into a relationship with him that he might not share or have it alone, and she inherits all that is his to share with him. There are certain things of his own, glories that are personally his that can't be shared, but everything of the creation itself that's shareable is shared with her, his bride, And when it comes to us.
The first point of the sanctification that was brought out yesterday and the blood and so on, is if she's to share it with him, she must be in purity. She must be that which is suitable to be an heir.
And so in Colossians one we see how she is brought to be made meat, to be part of the inheritance. But if you start with himself as a man, then the I believe to me, the inheritance, the wonder of it is.
To participate in it, not even what it is in itself, but simply that God in his marvelous purposes of and grace.
It to mankind is I want, I want others to join with my son and to be part of himself, and that's the inheritance.
I wonder if we could just turn to Romans 8A minute because it's nice to know what brought us into a place where we.
Receive this inheritance and this. This chapter tells us how that happened. Romans 8 and verse 15 says.
For ye, ye have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption.
Or by we cry, I have a father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs of God, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.
We have this inheritance now by right.
Because of the family that we have been brought into, it's not strange for a father to pass along.
The an inheritance to a child, and because we have been brought into relationship with God as children, it is a natural thing, a normal thing for that child to enjoy the inheritance.
And so it's a wonderful thing that because God has brought us into relationship as children, that's 11 aspect of the reason why we have right to inheritance. The other thing is that we have been brought into relationship with Christ.
And that and that makes us fellow heirs because of our distinct connection with him, because as it's been mentioned, God is giving him everything, giving him possession.
Of everything and we have been brought into a unique association with him that if he is going to inherit all things then we also.
Umm are going to because our our relationship and connection to him are going to come into the enjoyment of that inheritance.
Particularly to those here who are young mothers and young wives.
You say, what does that have to do with the inheritance? So let's turn to umm, the book of Judges for a moment. I only raised this because of the remarks that Umm Jim made earlier. Sometimes it's at a conference. It's hard for the young mothers and young wives to get something out of a reading with the care of the children. What we find in Judges chapter one here, UMM Jim has brought us, brought before us how Caleb had an appreciation for that which he had seen. And I've kind of wondered about AXA, you know, going through the wilderness and things or that sometimes.
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Umm, that how come we have to go through this wilderness and this, uh, have to listen to all these people whining and fussing and complaining and for Caleb to say, oh, Acts, uh, you should see the grapes. You should see the pomegranates. But you know, when she got there, that's what she wanted too. And we find that in Judges chapter one in verse UH-12, it says, and Caleb said he that slightest courage us deeper and taketh it to him. Will I give acts of my daughter to wife and off the other son of Kenas, Caleb's younger brother took it and he gave him Akshay, his daughter to wife.
Now here's where I really enjoy how sometimes as young husbands and young fathers, the cares of this life are very real and just in seeking to put bread and butter in the table, we can get so occupied with what's down here that the enemy would seek to eclipse that which really matters. Well, here we find a young wife and she's an encouragement to her husband. So we read here. It came to pass, she came to him and she moved him to ask her father afield.
Well, she had a desire to have part of that inheritance. She moved her husband to ask for that inheritance. But I would just suggest this to those of you who are young mothers.
And young ones, as your husbands are seeking to provide for you, provide for your children and the necessary things of life that are sometimes overwhelming to a young father and a young husband that you can be a real encouragement to your husband to seek to point him to that which is really life, not the things down here. You know, AXA did that. She wanted her husband that part of that inheritance. And in in our chapter that we have before us.
As our brother Don brought before us earlier, there are those things that are not defiled, that are, those things that are not corruptible. Everything we have down here is soon gonna be somebody else's. Doesn't matter what it is we have down here, it's soon gonna be somebody else's. Except for those things that are really like.
It takes faith, doesn't it, to lay hold of that which is really life and those things that are ours in Christ.
That are not going to fade away. It takes faith to lay hold of the inheritance.
