Prepare an apostle of Jesus Christ for the
strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
Lithuania.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, and obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,
grace unto you and peace be multiplied.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant
mercy hath begotten us again unto a living
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and that faith is not a way reserved
in heaven for you, but kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation, ready
to be revealed in the last time.
Now, Peter here says that these strangers, these
believers who were scattered about, were elect and
begotten.
And the electing and the begetting are means
up unto a hope and an inheritance.
They lead into a hope and an inheritance.
We would be better Christians and wiser students
if we would remember this, that God rarely
uses periods.
We might speak in the language of a
stenographer or an editor.
I might say that God rarely uses periods.
Almost always they are colons or atmosemicals.
There rarely is a full stop.
Usually God will put down a full stop.
Rarely though.
Mostly everything God does becomes a means toward
something else that he's planning to do.
So when God elects a man, that doesn't
mean that that man is to sit down
calmly and say, I have arrived.
For the election is unto a begetting.
And when a man is begotten of the
Spirit and becomes a Christian, it is not
to be said, now I have arrived.
Put a period there, right finest across the
bottom of the page.
For that also is not true.
God begets us unto and up into.
And that which is before us is always
greater than that which is behind us.
Now he says that we are begotten unto
a hope and an inheritance.
Last week I talked about the hope.
This week briefly I want to talk about
the inheritance.
Now the begotten one is a beneficiary of
God.
And I want to stop and say, at
the expense of good culture, but to the
point then that we might get the facts
straight, that this is not a figure of
speech.
When I say that the begotten one, the
true Christian, is a beneficiary of God, I
am not using poetry.
This is not a figure, nor is this
verse an isolated reference.
This truth is openly taught from Matthew to
Revelation, more than that.
It's openly taught from Genesis to Revelation, that
the true believer is a beneficiary of God.
That is, he stands to benefit.
God being who he is, God's beneficences, his
benefits, are infinite and limitless.
Now when we benefit from another, we benefit
from our parents.
Our parents can give us certain physical and
mental inheritances.
We get what we get.
They can't give us what they don't have.
When we get what we get, we've gotten
that.
Then, in a sorted and earthly way, sometimes
our parents also are able to leave us
an inheritance.
I mean it's sorted and earthly when we
introduce it into this holy place.
Able to leave us an inheritance, a legacy.
And that's perfectly proper and right, and even
scriptural, that they should if they can.
And that also has a limit.
Even a Rockefeller can inherit from his father
only what his father had, not anymore.
Even a J.P. Morgan, if he had
any children, could leave them only what he
had.
Your parents can leave you only what they
have.
My father used to drive along the way
and point to great areas of land and
say, I had hope before I died.
But I could have that and could leave
it to you.
He never left us anything.
He signed a quick claim deed for one
little piece of property.
I did, gladly, joyously, quickly, and sent an
airmail special back so they'd get it.
I didn't want anything they could leave me.
But our parents can leave us something, but
it's always limited.
But God being who he is, the inheritance
we receive from God is always limitless.
The word infinite means limitless.
We could help ourselves a lot if we
could remember that.
That when a preacher or a hymn or
something talks about infinitude or infinite, they always
mean that which is limited or limited.
And when we say that the inheritance we
receive must be equal to the God who
gives it, because God does not deal in
things that are merely finite.
God always touches with infinitude everything that he
touches, so that the inheritance which the child
of God receives is limitless and infinite.
For that reason, it is very hard to
write a hymn that can state the facts,
all the facts.
They can only sketch it.
They can only gather seashells on the shore
of the vast ocean that stretches away there,
with island upon island, all belonging to God
in redemption, or to his people in redemption,
coming from him.
So it is always well to remember that
when your highest flights of imagination have winged
their way upward, you can be sure you
have never quite reached as high as it
goes, because always your imagination's pauser runs out
of energy and falls weakly to the ground.
But the limitless, infinite benefactions of God Almighty
to his redeemed ones have no limit to
them.
Now, the Christian receives, or stands to receive,
riches for all parts of his being.
We are mental and physical and moral and
spiritual, and I suppose we say social.
We are all these.
Some Christians don't like the word social, because
they think it means going to church and
eating out of a box.
Church social.
But we are social.
We do have relationships.
We have a relationship to the neighbor next
door.
We have a relationship to our precinct.
We have a relationship to our state, to
our country, and, in a larger way, to
the whole world.
