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Welcome to SuccessfulSavior.org,
the ministry of Harmony Primitive Baptist Church in Donaldson,
Arkansas. This is Elder Neal Phelan Jr.
preaching in our regular Sunday morning service. Hope you'll
pray for me this morning as I stand before you. I wanted to sing
that song, How Happy is Every Heir of Grace, because we are
the heirs of God's grace. God has made out a will. and
we are contained in it. And this morning, I want to talk
to you about the inheritance of God's children, the elect
family of God. Now, when we read the Bible,
you may have had difficulties reading and understanding the
scriptures. And if we don't understand that God's word is a will, a
last will and testament, then we're going to have trouble understanding
the Bible. If we're reading the Bible and
we're trying to read the Bible as a book that's given to us
that we can learn how to get to heaven, then it's not gonna
make any sense. The only way that would make
any sense is if we changed the meaning of some of the Bible,
which we know some people have done. But the Bible is a declaration
of God's eternal will, what he's left to his people. The Old Testament
or the Old Covenant is a testament. of God's will for Israel. That
was a covenant in our Testament based upon works and that covenant
is over with. The New Testament is a Testament
or a covenant that's given to God's elect family, his chosen
people, those born after his spirit. And that covenant has
been ratified and it is sure and what's contained in that
covenant is going to be received by every heir of promise. So as we read the book, we need
to know what it's about. Be like if you got a history
book and you're trying to learn something about math and you're
reading the history book and you're saying, you know, I don't
get anything out of this book about how to add and subtract
because that book's not about that. Or if you were to get,
you know, the other book and you're trying to learn math,
you know, it's not in there. I don't know about you, but I've
read several chapters of a book and took me a long time to figure
out what the book was all about. But now if we understand what
this book's about, then we're going to gain a great deal of
understanding about our inheritance and what the Lord has left for
his people. So I'm just gonna give you one
scripture to start out with, but there's multitudes of scriptures
that talk about the inheritance of God's people. When I began
to study this this week, the subject became so large that
I realized there's no way that I'm going to get to all of the
scriptures that talk about our inheritance or refer to it in
some way. So what you're gonna hear this
morning is a little topographical thing about your inheritance
because God's whole Bible is about our inheritance. So I'll
give you Ephesians 1 and 11 here this morning. And if you want
to read the first chapter of Ephesians, it has a lot to do
with your inheritance. And I would think if you're one
of God's people, you're going to be pretty interested in your
inheritance, aren't you? From your parents, you're pretty
interested in that. So I'm thinking if we're looking
at God's inheritance and we're His children, then we ought to
be pretty interested in God's inheritance. Ephesians 1 and
11. in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who work with all things after
the counsel of his own will. Now, an inheritance is a wonderful
thing, isn't it? You know, children receive something
from a loving father that they did not have to work for. It's
given to them freely by His love, by His own sovereignty. He wrote
it. He put in there the ones that are going to receive something
from Him, and in that will is contained everything that He
wants each person to have. Sometimes parents or fathers
don't have a whole lot to leave to their children. It doesn't
mean If you don't have anything to leave to a child that you're
less of a father than a father that has a gold mine to leave
to their child. Sometimes a father that might
leave a gold mine to somebody isn't worth anything. And a father
that has nothing is a great father. So we're not going to look at
the amount concerning a natural inheritance. how much the father
loves us, but we all understand what an inheritance is and how
we obtain it. Many of you here this morning
have obtained an inheritance and you may have obtained a piece
of land, you may have gotten a gun, you may have gotten a
coin or whatever you received, you received it as a beneficiary
from a loving father who left something for you. And so God's
inheritance is very similar to our inheritance, but yet our
heavenly father is a good father, isn't he? He's a good father
and he's a very wealthy father. And he has a lot of blessings
and benefits that he has left to his people. And we are the
heirs of his grace. Now, let's think about what an
inheritance is legally, because, you know, an inheritance is a
legal contract. And the death of Christ was a
legal contract fulfilled by him upon the cross. Now we have to
look at the cross as something legal that took place that God
was intended for it to happen before we could receive or become
heirs of his grace. So an inheritance is a legal
binding contract and we refer to the contract that places it
in force as a testament. or a last will and testament
you know that's referred to many times a person's last will and
testament so it's also referred to as a a covenant or a contract
and I looked up Webster's dictionary on this and here's what he said
he said in law it is usually it is a will usually a last will
and testament so And every will, you have at least two parties.