Because we've never seen any of our spiritual blessings with the natural eye.
But they're no less real to faith. And so if we're going to be encouraged, as we've said, to go through the wilderness journey that we're on, we must by faith lay hold of that which is ours, which really ours, and that which is ahead. And that you really see illustrated in Moses. You know, Moses was a little different from all the others that crossed the wild, the desert, in that he had been brought up.
Not as a slave or a captive in Egypt. He had been brought up in the palace. He had the best of the best. He was the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and what he gave up to for the wilderness was perhaps more than the rest had given up. What the rest gave up was the whip and the scourge and the slavery and the flesh pots that they sat beside in the evening and hoped to be able to get a little sustenance, the whole body and soul together. Moses didn't have that problem when he was he was growing up.
But it's interesting that in Hebrews 11 it tells us, well, let me just read it because I think it's instructive.
In Hebrews Chapter 11.
And verse 24 by faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. I'll stop there for a moment. We're going to go on in our chapter and we're going to learn about the afflictions and the trials and the difficulties that those brethren in Peter's day were were feeling in their wilderness journey, and that we feel in our journey down here too. But then notice what it says in verse 26. Esteeming the reproaches of Christ.
Greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he had he had respect under the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured how as seeing him.
Who is invisible? You know, I used to read this portion about the treasures of Egypt and so on, and I thought about it and I considered it. But after having been to Egypt a number of times and gone through places like the Cairo Museum.
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And stood by the pyramids and been in Alexandria, and seeing what the treasures and the glory of Egypt was in the days of Moses. This expression has meant much more to me. I don't think we really understand what Moses gave up, what he forsook. Egypt was not a base nation in the days when Moses was the son of Pharaoh's daughter. It was a glorious nation. The Chariots of the kings and nobility were covered with gold and encrusted with jewels, and so on.
Why did he forsake it? Why did he give it up? He saw something by faith that was greater than the treasures of Egypt.
He esteemed the reproaches of Christ. Interesting expression, isn't it? He had a flash of revelation beyond the normal revelation of his day.
These esteem the reproaches of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt. He saw him who is is invisible and brethren, if we can get a hold of the riches of Christ and the inheritance of by faith in our souls. It's not going to make giving up the things down here difficult. We're not even going to consider them. They're just going to drop off like autumn leaves. They're not going to have an attraction. It's not going to be something that we.
We we say, oh, I wish I could have cling to this. I wish I could cling to that. No, in the measure in which the inheritance and Christ is is in our souls and our hearts. Those things again, I say like Paul.
He didn't find any difficulty in counting them, but loss? He was winning Christ, He wanted more of him.
He had the prize, He was running a race. He had the prize, the goal and view. What is the prize in the Christian life? It's Christ.
It's Him. It's to have Christ before us. And so Peter sets this before.
These brethren, and then and only then does he take them back to the reality of the present situation.
If I had been writing this, I would have talked about their present situation and then put the future before them. That's not what the Spirit of God through Peter does. He puts the future, the inheritance, the hope, the link between the present and the future.
He puts the hope before them, the inheritance before them. Then he goes back and he says, I realize you're going through trials. They're very real.
Their fiery trials, they're difficult circumstances, but you've got the hope, you've got the inheritance before you now you can rejoice in Christ even though you're still in the reality of your present situation. And that's what we have in Romans 8 where Phil left off leading. If we go on and if you, maybe we should just take a moment because Phil left off at a very strategic place in Romans 8 and again.
What we have here in Romans 8 is our present state contrasted with the coming glory.
We have our link between the present and the and the future. And let me just pick up with very little comment, but let me just pick up in the middle of verse 17 where Phil left off.
If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I reckon that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God, and so on the whole creation growth we read. Then just drop down to verse 24. For we are saved by hope.
But hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth. Why does he yet hope for?