So the Christian does have a social relationship.
And I have always insisted, though the editors
have tried to plow around this one, I've
always insisted that Barnard knew what he was
writing about when he said, I know not,
oh, I know not what social joys are
there, what radiancy of joy, what joy beyond
compare, writing about heaven.
He says there are social joys in heaven,
and that is perfectly true.
So man does have a social relationship.
But he has a spiritual life and a
moral life and a mental life and a
physical life.
He may also have hidden parts or facets
to his life that are not thus classified.
But we are more than a mental being.
We are more than a physical being, thank
God.
We are more than a moral being, though
morality touches all the rest of our being,
or should.
And we are more than a spiritual being.
Though we were not spiritual beings, we would
not be better much than them.
So we have the spiritual and the moral
and the mental and the physical, plus the
social, seeing that there are others beside ourselves.
Now we receive, or stand to receive, infinite
amounts of riches given to all of these
parts of our nature.
A Christian, I said last week, can die.
A Christian can die.
Also, a Christian can get old.
A sinner shouldn't.
A sinner has no right to.
There's no ground for it, no moral right.
No sinner has any right to get old.
Because the older he gets, the nearer he
gets to the grave and judgment and hell.
But a Christian can afford to get old,
he can afford to get sick, he can
afford to die.
Because all that's happening is his physical body
is receiving a certain breakdown.
But God has made provision for that physical
body.
And he's made provision for the mental life
and the moral life and the spiritual life.
And I say that the amount of this
is unsearchable.
That's a good word.
You know, it was Parent Darrell that said
when a Christian didn't know what to call
it, and I think he had something there
all right.
He meant it in a nasty way, but
I take it in a nice, friendly way.
Because the Christian runs into mystery almost everywhere
he looks.
The difference between him and the world is
that the world is always running into mystery,
but they call it science or something, where
we have, frankly, admit we don't know what
it is.
So, there's mystery everywhere.
But that word unsearchable is a good word.
I don't know what it means.
But we talk about the unsearchable riches of
Christ.
Riches, I suppose, that cannot be counted, that
cannot be searched into, that have so many
glorious ramifications and endless qualities about them that
they cannot be searched into nor searched out.
They are the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And because God is who he is, and
the Christian stands in the relationships as he
does, therefore the Christian receives or stands to
receive these unsearchable riches.
Now, God's benefactors are dispensed in three ways.
You might take this down.
I don't know whether anybody ever does or
not.
But you might take this thought down because
I think it would do you some good
when you think and pray and when you
read your Bible.
God dispenses to his believing children, his benefaction,
his unsearchable riches, in three different ways, three
that I know of.
Maybe there are ways I don't know about,
but three plain ones that even I can
find.
They are by direct, present bestowment.
There are some things that God gives directly
now, in this present age, while we're still
on our feet, still alive, still conscious, still
here in this veil of tears and laughter.
By direct, present bestowment, God gives, for instance,
forgiveness.
He bestows forgiveness upon a believing child.
He gives life to his believing children.
Life is a present bestowment.
It is not an inheritance to be received
sometime in the future.
It is now a present gift which we
have.
Half eternal life is in the past tense.
He has it, he has it the moment
he lives.
Then God gives us sonship also.
And we become sons.
We are sons of God.
And there are many other gifts which God
now bestows upon his children.
Either we have these or we are not
God's children.
And if we are God's children, then we
do have these.
And also there are countless little gifts, made
too much of, I think, by God's people,
maybe.
Countless little gifts.
We ask God to help us to give
us this or do something for us or
send us that, and the Lord mercifully does
it.
And we make a great deal of it.
But mostly those are trifling things and passions.
But the great, lasting gifts of forgiveness, eternal
life and sonship and reinstatement in favor with
God, these are the lasting gifts.
But the other kinds, where God sends bread
when you're hungry and gives you...
Those are valuable and they're not to be
made light of, for anything that comes down
from God is good.
But they're certainly not as important as the
others that we have mentioned.
So there are some gifts that you can
now receive.
Then God has a second way of dispensing
his blessing, and that is by giving it
as a reward for true service.
This is too well known and too often
taught for me to go into as much
this morning.
But the Bible is full of that.
But the riches of God come in the
nature of a reward.
It all belongs to God and there is
no sense in which we can earn it.
We talk about earning a reward, and I
guess the word does occur there.
But really, earning is not the word to
use.