You have the testator or the person that testifies what they
want the person or their people who are going to inherit their
estate to receive. And then you have the benefactors
or the people who are going to receive what the testator is
leaving to that person. So the testator testifies. And
the last will and testament is the last known article that the
testator has written out that he wants the people that are
to receive his possessions to receive. And of course, it is
of no force, a will is of no force until the testator dies,
right? I've got a will, Merrill and I have a will, but it's of
no force right now because we're still alive. And so I'm giving
you all of this so that you'll understand some of the terms
in the Bible. When we read about this legal
contract, that is in force, has been in force before the world
began, really. And so the Old Testament is the
old will or the contract that God made with Israel. And it's
over with. They received land of Canaan
and they lost it. That was based upon works. But
this new covenant, the New Testament, the New Testament tells us of
our will and contract of spiritual Israel, God's people, the elect,
the chosen, that he chose before the world began. So I've already
kind of given you when it was ordained or decreed. You know,
we write will sometimes early in our life. And a lot of people
wait to the last minute to write their will. That's not a good
thing to do. If you're gonna write a will, if you've got anything,
you need to at least write something out now, if you've got children,
because you could die in a car wreck or in a plane crash. And
all of us need to have a will. We need to write something out.
Our intent, if you don't, you're gonna maybe have some confusion
in your family. So it must be made before the
death of the testator. So you can't die and then come
back and write your will, right? You better do it before you're
gone So family's getting to some sad circumstances sometimes because
somebody didn't leave a will and one person says well, this
is what I think dad wanted And this another comes along. Well,
this is what I think he wanted and so neither one of them really
know what dad wanted, but dad needs to write out what he wants
and His will so the Lord didn't want his children wondering this
morning what he wanted us to have so he made out his eternal
will Before the world was ever created so that we're not down
here saying well This is what I think God wanted me to have
us to have in heaven or what we're going to have down here
and you know So we got one preacher over here in one church saying
one thing, and basically that's true today. You've got some people
that don't understand that the Bible is a will, and so they're
making out some things. But, you know, the Lord has given
us in very specific terms what He wants us to have. So it was
made before the world began. In Titus 1, if you're taking
notes, verses 2 and 3, it says, "...in hope of eternal life,
which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. Now see, that's part of your
eternal inheritance, which is your eternal life. But hath in
due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed
unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior. So this will was made before
the world began. And in 2 Timothy, here's what
Paul writes to Timothy. who have saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given in Christ Jesus before
the world began. And, of course, in Ephesians,
if you want to go back to the book of Ephesians before verse
11, and sometimes I give out too many Scriptures to prove
something. I know I do that. But the reason I do that is because
in case somebody is listening to a sermon and they're thinking,
well, you just took that Scripture out of context, I like to give
plenty of Scriptures to let everybody know the validity of where I'm
coming from. This is not my opinion. It's
God's opinion. Ephesians 1 and 4, according
as He has chosen us in Him, When? Before the foundation of the
world. So you were made a benefactor of God's will before the foundation
of the world. So let me ask you, what do you
have to do with it anyway? Nothing. You have nothing to
do with God's eternal will, what he left to you, and what you're
going to receive. Now you may live your whole life
down here, And you may never know what you have. That's a
sad thing, isn't it? There's a lot of people that
don't go to church, and they don't even know what they got. They may
be God's children. You see, that's why we believe
in God's grace. We understand that there's some
people that don't go to church, and they don't come to church.
