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The text tonight will be Exodus chapter 6. We will arrive there in just a moment. I want to read three passages out of the New Testament. And then we will go and spend the rest of our time in Exodus chapter 6.
The title of the message tonight is simple. It is the Gospel according to Moses. The Gospel according to Moses. Three passages in the New Testament. Luke 16 verse 27. We have the rich man and Lazarus.
The rich man being in hell, lifting up his eyes, talking to Abraham. But at the end of that story, he said, Then I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's house. For I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, No, Father Abraham. But if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. He said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.
In the Gospel of Luke chapter 24 and verse 26, the Bible says, Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
In that passage, Jesus talking to the two guys on the road to Emmaus, he takes Moses and the prophets and shows them the scriptures and how they point to himself. And one other passage I want to read out of the New Testament is in the Gospel of John chapter 5 and verse 46.
John 5 verse 46, the last two verses of the chapter. Jesus speaking to the Pharisees says, For if you believed Moses, you would believe me. For he, the he being Moses, Moses wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
Now if you'll find your place in the book of Exodus, we will look at what Moses has to say. The Gospel according to Moses. We read those verses to affirm to you that the New Testament's understanding of Moses is that he clearly presents Christ and the Gospel.
Now in Exodus 6, let us read. We will read verses 1 through 8. Exodus 6, 1 through 8. But the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.
God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty. But by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners.
Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians hold as slaves. And I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people. I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession.
I am the Lord.
Briefly, I remind you of Exodus chapter 5. There has been talk of the people of Israel going out to worship their God. And Pharaoh is not happy about that. He does not want the people to depart. And he thinks that they have too much free time to be pondering worship.
So in chapter 5, he makes things worse. He doubles their workload, if you will, and he refuses to supply them with straw to make bricks. And so now, it's not only that they have to make bricks, but they have to gather their own straw and make the bricks, and they can't reduce their production.
So things have gone from bad to worse. Things are getting more difficult. That's the way it is with sin. It's the way it is when people serve the devil and serve themselves. They keep thinking, the next thing will make life better.
The next thing that I try will make me happy. The next thing I do will finally satisfy me. But at the end of the day, it just seems that life gets more messy. Life gets a little darker. Everything I try doesn't work.
I just ponder for a moment the lost world. They scratched the lotto ticket and they don't win. Now, they have less money than when they started. They buy alcohol. They drink their alcohol. They run out of alcohol.
And they're still not happy, and now they have to buy more alcohol. They try a relationship, and the relationship gets complicated. And the relationship that had so much promise now has all these complications, and now they have more problems than when they began this next relationship.
And on and on these stories go, and then they end up 40 years old, 50 years old, 80 years old, and they're more miserable now than when they first begun. Life just keeps getting more difficult. And then, in the wee hours of the night, there's this dreaded thought that I'm going to die.
And then, there's going to be this thing, I heard somebody say, eternity.
What am I going to do in eternity?
Where am I going to go?
Is God going to receive me? Am I just going to die and be under His judgment? Things just look very bleak. It's darkness, and it's heavy. This is the position of the nation of Israel. Dark times, heavy bondage, severe oppression are met with a God who is still sovereign.
In verse 1 of Exodus 6, listen again. The Lord says to Moses, Now you shall see. See, when it gets to this level of difficulty that man finally realizes he cannot fix himself, he cannot deliver himself, he cannot redeem himself, he can't accomplish this.
It's at that moment that God says, Now you will see. Now you will see what? God says, Now you will see what I will do. God does something when you can't do anything. Now you'll see what I'll do to Pharaoh?
He's going to take you, he's going to drive you out, he's going to get rid of you. You say, No, he's clinging to us and he won't let us go. Oh, when I get done with him, he will get rid of you. Hold that thought.
Moses had declared up to this point, it's kind of bold, kind of brash by Moses, but Moses had declared up to this point that God had done nothing.
God, you've done nothing!
This is what he says.
Look at chapter 5, the last verse. Look at verse 23. This is what Moses says, For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, all he has done is evil to your people. And notice the last line. This is what he says to God.
You have not delivered your people at all. God, you said that you were going to deliver and not one person has been delivered. That's bold. Think about it in the context of evangelism. God, you said you would save.
God, you said your gospel's good news. We preached all over Perryville today.
Where's the converts?
God, you didn't save anyone.
God, you said that you would save. You'd raise the dead.
Where are they at?
Where's the salvation?
Where are the thousands?
God, up to this point, nobody's been delivered. That's what Moses says. God reminds Moses, I haven't forgotten my covenant. I haven't forgotten. You see that in verses 2 -5. God speaks to Moses. He reminds him, I am the Lord.