It's meeting a condition whereby and under which
God can bestow blessing as a reward for
meeting that condition.
He said that, blessed are you because you
have been faithful in a few things.
I will therefore make thee rule over others.
And other places in the Bible he talks
about the reward that he will give.
Be thou faithful unto death and I will
give thee a crown that God bestows as
a result of faithful, loyal service.
And they come in the future.
They are not yet to be received.
Then there is that which especially we would
note this morning, the benefactions that come to
us by inheritance.
That is, they are also not to be
received yet.
But also they are not the result of
anything we do, any faithfulness that we may
have or show.
They are the result of a relationship coming
from one who possesses to another whom the
one who possesses delights to honor and who
can establish his rightful claims.
That's why we have courts and that's why
we have wills and that's why they probate
wills because we must establish our right to
an inheritance.
An inheritance, I say, comes from one to
another who has maintained a certain relationship, proper
relationship toward the one who has.
The one who has gives to the one
who has not.
And the one who has not receives from
the one who has by virtue of a
relationship which can be established and a rightful
claim which can be proved.
Now I repeat that that is not earned
at present.
A boy may be very much of an
ingrate and yet may easily prove his right
to an inheritance because the father delighted to
honor him and made him his sole heir.
And he has written a will and it's
on record that when he dies it's only
a matter of going before the proper authorities
and proving the right to that inheritance.
It's the right resulting from a relationship, not
the result of goodness necessary.
So there is an inheritance which belongs to
the children of God by virtue of the
fact that they are children of God.
And I want you to note how upside
down and backwards earthly things are.
Among men a legacy comes upon the death
of the testator, the death of the one
who gives the legacy.
But among the things of God and with
God the legacy comes upon the death of
the legacy that is the person who inherits.
That's all confused enough, without my confusing it
anymore, but let me soften back off here
and put it like this.
That a man has a son, an only
son.
He makes that son of his, the wife
we'll say being dead, he makes that son
of his sole heir.
He makes a will giving everything he has
to that son.
But as long as the father lives, the
will is not in operation.
Then one day the father dies.
After no proper mourning time in the funeral,
the son goes before this or his and
proves that he is the one who received
and he gets because the father has died
and the will has become operated by a
dead.
Now it's exactly the other way around in
the kingdom of God.
The father gives an inheritance to his children.
But that inheritance does not come upon the
death of God but upon the death of
the children.
Or the coming of Christ which adds up
to the same.
Paul knew about it and expected it.
He expected his reward and wrote about it.
He also wrote about the inheritance.
He talked about being co-heirs with Christ.
So God does not die, though we sing
when God the mighty maker dies for man,
but when the creature of sin in the
book of Hebrews does turn this around and
make an illustration out of it there.
But as we're looking at it this morning,
the inheritance the Christian receives, he receives only
by dying.
So I said not only can a Christian
die, but if we were as spiritual as
we ought to be, we might look forward
with a lot of pleasure to death.
And yet if we are believers in the
second advent of the Savior, we'll be looking
for that second advent.
Common sense, and the perspective of history, and
the testimony of the saints, and reason, and
the Bible, all agree with one voice to
say, he may come before you die.
But it's nevertheless appointed unto man wants to
die.
So it's entirely possible that the Christian may
die before the Lord comes.
If he does, he cannot only afford to,
he's better off for being so.
Paul said, it's far better that I go
to be with the Lord.
That's far better.
There's a difference between being down here and
being up there.
There's a difference between being good and far
better.
Concluding.
A Christian's future is before him.
I'll give you time to smile about that
one.
Say, there's a bromide, self-evident, cliche if
ever one was uttered.
A Christian's future is before him.
And I assure you that is not a
self-evident banality.
It is rather a truth that we had
better ponder, because for many Christians their future
is, their glory is behind them.
The only future they have is their past.
They're always lingering beside yesterday's burnt-out campus.
Their testimonies indicate it, their outlook indicates it,
their uplook indicates it, and their downcast look
indicates it.
And above all, their backward look indicates it.
I always get an uneasy feeling when I
get around a group of people who are
discussing the glories of the day that has
passed.
I always sense a burnt-out campfire, the
ashes of a day that once was and
is no more.
A Christian's future is before him, and we
ought to keep that in mind.
Not behind him, but before him.
The whole direction of the Christian look is
forward.
Paul looked back a few times, briefly.
It is perfectly proper that we should occasionally
feel a quick, happy look back to see
where we've been and to remind ourselves of
the goodness of God.