And they don't come to church like they should, and they're
ignorant concerning the blessings that they have at hand. or the
father that gave it to them, or how they got it. But you're
passive in this thing, just like a child is passive in their father's
will. It's the father's sovereign will
to write in his will what he wants to give and who it's going
to. And do you not think that God
has the sovereign will to write in His will who he wants to give
his blessings to. And certainly we know that he
does. So who are the people that are
the benefactors of God's inheritance? So you might say, well, am I
one of those people? Well, I'll give you some scripture
on that. And as we know, any last will in Testament names
the benefactors. There's no need to write a will
if you don't have anybody named in the will, right? If you're
going to write a will, you're going to write it. It may be
to an institution or it may be to some hospital or something. But a will is going to name a
benefactor. That's part of the legal contract
in a will. And so a father's will is going
to name some people. Now, I do know that down here
fathers and mothers can get angry with some of their children.
They're taking you out of the will. I've seen it happen in my own
family. But I'm going to tell you something, God doesn't do
that. He's promised and He cannot lie. And so this is an eternal
contract that was written a long time ago. So I know a few of
God's people that I would have taken out of it. You know, God's
more merciful than I am, isn't He? He's more merciful than we
are. So He's not going to take anybody
out of His last will and testament. So, you know, I'm sure He's disappointed
with some of His children, isn't He? But you know, he's not going
to take anybody out of it. So we have somebody, some people
that are named in this particular wheel. And another interesting
thing about that is that these people are not unknown to God.
He's not waiting in time to find out who he's going to give his
stuff to, right? You know, people aren't being born and beginning
in God's Kingdom, and these people now get part of the inheritance
because they walked down the aisle, or they read the sinner's
prayer, or they raised their hand at a revival, or they accepted
Jesus, or all the things that people have today. You don't
get part of the inheritance from doing all that stuff. You got
your inheritance because God loved you and He chose you before
the world began. And so it's not going to a bunch
of unknown people. God's yet to discover these people.
He doesn't know who they are and He's waiting. He's up in
heaven and He's wondering who's going to get His inheritance
because He doesn't know who's going to do these things that
these evangelists are tossing out there for people to do. No,
that's ridiculous. I don't think some of those people
have read the will. They don't understand that God's the sovereign
giver of the things that belong to Him and Him only. I can't
pass out God's stuff. What kind of person would I be
if it's God's will and I'm down here and I'm saying, well, this
is God's will and you have the right today. If you listen to
me, I'm going to give you God's will, His stuff. I'm going to
give you eternal life. I'm going to give you spiritual
life. Is that something that I can do? It's not mine to give
in the first place. My Father's will was written
to His family. And there was nobody else that
could pass it out. It was a legal contract received by His family. So, we find these people mentioned
in the Bible that God's blessings are going to go to. They're referred
to as His people. His people. Matthew 1.21, He
shall bring forth the Son, and they shall call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Now you just
read that and that's kind of specific, isn't it? Did it say
all people? Some people think that Jesus
died upon the cross for all people. Well, if Jesus died upon the
cross for all people, then all people are going to heaven. I
believe in the success of the work of Jesus Christ upon the
cross. But my friends, Jesus didn't
die for all people. He died for the people that the
Father gave Him to redeem in the everlasting covenant. He
shall save His people. That's a possessive pronoun.
They belong to Him in the covenant of grace. His people. Well, referred
to as His sheep. "'Before him shall be gathered
all nations. "'He shall separate them one
from another.'" This is when Jesus is coming back. This is
Matthew 25. "'As a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats, "'and
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, "'but the goats on
his left.'" So his sheep, those are the ones that are gonna receive
his blessings. They're also referred to as my
sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow
me. See, all these people are the same people, right? The sheep
and his people are the same people. We're not referring to different
people out there. Also, they were referred to as
God's elect, his elect family. 1 Peter 1 and 2, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God, through the sanctification of
the Spirit. So these are all the same people. Now you might
say this morning, that sounds good, but how do I know that
I'm one of his sheep? My people, His people. How do
I know I'm one of those people anyway? Well, if you love the
Father, I think that would be an indication that you belong
to Him. We love Him because He first loved us. Now, you cannot
love God if He didn't love you first. And some people say, you
know, they get a little upset when you say that God doesn't
love everybody. And they don't understand that
if God loved everybody, then he's going to place some of the
people that he loves in hell. There's people going to hell,
my friends. You can read it all through the Bible. Those aren't
the ones that are gonna receive the inheritance, by the way.