That's all you need to know.
Moses, I've got this. I'm fully and completely in control. You can trust me. I am the Lord. I'm the same one who appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am God Almighty, but I'm also Yahweh. I am the Lord.
That's my name. And look in verse 4. I established a covenant with them. Here's what you need to know. I established a covenant. That means it cannot be broken. What God has covenanted to do, God will do.
They will inherit a land. They will make it home. I assure you, that's what God is saying. I have heard, in verse 5, God says, think about that. Maybe you're lost here tonight. Maybe you're in bondage like these people.
It's good news for you in verse 5. I've heard they're groaning. A lost man here in a tent tonight, or in Perryville, anywhere in the sound of the Gospel, that you would hear this, that in the dark hour when no one's watching, when you're lying there in your bed, alone in your room, and your heart is breaking, and your life is a mess, and everything's falling apart, and you're like,.
What am I even doing here?
And we have this verse,.
That God hears your groaning. God hears the broken heart out there in the world that's contemplating suicide this very night. That person who's contemplating it all,.
Saying there's no hope,.
There's no reason to live. It says here, God heard their groaning. The people of Israel. They're being held in slavery. And notice He says, God says, and I remember My covenant. God's forgotten nothing here.
Moses is having doubts about how God will save His people. And God reassures Moses with this phrase,.
I am the Lord,.
Four times. Verse 2, verse 6, verse 7, and verse 8. Four times He uses this phrase. And eight verses. I think it's an important phrase. God's self-disclosure is the primary way of relieving your doubts.
God revealing Himself to you is the number one way to have all of your doubts removed. The plan of God's salvation for beginning, middle, and end is based entirely upon this. I am the Lord. Throughout this battle between Moses and Pharaoh, the inability of Moses to deliver the people becomes plain.
Looking at the Exodus correctly reveals that deliverance cannot be obtained by Moses. Think about for us, family, work, health, fear, evil, everything that plagues the human mind, everything that plagues the human heart is remedied in this phrase,.
Very briefly,.
Verse 2, verse 6, verse 7, verse 8, is our assurance. Now these are just simple short statements. And we'll get to the meat of what I want to get to in just one moment. I just offer you the word assurance.
And I just say these things. They're said quickly, but they are weighty in some respects. All hope is attainable because of who God is. Because of who God is, you can have hope. If God is not God, there is no hope.
But since God is God, you can have hope. All freedom is obtainable because of who God is. Anyone who's in bondage can be set free.
Why?
Because he's God. All family inclusion. Nobody loves me. My own family doesn't love me. They want to invite me to my own family reunions. I'm an outcast. I'm the black sheep of the family. No one cares.
You can be included in the only family that matters because of who God is. Because who God is, is a God who adopts people into His family. And so, you can have all inclusion because of Him.
That's a word.
Y 'all like that word? We live in a generation where we use the word inclusive. You want to be inclusive? You want to be included in this family. Right? I want to be inclusive. I want to include everybody to come to Christ.
And I would say to you, fourthly, all promises are realized because of who God is. You know, I don't have much respect for people. You can take that however you want, but I've been lied to my whole life.
Church people, non-church people, people tell me stuff all the time. I don't believe hardly anything anybody says because they're not going to do it anyways. That's why I love the Bible.
I love the Bible.
Because when God says yes, it's yes. When God says no, it's no. When God says up, it's up. When God says down, it's down. When God says I'll give you a land, I'm getting a land. When God says there's a heaven, there's a heaven.
When God says that He will comfort me, He will comfort me. When God says I'll never depart from you and I'll never leave you alone,.
I know that I'll never be lonely.
Because God always keeps His Word.
Because it reveals God to me.
And everything in here is true.
That's why I don't spend time on social media and all the stuff in the world. It changes before I can finish the article.
But in this book,.
I can memorize and I can meditate and everything I need is here and it never changes. Now, there are seven I wills. And I have condensed seven I wills to four by coupling a couple of those together. You'll see them there in your text.
And you will see them in verses 6 -8. We will pull them out one by one and we'll match the first two together. In verse 6, say therefore to the people of Israel,.
Now we get to the I wills. He says first, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And He says, I will deliver you from slavery to them. We are reminded that these people are under a great burden.
And this is the word we hear. I will deliver. When the burden is heavy enough, when you can't get out from under it, and you hear that someone can deliver you, there ought to be a sense in which you lift up your head and you tune in to pay attention.
Pastor, are you telling me that somebody can deliver me from the burden of my heart, the burden of my mind? Yes. That's what I'm telling you. That's what God's Word says. It reminds you, even in the book of Exodus, listen to these verses briefly.