But the soul of Paul was never set
looking back.
The soul of Paul was always facing forward.
Now there's a little word, S-P-E
-C-T, and it has different forms, but
there's your word.
And it comes from the Latin meaning to
see or to look.
And that little word, S-P-E-C
-T, in common English, has two prefixes in
front of it.
And your Christian life, the richness of it,
the usefulness of it, the fruitfulness of it,
will depend upon which prefix you attach to
that word.
Speck, meaning see.
We get it when we say our speck
tickles.
Nobody does anymore, but they used to.
And now there are such words.
But the word see, see, see all we
see.
Circumspect, look around, all around you.
But there are two prefixes that I want
to mention.
You have one or you have the other
clinging or hanging to your soul.
There are one word, retro, meaning back.
And P-R-O, pro, meaning forward.
Every town has its prospect.
I have a new one.
What does prospect mean?
It means a forward outlook.
And what does retrospect mean?
It means turning clear around and gazing the
other way.
Retrospect means standing at salute and looking at
the setting sun.
That's retrospect.
But speck, you must do, brothers.
You're looking somewhere.
Even if you're blind, you're looking somewhere.
Your soul's got to look somewhere.
You can't escape that any more than you
can escape breathing, any more than you can
escape thinking.
I heard of the man who said that
he knew that he could stop thinking.
They argued with him and judged him, told
him he couldn't.
He said, I can't.
So he said, I know what I'm going
to do.
I'm going up here and sit down on
this rock, and I am determined I'm not
going to think of an elephant.
There he sat on the rock.
You know what he was thinking about all
the time?
He couldn't help it.
Pachyderms and plenty of them.
You can't stop thinking and you can't stop
looking.
Your soul is facing some direction as a
Christian.
The Bible says, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith.
Lot's wife looked back.
I believe it's historically true, but I believe
it is more than history.
I believe that it is a brilliant object
lesson.
She looked the wrong way.
And because she looked back, she turned to
Saul.
So you are either retrospective or prospective in
your outlook.
You're either looking back or you're looking forward.
And your future will depend a great deal
upon which way you look.
I mean your future down here and perhaps
even your future in the world to come.
Let us put the word retro aside.
Let us think of the past only when
we have to.
Paul says, forgetting the things that are where?
Behind.
I press forward.
There was his attitude.
Occasionally, two or three times when he had
it to do, he stood and pointed back
and told of his conversion.
That's legitimate.
You never get fixed in that direction.
Never.
Never get a sore neck from looking over
your own shoulder.
Never.
Always look forward.
Satchel Paige, the great Negro pitcher, said he
never believed in looking back because he said
there was always going to be something behind
you.
So he always looked forward.
Maybe that's why he's still pitching league baseball
when he's nearly 50.
Because he has had the simple little philosophy
of never looking back to wonder what that
is breathing on your neck.
Go ahead.
God will take care of the fellow behind
you.
Prospect is the word for you and me.
Forward is the word.
Look ahead.
Expect something.
For the Christian's future is more glorious than
his past.
One moment of the Christian's tomorrow will be
more wonderful than all of the glories of
his yesterday.
Assumably he'll live 969 years on earth.
Yet if he died, then I think he
did die and go to be with God.
One hour with God was more wonderful to
him than 969 years living on the earth.
I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house
of my God.
For one day in thy courts is better
than a thousand outside thy courts.
So let us Christians look forward.
Look forward with expectation and hope because we
are begotten again unto an inheritance.
And that inheritance comes from God our Father.
It is ours by virtue of our relationship.
There are other things that are to be
rewarded.
Some things that are present gifts.
But the inheritance is ours because we're the
children of God.
Therefore cheer up and believe and hope and
look forward.
For the most eloquent tongue or the most
exquisite poetry could never adequately paint for us
the glories that are ours by the inheritance,
by virtue of our friendship with God and
our relation to Jesus Christ.
Father, we pray thy blessing upon the truth.
Pray thy blessing upon this service that follows.
Let us, we pray thee, think on heavenly
riches, the blood that was shed, but the
blood that is still shed, the blood that
is now on the altar, the sacrifice, the
priest, the lamb, and all that is now
ours till he comes and opens before us
all the riches of his will to show
us our inheritance.
It is ours in Christ's name.
Graciously bless us as we wait upon thee.
We ask it in Christ's name.
Amen.