So whether you have a God that loves everybody and is gonna
send some people he loves to hell, or you have a God whose
love is distinguishing, just like yours is. You don't love
everybody, and you never will. There's some people that you
probably hate. So why would we place that upon
God that he must love everybody? Because the Bible says that he
doesn't. Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. So if you
love the Lord this morning, that's an evidence that you belong to
a heavenly father that first loved you, placed his spirit
within you, gave you love, or you would never love. Love is
a fruit of the spirit and you could never love. If God did
not first love you. Now, what is contained in this
inheritance anyway? We know we've got a lot of blessings,
don't we? We know the Lord has given us a lot of things. And
we think about the things down here the Lord's given us. That's
a lot. You may have a nice house or a nice car. You may have some
material things. We know the Lord has blessed
many people with material things. He blessed Abraham with material
things. You know? A lot of the patriarchs had a
lot of material things. Those are blessings, by the way,
and they can be a curse if you don't use them in the right way.
I think Satan can give you some material things to destroy you. But those things down here are
not part of this inheritance I'm talking about this morning.
The inheritance I'm talking about is an eternal inheritance. It
concerns eternal things, things that never can be taken away
from you as God's child. In Titus 1 and 2, I've already
read this too, but I'm going to read it to you again. In hope
of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the
world began. Your eternal life is a part of
your inheritance. I'm going to live forever because
God gave that to me freely. But I'm gonna live with him,
by the way, forever. Let me put it like that, because
everybody's gonna live forever somewhere, right? But I'm gonna
live with him forever because of his gift. Our salvation is
a part of our inheritance, freely given by a loving father. If you have salvation this morning,
you didn't get it from a preacher handing it out to you, and you
didn't get it by yourself. You got it freely. by the sufficient
work of Jesus Christ upon the cross. That's where your salvation
came from, my friends. Praise Jesus this morning and
give him the glory for your salvation. Don't take a part of it. I asked
some people how they're saved. And they said, well, I did this
and I did that. And I said, well, what did Jesus
do? Oh yeah, he did die upon the cross, by the way. Here's
the secondary equation there, but my friends, Jesus did every
bit of it. Our new birth, When you were
born again, that was contained in the covenant or in your inheritance. In 1 Peter 1 and 23, Peter says,
being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the Word of God, which is Christ, which liveth and abideth forever. So this new birth that is a part
of our inheritance brings us into a vital living relationship
with God the Father. You know, without your new birth,
you may be the elect of God, but until you're born again,
you don't have any real relationship with God down here, okay? You
have to have God's Spirit abiding within you to be able to have
a desire to speak to your Father, to feel the love for your Father,
to be able to communicate with Him in a spiritual way, to feel
His presence. That all comes with the new birth. Hereby we cry, Abba, Father,
the Apostle Paul said. Father, Father, all the fruits
of the Spirit are gifts of God's grace due to your inheritance. In Galatians 5.22, but the fruit
of the Spirit is love. I've already given you love,
the fact that you have the capacity to love your husband, your wife,
your children. And to love God, most of all,
is a part of your inheritance. And I can tell you, you know
many people that don't love their own children. They don't love
their wives. They don't love their husbands.
They don't have the capacity, do not have the capacity to experience
love. Love is a spiritual gift that
is given to God's people. And he goes on and mentions these
other blessings. Joy. Joy in the Holy Ghost. Joy in the person of Christ.
Joy in our salvation. Joy in coming here to church.
That's a part of your inheritance. Peace. The peace that we have.
That we have knowing that we belong to God. The peace that
I have, I can lay my head on my pillow at night and I don't
worry about where I'm going when I'm dead. If I take my last breath
tonight, I have a great peace of knowing that I'm going to
be with my Heavenly Father, that I'll be with Him in glory. I'm
not worried about it when I was a child. I tell this story all
the time, it comes to me right now, of when I was a child. And
so I went to a church and they told me that if I died that night,
I was going to go to hell if I didn't do something right then.