But if we hope for that, we see not, then do we with patience, wait for it. So he sets here the glory before them. He sets the inheritance before them. Then he says, I'm not going to underestimate, I'm not going to undervalue the the circumstances that you're going going through. And brother and I realized that many of us even in these seats are going through real difficulties and trials. We don't want to minimize that and we don't want to become callous and indifferent.
To the circumstances that God passed us through there just teach us in his schooling.
Some time to chasten us, to direct us, to prepare us. Any number of reasons.
And Paul in Romans 8 and Peter in his epistle, they are not minimizing those things. They are not telling us that we become callous and indifferent to them or we ignore them, but they are saying with the vision of coming glory ahead.
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And faith that links us with the future. Then we can get through the difficulties and circumstances.
And we can get, not just get through them, not just grin and bear them. We often say, well, grin and bear it. No, it's more than that. It's getting through them for the Lord's glory. It's being more conformed to his image down here. It's learning by them. It's it's being prepared by them for to help others and for what is ahead and so on. So it's more than just gritting our teeth and getting through them, but with the future and the glory ahead.
We can get through it according to His purpose for His Son and for our blessing. And remember this verse in Proverbs 29. Where there is no vision, the people perish.
We're gonna be cast down, we're gonna get discouraged. We're not gonna be conformed to His image. There's not gonna be more of Christ seen in your life and mine if we lose sight of what's ahead, or if we just try to grin and bear it for the present moment. But if we see it in light of eternity and His purposes, it will be not just for our blessing, yes, but for His glory as well.
In, in, in that Romans 8 chapter, just as an encouragement to maybe some of us that are younger who, who, umm, hear these truths of our inheritance and, and, and sometimes we feel as though we really can't lay hold or grasp these things. I just wanna bring a, a verse. Uh, it's, it's verse, umm, 16. And I may be taking it just a little bit out of context, but I want to encourage us as to how.
These uh, these truths and blessings become a reality to our soul. It says the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit.
God has equipped us with the Spirit of God, indwelling us to communicate to our hearts and our understanding and our and our enjoyment the truths that we've been enjoying today. Without the Spirit of God, we wouldn't, we wouldn't be able to enter into any of it. But we do have the Spirit of God and he does have the ability to make our inheritance a reality to our soul to help us to be able to enjoy the future in light of the present.
And make decisions based upon the future as to how we go on in the present. And so we are totally dependent upon the power of the Spirit of God in our lives to make these things a reality.
And so that just causes us to realize how important it is that the Spirit of God has liberty in our souls, has liberty in our lives as the Spirit of not God is not grieved. And so as as young people, we.
We, we want to, as all of us, we want to be careful that this, the Spirit of God has the ability to bear witness with our spirit. That means help us to understand the reality of these truths. And so I just want to share that as a practical way in which these truths become reality to us and they are enjoyed in the heart.
The thing I.
Like to mention in connection with.
Brother Don brought up in Psalm 2.
Where it says.
Today I have begotten thee.
And that same scripture is mentioned again in Acts 13 and in Hebrews 5 twice.
We have to watch that we know that nothing is perverted in Scripture because we know that everything has been given of God to the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus owns everything and yet when we have at.
Like with the young people, young people I mentioned often today when we have many of the young people buying this NIV translation, it says today I have become your father. Now that's a perversion of Scripture, because when did the Lord?
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When did the Lord Jesus or when did God become the Father of the Lord Jesus?
From eternity back, the Lord Jesus who was with God is with God. Now. How can anybody dare to to translate this three times in the script, four times actually in the Scripture, and make it today I have become your Father. That's a perversion. We should never read something like that and we should never keep anything like that in our libraries.
Gotten the is referring to his incarnation.
Simply means when he became a man into this world. That's what's referred to there in the New Testament when it says this day have I begotten thee As Brother Eckert said, he was the Son of God from all eternity.
Going back to our chapter, I'd like to go on to verse 5.
And we've.
Could spend the rest of the weekend I suppose in one verse, but going on to verse five it says who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
What Peter's saying to the Saints there and to us is OK.
