Your Inheritance, Part 3

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 through 5 as Rich shares the message titled, Your Inheritance.

You're listening to the third part of this message titled, Your Inheritance, first preached on July 17th, 2022. God has done the work in Jesus Christ. God was in Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.

Why? Because it is our trespasses that separate us from God. God's not happy with that separation. And so what has he done? He has done all the work necessary in Christ to reconcile us to himself. Because he is our highest good and our deepest satisfaction. He is our inheritance. And so our hope is this, the blessed hope that people talk about. Our hope is when the Lord Jesus says, Paul says, so shall we ever be what?

With the Lord. He doesn't say so shall we ever be walking on streets of gold. That means nothing. You're not going to care.

That's why you're going to be walking on the stuff. John 14, 3, if I go and prepare a place to you, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am, there you also may be. Psalm 73, 26. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. My portion forever.

Hang on to that term. Lamentations 3, 24. The Lord is my portion, says my soul.

Therefore, I will hope in him. And you know, here's something Elise tackles in her book about home. And Randy does too, Randy Alcorn. But you know, we have this idea since we were kids. We think of heaven, you know, that we're all going to be up there living on these clouds, fluttering around with these tiny little wings on our back and holding harps and stringing, you know, these little harps. I am so glad that that's not heaven. I had a man who was a part of this fellowship at one time and he says, you know, when we get to heaven the whole time, we're just going to be worshiping. And he's like, ugh, because he equates worship with just singing songs.

He did not like songs. He will then, but. No, it's not just, listen, God is making a new heaven and a new earth. He's making a new heaven and a new earth. So the new earth that we're going to experience is going to be very similar to like what Adam and Eve had at the beginning. They began in a garden. Only when everything is said and done, this garden will have hundreds of millions of people in it.

All of them redeemed. Like Jesus Christ. What a blessed time that that will be. He's making a new heaven and a new earth and God's dwelling will be with man. And as Revelation says, we shall see his face. Just contemplate that for a moment.

We shall see his face. That's what makes heaven heaven. So let's identify this inheritance here. Psalm 16 says it well, Psalm 16 verses five and six, the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot.

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. Look at all the words that are used in there because land and property and inheritance, all that major themes of the Old Testament. And who is it for us? And the psalmist knew this. It is the Lord. He himself, the very person of God, is my inheritance. Remember the story of the prodigal son?

It didn't matter when he was sick and tired of being sick and tired. He just wanted to go where? Home. Why? Who's at home?

Dad is there. Even if I have to be a servant, I'm going there. Psalm 16 at the very end, verse 11, it says in your presence when he confesses here that the Lord is my chosen. This, by the way, is a messianic psalm, okay? So, you're looking right into the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, your Messiah.

But this is for us, too. Because in Christ, we have his heart and this is the longing of our heart as it is for Jesus Christ. And in verse 11, the concluding verse of Psalm 16, it says in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures evermore. The perpetual novelty that I spoke of earlier, discovering the perfect ways of God. It will take us forever to learn how God did things. I mean, we're fascinated by the photos that have come back from the James Webb's telescope, right? Just mind-blowing, the immensity of it all, the beauty of it all. It's going to take us forever to be learning the ways of God. The unending satisfaction enjoying the awesome presence of God. Man fully alive in creativity, in relationship, in worship. Yes, we are going to be worshiping.

You know what's interesting? Elise points this out in her book. You know, Adam and Eve, it's never recorded that they worshiped in the Garden of Eden before the fall.

Do you know why? Because everything they did was worship. And that's how it will be for us in eternity. Every thought, every activity anchored in the delight of God, that's worship. You know what? We don't have to wait to eternity to start practicing that.

That's what we're called to here. That's why Peter is writing this. There's nothing close to that here under the sun, what we're going to experience in eternity. But this is what's ready and is being kept for us right now. And he says this, he says in verse 5, this is so key. Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. God's ready to reveal it. It's being kept for us. But then in verse 5 it says, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation. That's us.

By God's power being guarded. This is our inheritance. This is what is in store for us. Let me make a striking statement here, okay?

You ready for this? You won't make it by hanging on. You won't make it by hanging on. I despise Christian songs that talk about us hanging on. It's just another way of confessing self-righteousness. By God's power we are being guarded through faith. Hanging on is either self-righteousness or you're trusting your own faith. That's an insufficient object of trust. You see that doesn't work with Christ.

Here's something you need to remember. The most important matter of faith is its object. The most important matter of faith is its object. We have a tendency to want to measure faith. Well, how much faith do you have? You know what's much more important than that? Is what are you trusting? What is your faith in?

Let me give you an example of that. About seven years ago I was in India and I was visiting Jacob and Prashanti Gidala. Remember Jacob being here? And in his church he goes in and they support lots of other churches in little villages. Tiny little churches and meet in little rooms. Everybody's out there sitting on the floor on these mats, right? And there's a platform up there and they have these little plastic, like plastic patio chairs.

And there was one, they had one up there on the back of the platform for me to sit in while waiting for my turn to get up and bring the Word of God to the people in that little Indian church. I looked at that chair and I thought, hmm, it's been sat in a lot. So I sat down in it and we are there and the people are singing, you know, they're sitting and they're listening to announcements and all of a sudden I feel something give and I'm leaning back like this. And I, long story short, I end up with my tail end on the floor. This chair had completely collapsed underneath me. Okay? And I didn't weigh any more then than I do now.

Okay, so that's not the issue. The chair was absolutely untrustworthy. And yet I had committed myself to it. It was an unworthy object of trust.

It failed me. That's the important matter of faith. What are you trusting? Are you trusting your faith? Not good enough. Are you trusting yourself, right? Are you trusting your good works? Not good enough.

Can't be. Because if they were good enough, Jesus didn't have to die. But he did.

It matters not how great your level of trust is if your object of trust is insufficient. And then the father of the young man in Mark chapter nine, he says, help my unbelief. I believe, help my unbelief. What is he saying there? He is asking Jesus to show every reason why he is the one that is worthy of trust.

He does believe Jesus. But there's another part to that. He's saying remove everything else that is an unworthy object of trust so that I trust nothing but you alone. That's what is meant by help my unbelief. Because you and I have other factories pumping in our chests.

We want to trust something that we can see and manipulate. We're idolaters. And we need to be rescued from that idolatry. Help my unbelief. Father, work in our hearts this morning that we indeed will be your people, a people of hope.

People who live as people who are free, free to engage the present in ways that glorify you and leave the unbelieving world just baffled. 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.