And so I got in bed that night and I was thinking about that
and I thought, you know, what if I stop breathing tonight?
I'm going to go to hell. And because I didn't do what
they told me to do that particular day. And so I got really worried
about I couldn't sleep. And I went into my mother's bedroom
and she was sitting in there reading and I was crying. I was
really upset. You can upset a child if you
don't give them the truth of God's word. Paul said there are
those that disturb you, I think is the word that he said. And
I was crying and my mother sat up in bed and she said, Sonny,
why are you crying? Because I was always a happy
little kid, always having fun. And I could just barely say this
with a trembling lip. I'm afraid if I die tonight,
I'm gonna go to hell. And she started crying. And I
thought she knows it's true. I knew I was a sinner at the
age of 12. Isn't it amazing the Lord can
show you you're a sinner, you don't have to go to church. So
anyway, I said, Mom, why are you crying? She said, if you
weren't a child of God, you wouldn't worry about it. Oh, what a peace I had that night.
I went to bed, I was floating that night. I felt the presence
of the Holy Spirit. So, You know, our inheritance
puts something in us that we can't put in there ourselves.
So these fruits of God's Spirit, this peace and this long suffering,
gentleness, goodness and faith, faith in God, meekness and temperance,
those things are a great blessing. Another blessing that we have
as God's children is the access to the throne of God's grace.
You have a right, my friend. You have access to the throne
of God's grace this morning. You can go there in your darkest
hour. And you can commune with your
heavenly Father that loves you. You can pour out your heart because
He understands, because He is your Father. You think you've
got something to tell Him He doesn't know about? He already
knows. He knows your innermost thoughts.
We've got a place we can go to that nobody else can go to. Paul
said, let us go to Him without the camp, which they have no
right. which serve the table of law.
They have no right to go there, but my friend, you've got a right
by the blood of Christ to go to the throne of grace and speak
to a father that loves you and has bestowed upon you the greatest
gifts that any person could ever have, which are the gifts of
God's grace. Another blessing you have is
a spiritual family. You have this family here this
morning that you can meet with and worship our God. And we can
talk about and rejoice in the blessings that we have at hand
that God has left us in His eternal will. And you have a great hope
as well. I mean, we could go on this morning
about the blessings that you and I have as God's children,
because He loved us with an everlasting love. And He's given these things
to us. Well, you know, if you have a
will, and you die, somebody's got to tell you what's in it,
don't they? You know, a lot of times it's left in the filing
cabinet somewhere and somebody gets it out and reads it, but
a lot of times you go to court. Probate court's going to read
to you what's contained in your will. So you've got a heavenly
will. You've inherited a lot of things.
So who's going to tell you about it? Well, it's the preacher.
That's what I'm trying to do this morning. The preacher is
the one that God ordains to tell you what is in your will. Of
course, I understand that you could just read the Bible and
you could understand a lot about what's in your will. But I can
tell you, you won't know near as much as if until you hear
somebody that God has called. and given an understanding of
His Word to tell you what's in your will. Remember the Ethiopian
eunuch that came and Philip approached him. The Ethiopian eunuch was
in his chariot and he was reading in Isaiah. And Philip says, you
understand what you're reading? And he said, how can I except
some man should guide me? Well, that's what we do is we
try to tell you what you're reading about in that book. So I've already
given you the Scripture. I'll give it to you again in
hope of eternal life. which God, that cannot lie, promised
before the world began, but in due times manifested his word
through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment
of God our Savior. So that's what I'm supposed to
do. I'm supposed to tell you what is in your will that you
have received as one of God's children. I want you to give you just a
little thought this morning, too, about how the Holy Trinity
is involved in your inheritance. Now, we understand, if you understand
God's everlasting covenant or the holy covenant of God, then
you understand what part each person in the Godhead had with
your salvation. I've preached on that here before.