The people are under great burdens. In Exodus 1, therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. Exodus 2 .11, one day when Moses was grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens.
Then you get to Exodus 5, verses 4 and 5. The king of Egypt says, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens. Pharaoh said, behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens.
All these people are being burdened by a cruel taskmaster. He goes on to say that they were in slavery. Now like that word today, it is a biblical word, and they are in slavery.
I would submit to you this,.
Every person that is not in Christ is a slave of the devil, is a slave of the world, is a slave of their self. And every day, the lost person outside of Christ does what their master leads them to do.
They serve the devil, they serve themselves every day, and they're bound and yoked to him, and there's no other way in which they can live. Exodus 1 .14,. And made their lives bitter, with hard service, in mortar and brick, and all kinds of work in the field.
In all their work,.
They ruthlessly made them work as slaves. That's what the devil does. He wants the whole world in slavery, and he's making them work, and work, and work, and work, and they get no reward. Exodus 2 .23, During those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned.
Why did they groan?
Because of their slavery. They cried out to the Lord for help. Please rescue us from our slavery. Exodus 5 .11, Let heavier work be put on the men, that they may be labor, and pay no regard to lying words.
Go and get your straw yourself, wherever you can find it, but your work will not be decreased in the least. Church, at least know this, about your community. Know this about Perryville. Know this about Arkansas.
You say, why does this person do this? Why do they live like this? Why do they not listen to the gospel? Why do they not come to church? Why are they not joyful over the gospel? Because they have a burden, and they're in slavery, and their master lies to them every day, and keeps them under his power, in order to destroy them.
Don't get offended at the lostness of people, that they would curse, or they would honk, or they would yell.
What do you expect them to do?
They are burdened and in slavery, and they're walking in spiritual death every day. Of course they're this way, because their hearts are dark.
Don't be offended by that.
Just keep shining the light, and saying, we have a God who can deliver you. To be saved is to be delivered. The beginning of the work of salvation is deliverance. Deliverance from burdens. Deliverance from slavery.
Let me insert just one New Testament verse, where you can hear the ring of how the gospel sounds to one under a burden, or one that's in slavery. Would these words sound good to somebody who's burdened, and in slavery to the enemy?
Is there any joy in this word? Come to Me. All you who labor and are heavy laden. And Jesus says, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke on you. Learn from Me. Listen how He talks. I'm gentle, and I'm lowly in heart, and you can find rest for your souls.
To a person that's burdened and in slavery, it has to sound appealing. Are you saying that I can really have rest? That's what Christ is saying to you. He will deliver you. It's not all of the gospel, but it is the beginning note of it, is it not?
I think about jail, just for the illustration. And if you were in jail today, and someone came and delivered you out, well, in one sense, that's good news to be delivered. Right? But if all they did was open the door and deliver you, you're still wanted.
Right?
They open the door, you're supposed to serve ten years, you've been there two, they open the door, let you out, now they're searching for you. It's nice to be delivered, but now I'm just wanted. There's more to the gospel than what has been said thus far.
In salvation, we are delivered from burdens, burdens to slavery, and burdens to sin. We are delivered in the gospel, but there is more. I want you to look in verse 6 again. I will bring you out. I will deliver.
That's the first two we put together under deliverance. And now you have another word. It's the third, I will. I will redeem you. Delivered and redeemed.
I will deliver you.
I will redeem you. At the center of the word redemption is the thought of purchase. You think about Exodus. I'll give you a couple of verses. Exodus 15, 13. You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed.
Those you've redeemed.
Psalm 74, 2. Remember your congregation which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Psalm 77, 15. You with your arm redeemed your people. Psalm 78, 35. They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their Redeemer.
Psalm 106, 10. So He saved them from the hand of the foe and redeemed them from the power of the enemy. Well, that's good, right? I'm delivered out of bondage. I'm delivered out of slavery. That's good.
But with my jail illustration, I'm still wanted. I need somebody to pay my fine. Now I'm hearing that there's more to the Gospel here. He also redeems. He buys. He purchases. He pays my fine. Work with me.
Just a simple illustration. There you are, incarcerated in your jail cell. Your fine is $1 ,000 ,000. $1 ,000 ,000. You have no money. You're absolutely bankrupt. You don't have two pennies to rub together.
You're sitting there in your jail. And Brother Allen, he's a pastor here, and he comes to the jail and he says, I'm going to deliver you out of this jail because I'm going to pay your fine. I'll pay $1 ,000 ,000.
And then you will be delivered.