You're on a journey.
But it's a very dangerous one.
There are many things that are hindrances to.
Successfully completely getting to the end.
Of it, it's comparable in scriptural sense to the children of Israel. There were millions of them that left Egypt.
But how many of them entered the land of Canaan?
It was a very dangerous journey. It was one of many years and.
There will be many of them that will be in heaven without any question that didn't make it to the end of that particular journey.
In this particular book, the word salvation does not have the common. The word salvation has a very broad meeting in Scripture, and it's very important to understand how it's used in its context. We often say, well, I'm saved. Well, that means something very important to us. It means we're not going to hell. It means that our sins have been paid for and that.
And so on. But with Peter, and in other places as well, the sense of salvation is he looked at the journey and he says you can't say you're completely saved until you're all the way home.
To the other end. And so salvation is that here which is looked at at the end of the pathway of this journey. And in doing so, he's says to them.
1St as Jim already mentioned, the inheritance is put before them to encourage them, if you will, to step out the door and start down the road.
But in the fifth verse, there are two things that are particularly.
Made kept. What's gonna keep them? What's gonna keep you? What's gonna keep me to the end of the path of faith, It says here, kept by the power of God through faith.
You don't wanna leave either one of those two things out of it.
It doesn't say just kept by the power of God. It doesn't just say kept by faith. The two are very important in the way they're linked. Were kept by the power of God. God has every resource at his disposal and will use it.
To see that you successfully.
Yeah, all the way to the inheritance, to heaven and all that goes along with it.
But then Peter immediately links it with faith.
Because there will be those who start out on that journey who never make it.
Because they do not have faith.
And without faith it's impossible to please God. There were many Israelites who left Egypt who never made Canaan because there was not faith in them. And God keeps the soul.
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Where there is faith.
Faith is the very first, and that's why the verses which follow verse seven, your faith being much more precious than gold. Faith is something that is absolutely precious, more precious than gold.
It's the link with God, and without it there's no link with God. And that it's no pride in faith if it's true faith. Because the very nature of faith is trust. Not in self, but trust in someone else. The one that deserves the honor where there's faith is the one that's trusted.
And so God is honored by faith, because true faith isn't in self, it's in God.
It's in the Lord Jesus, and yet it's an essential, precious thing, and by its very nature of honor to God, the original fall of man.
Came because of unbelief, because he did not have faith, and he dishonored God. And everything that God has done since that point in time is that which would encourage man to restore to man his relationship with God.
On that ground of faith. And so he says here you're going on this journey. It's a dangerous one. You can't even see the end of the road, if you will. The salvation at the end is, is yet to be fully seen to your soul. So you go down the road in faith, you know where it is, but you also have to go up and down the mountains, through the valleys and so on. And so the end of the road is not in that sense fully revealed to you.
But you're kept by the power of God through faith.
But I believe that in a certain general sense, this was what John Bunyan was trying to write about.
Uh, Pilgrim's Progress, his doctrine isn't perfect, but his general sense was that sense of taking that journey to the Celestial City and he was brings out all the things that tended to stop Christian from keeping going, turning aside to the this city and to see that and the other thing, and there's a lot of practical things there for our own souls because.
We, like Christian, are so easily distracted and the moment the thoughts connected with this world.
Enter the saw.
It dims in the soul the enjoyment of the inheritance.
Say that again. The moment anything of this world gets an attraction to the heart, it dims in the soul the value placed on the inheritance, and increases to the soul a sense of joy for just this world. And the man of the world has absolutely no thought, no heart, no desire for anything that goes beyond this life and this world. And yet everything for us lies beyond. And so it's a constant daily, not just once.
The character of faith here isn't just that faith which puts its trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
As Savior, it takes into it the sense of the exercise of faith in daily life, all the way home, every single moment of every single day. It's necessary to exercise. And that's why the faith is so precious, so valuable, because it's something that's so easily to fail in.
169.