It's a wonderful subject. We understand that the Father
chose a people before the world began, set his love upon them. He gave them to His Son. Jesus
said, I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but
the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will,
which has sent me, that of all He has given me, I shall raise
them up the last day, and will lose nothing. So the Father gave
these people He loved to His Son, and His Son is going to
die for those people. So that's the Son's part in the
everlasting covenant. And the Holy Spirit's part is
to impart unto you the knowledge of it, and He's going to also
impart unto you the new birth. So that's the Holy Spirit's part
in it. But when we're talking about the inheritance part of
it, we're going to understand that the Holy Spirit regenerates
us, gives us life, But He also stamps upon us this understanding. You know, it's the Holy Spirit
that opens up our understanding, right? I mean, I could read to
you. I can read the Bible. We can
preach this morning. But if the Holy Spirit doesn't
open your heart, they talk about open your ears. You know, Paul
says their ears are dull of hearing. But your ears must be open. The
Holy Spirit must give you and pardon to you this knowledge.
If you're understanding what I'm saying this morning, the
Holy Spirit's at work right now. The Holy Spirit's given you an
understanding. And so the Holy Spirit gives
you an understanding of your inheritance. So in Ephesians,
I'm going back to Ephesians again, in verse 11, in whom also ye
have obtained an inheritance being predestinated or predetermined,
God predetermined it was in it, according to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will,
that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted
in Christ, and here it is, in whom ye also After you heard
the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also
after that you believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise a seal is a stamp It means to attest So when you
hear this you've got this stamp upon you the Holy Spirit just
stamped in your heart and this truth that you belong to God
and your inheritance. And I can tell you, my friends,
that's an impression, isn't it? That's right. Do you remember
the first impression you had when somebody talked to you about
Jesus Christ? And you said, oh, I believe in
Him. See, that's the Holy Spirit working
and making this stamp in your heart. And Paul goes on to say,
in whom you trusted. which is the earnest of our inheritance.
You know, this understanding, this stamp on our heart this
morning, what we understand today, the things I've given you is
an earnest of your inheritance. It's the down payment. You've
given earnest money, you're going to make a down payment on a house?
It's a pledge to say, I'm going to pay the rest of it. Well,
the Lord's just given you some earnest this morning. He's given
you a little knowledge that this is what I'm giving you right
now, but I'm gonna tell you something, the best is yet to come. You're
just getting a little bit of it down. You think it's good
when you're in church and you hear a blessing, blessed message,
and you're blessed by it, or you read the Bible and you get
something from it? That's just the earnest of it, my friends.
You got something better coming. And it's a lot bigger than this
down here. I mean, you think you got something now, wait till
you get up there. We have no idea of all the blessings
that we're gonna have when we get there. So the spirit bears
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, Paul
says. Now, let's think about, I'm about
done this morning, but I gotta go into just a little bit more,
because there's some great stuff in here about this will. I can't
leave this out this morning. Because if the will is gonna
be enforced, somebody's gotta die, right? Like I said, Marilyn
and I have a will. But I'm not dead yet, okay? So
this wheel is not yet in force. So one of us, both of us got
to die really for this thing to be, but God, you know, is
one, yet three. But the testator's got to die.
Now, who do you think the testator was? That's exactly right. Our testator has died and placed
this wheel in binding force. Jesus Christ was the testator.
Hebrews 9 and 16, it says, for where a testament is, or will,
there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is a force after
men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the
testator liveth. And when he dies, it becomes
a legal and binding contract. Our testator has died. but he
is also risen. We thought about that last Sunday.
Our testator has died, but he's also risen. He's going to get
to see the goods passed out to the people that he died for,
isn't he? That's something unusual. When we die, we're not going
to get to see our children receive the things that we left them.
