Your Inheritance, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Jesus shared the parable of a man who, after finding a treasure in a field, sold all that he had to buy the field. Christ is the great treasure our hearts long for. When we realize the inheritance we have in him, we loosen our grip on everything else. He's our highest good and our deepest satisfaction. Let's look at 1 Peter 1, 3-5 as Rich shares the message titled, Your Inheritance. You're listening to the second part of this message titled, Your Inheritance, first preached July 17, 2022. We studied the book of Job here.

Remember what happened to him? Satan goes before the Lord God Almighty and he says, and the Lord says, have you considered my servant Job? Because the Lord knew what Satan was up to. And he says, listen, it's not that you're worthy, it's that you're bribing your people for their worship. Only because you give them stuff, do they love and praise you and adore you.

Man, I hope that's not true of us loved ones. And then the Lord says, have you considered my servant Job? And Job's like, the Lord is the one who brought Job up, not Satan.

Think about that. Job gets everything taken away from him, everything. His whole family, except his wife, all of his children, all of his possessions gone.

And then in the next round, his health is just absolutely shattered. Do you remember Job's response? Say it with me. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's core strength right there. And I think we would find that true of all the admired characters of scripture.

They had a core strength like that. David Helms said this, when you bless God in Christ, you come home. When you bless God in Christ, you come home.

That's the way to deal with this homesickness that we feel in this reality, in this world. Why do we bless God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? It says in verse three, according to His great mercy, He's caused us to be born again to a living hope. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

Who's doing all the work there? God is. He has caused us to be born again to live.

Listen, here's what we get from this. He didn't have to do that. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He didn't have to, but it's who He is.

He did not have to, but it's who He is. He is absolutely worthy of our adoration and our worship because that's who He is. The branch that severed itself from the tree, lying on the ground, dying, withering because it is alienated from the source of life. God is the one who picks up the branch and grafts it back into the source of life so that that branch can flourish. Blessed be God. He says, according to His great mercy, He's caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. A living hope.

Let's look at that for just a minute. Two points I want to make here. What is the basis of our hope? The basis of our hope is alive. That's what He's talking about, a living hope.

The basis for our hope is alive. Peter said, I saw Him. I saw the empty tomb. I saw Him. I ate with Him. I walked with Him.

I talked with Him. He's alive. And Peter was willing to give his life for that truth.

That's how confident he was. The basis for our hope is alive. John said it this way at the beginning of his letter. He says, that which we have seen, which we have heard, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. The basis for our hope is alive. The basis for our hope is not a creed, it's not a concept. The basis for our hope is a living person who was and is and is to come. But our living hope also for us is our confident expectation that we will be fully alive. You are not fully alive right now. You are so limited. And the farther along we go, the more we feel that limitation, right? Thank you, Brad, for affirming that.

He's one of the few honest men in this room. It's so true though. Our confident expectation is that we will be fully alive and God's glory is manfully alive.

Jesus said, because I live, you also will live. Here's the point of all of this that Peter is making as he's writing to these people who are suffering, who are experiencing slander and reviling. They are canceled by their culture.

They are pushed to the margins. Some of them are fearful of losing their homes. Some of them may have already lost their homes. And what he is telling them is this, is what you know about your future impacts how you engage the present. So know this about your future. This is your inheritance.

Here's what you have in Christ. This is where your hope is anchored. Because what you know about the future impacts how you engage the present. Notice I didn't say just experience because we're not people that just sit here and stuff happens to us. We're here to engage the present and what we know about our future impacts how we engage our present.

Edmund Clowney, I think, said it well. He says, a hope that holds the future in the present. Ours is a hope that holds the future in the present because it is anchored in the past. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is an actual event that happened in history. Jesus walked out of the grave.

He's alive. And therefore, we can have confidence in this inheritance that God has for us. And he begins by listing attributes of this inheritance in verse four, an inheritance that is imperishable and defiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

Let's talk about those four very quickly. Number one, it is imperishable. In other words, it cannot be lost or let go. As in contradistinction to people's heritage here in the earth, I mean, land was a very important thing and many Christians had probably lost their homes or they could be living in fear that at any moment, they're going to lose their homes.

Today, we have brothers and Christians around the world who wake up every day wondering if by the end of the day, they're still gonna be living in the same home or are people gonna come and drive them out of their homes and burn them? But no, our inheritance is imperishable. It cannot be lost. It cannot be let go.

There is a security there. He's speaking of the security of our inheritance. Eternally secure. Secondly, it's undefiled. Can't be messed up.

It's perfect. He's speaking of the purity of our inheritance. And when I get there, even I'm not gonna mess it up. Because I'm new in Christ, I have His righteousness. And my glory that I will experience is that I will be forever like with Christ and perfectly like Him.

Oh man, can't wait. Undefiled, imperishable, undefiled and unfading. Not only can I not mess it up, but nobody else can mess it up either. That's part of undefiled. And then unfading. He's speaking here of the longevity of our inheritance. Unfading, it's unending.

It won't pass off the scene. Everything we see in this world here and now, all of it, all of it will go away with the exception of you and me. But even we will have new bodies. And what a fine specimen of humanity you will be. Unfading, it's unending.

It won't pass off the scene. It won't grow old. Listen, it won't become familiar to you so that it becomes ho-hum. Our experience in eternity with God will be an experience of perpetual novelty.

How delightful is that? Here's the fourth truth about it that He teaches us. Verse 4, kept in heaven for you. He says at the end of verse 5, a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. It's ready and it's being kept for us.

When Jesus was talking with His disciples, what did He say? It's, I'm going to have to go away. It's necessary that it's important that I go away.

It's better for you that I go away. He says, I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you will be also.

See, that's the point. It's not about the place, it's about who we're with. That's what makes heaven, heaven. But this place that He's preparing for us, it's ready and it's ready to be revealed.

So Peter says. Now let's talk for a moment about identifying this inheritance that is ours. Let me begin with a few questions. What were you made for? What were you made for?

Can you answer that question? What were you made for? Second question, what is your highest good and your deepest satisfaction?

Let me think about that for a minute. Colossians, all things were created by and for. You see, the answer to these questions is not a what, but a who. You were not made for a particular what. You were made for a who. You were made by God for God, which means that only in God will you find your highest good and your deepest satisfaction.

That's your inheritance. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace, weekdays at 10 a.m.