We can think in our hearts about how it's going to happen and
how they're going to enjoy it. But our testator is going to get
to see the blessings and benefits that he died for. You can be
sure, my friends, if Jesus Christ died, his children are gonna
get what he died for them to have. So, you know, this thing, this wheel,
like I said, was made before the world began. But until the
testator dies, this wheel's not gonna be open. Our children may
know they're gonna get something, but they don't know what it is,
or who gets what. And my friends, the testator
Jesus Christ had to die before the contents of his will were
revealed. OK. The saints in the Old Testament
knew some stuff. But they didn't see the whole
contract. That's right. That's right. You know, David said,
although my house be not so with God, he has made with me an everlasting
covenant ordered in all things and sure this covenant is ordered
in all things and sure, although we make it not to grow. Nobody's
going to be added to it or taken from it. It's ordered in all
things ensured. David knew of a covenant, but
he didn't know everything that was in it. God loved David, but
David, I'm sorry, you don't get to see everything in here. You
know, God loved Job. Job's mission is one of the three
greatest men in the Bible. God says, I love you, Job. You
went through a great trial. But the will has not been ratified.
You can't see everything is in it. Job knew some things. Job
said. I know it's all the truth. But
how can man be just with God? We know today because the contracts
been open. That's right, isn't that a blessing?
Great people don't know what you know today. We might know what our father
owns, what we might receive. Old Testament saints, they knew
that God has a lot of stuff. But you know, they never imagined
that God would become man. They never imagined that God
would become flesh and blood, that He could bleed, and His
blood would ratify a covenant or a testament, that He would
die to fulfill all the blessings contained in that covenant. They
could never imagine that. But you know today, my friends.
You know. In Revelation chapter 5, I want
you to go with me there because I want you to see something that
God gave John on the Isle of Patmos. It has to do with this
covenant. Revelation really is not what a lot of people think
it is. We're not going to go into a lot of it today. There's
a lot of it I don't understand. But I want you to see this contract
or this legal will and how it was closed and how it was opened. Chapter 5, and I saw in the right
hand of him that sat on the throne a book written with then on the
backside sealed with seven seals. Do you know what a book was that
was written on the backside in that day? It was a will. This is talking about God's eternal
will. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming
with a loud voice who was worthy to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof. Nobody's worthy to even open
this book. In other words, there's nobody
that has the credentials to open this will. You've got to have
the right credentials. You've got to be a son or a daughter
or maybe the probate court. But you've got to be the right
kind of person to open a will and look in it. Not anybody can just
open a will. I can't open your will. It would be against the
law. Who's worthy to open this will anyway? It's written. It
was written before the world began. So who's going to open
this thing and loose the seals? It's sealed. No man in heaven. Sorry Gabriel, you can't look
into it. You can't open the book. I always
loved the golden cherubs that were beaten of pure gold looking
into the mercy seat in the tabernacle. They were peering into this Ark
of the Covenant. They wanted to know what was
in there. They can't know. No one in heaven? No man in heaven nor in earth,
not David, not Job, neither under the earth, none of the saints
could come back, was able to open the book, neither to look
thereon. So we got a will, nobody can look on it. And I wept much
because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book,
neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto
me, weep not, behold the line of the tribe of Judah, the root
of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven
seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo, in the
midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, in the midst of
the elders, stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven
horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent
forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book
out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne, And
when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and 20 elders
fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden
vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And
they sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book,
to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and has redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and
people. and nation. My friends, the lamb that was
slain, the testator opened the book because he is the only one
worthy to open the book. So our will and testimony is
a binding contract. It cannot be altered. Peter says in first Peter one
and four to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you. The best part, my friends, is
coming, and you got a reservation. I pray that's a blessing to you
this morning. Thank you for listening to SuccessfulSavior.org, the
ministry of Harmony Primitive Baptist Church. This has been
Elder Neal Phelan, Jr. preaching from one of our regular
meetings. Come and join us as we worship God in the simplicity
of Christ every Sunday morning at 416 North Hall Street in Donaldson,
Arkansas. At Harmony, we don't have many
things that are so common in the religion of our day, but
we do have a successful Savior. We invite you to come and see.
God's Will and Testament
We understand the bible better when we view it as God's will and testament for the salvation of his people who have a great inheritance awaiting them.
| Sermon ID | 48241649386925 |
| Duration | 40:41 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 1; Hebrews 9 |
| Language | English |
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