And redeemed out of this and your fine has been paid. Is that good news?
Well, sort of.
It's sort of good news, right? I'm out of prison. My fine's paid. But let's be honest. I'm still broke. I can't even buy a cup of coffee. I can't even go to Sonic and get a burger. There's more to the Gospel than deliverance and redemption.
The Lord doesn't save you.
And leave you broke.
The Lord doesn't bring you out of prison and say, now you have nothing. I hope you can make something. There's more, even more, than deliverance and redemption. To be saved is to be redeemed. Think of another New Testament verse to go along with this.
Galatians 4. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive something. Delivered and redeemed, but there's another piece.
That we might also receive adoption.
Now, I love adoption.
And I love it more now than I've ever loved it before because there's this couple in my church. They have no kids. They have no children. And they got in contact with this lady and this lady didn't want her baby, but in Texas you can't get the baby aborted and they couldn't go somewhere to get the baby aborted.
And so she doesn't want the baby, so she has the baby. As soon as she has the baby, she gives it to this couple in my church. And they go through the whole process. And then we go in the courthouse that day and we're standing before the judge and they adopt that little baby.
And that judge says, this is his second birthday. He has his physical birthday and now he has his birthday with your last name. This is your child.
Adoption!
We are delivered. We are redeemed. But could you understand and I'd be encouraged that the God of heaven adopts you into His family. In salvation we are delivered from burdens to sin and bondage to slavery.
And we are redeemed. But look at verse 7, the word I've already mentioned to you. Look at verse 7. I don't know how to make it more beautiful. I will take you to be My people. I will adopt you. Hey, would there be someone tonight even in this tent that would say, man, my earthly father was a jerk.
He didn't love me. He didn't care for me. He did nothing for me. He walked out on my mom. And he never came back.
Or maybe you're here tonight.
And you say, my mom didn't love me. My mom didn't care about me. They just left me off with the grandparents. Nobody's ever taken an interest in my life. My family don't care about me. I never have a family reunion.
I never get together for Christmas. We don't have Thanksgiving. It's just a lonely, miserable life. And it's just terrible.
Can I tell you tonight.
That there's a great Father in heaven? There's a great Father in heaven who is so good and so kind and so merciful that He would adopt you into His family and then you'd be able to say, I have a good Father.
I have a Father that loves me. I have a Father that cares about me. I have a Father that guides me. I have a Father that nurtures me. I have a Father that picks me up when I fall down. I have a Father that disciplines me when I sin against Him.
I have a Father who cares for my soul. You can be adopted into the family of God. God had told Abraham in Genesis 17, 7, I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.
An everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. Now, it's a lengthy passage in one regard, but I'm going to read it. Many of you know it, but I just want you to hear it in the context of adoption.
Jeremiah 31, 31. And it says it this way, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
My covenant they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. Listen carefully. I will put my law within them.
I'm going to write it on their hearts. Just pause. Let me steal a line from somebody. You do not need a tattoo that says I love Jesus. You need the law of God written on your heart.
I will be their God.
Can anybody be happy?
You understand that God doesn't have to be your God? God was perfectly content before you ever existed. God wasn't lonely and needed some company. God was eternally satisfied with Himself, but in His own good pleasure, in His own free will, He said, you know what?
I'll be your God. I'll be their God, and they shall be My people. No longer will each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, know the Lord.
For they shall all know Me. What privilege!
Are you kidding me?
We mortal men get to know God? How could that be? That God would allow us to know Him?
It doesn't say from the smartest of them to those who graduated the seminary and wrote a book. He says from the very least of them. From the very least to the greatest.
All the way across.
This is what God says He will do for His children. I will forgive their iniquity.
But it's better.
That's not the end of the verse. I will remember their sin no more. How many days have you lived your Christianity in guilt?
Oh, I'm just a sinner.
Save my grace. I'm pathetic. I sin.
I'm terrible. I'm terrible. I'm terrible.
You understand in the power of the gospel of adoption that your sins are no longer remembered because the power of the blood of Christ has washed you clean, and in Christ you are righteous.
You are a saint.
That we understand imputed righteousness in Christ. Remember, I told you we delivered out of the jail. I also told you that our fine was being paid.
But He didn't leave us broke.
The righteousness of Christ has been imputed unto the account of all those who are adopted. So we receive everything in Christ. I don't know if it's working for you. I don't think my wife's going to get anything from her family when they finally die off.
I don't think she's going to inherit a thing. It's the way families work. I've seen it a thousand times over. I've preached out on how many funerals. I can't even count them all. And then I see people fight for years trying to get stuff.
There's a stuffed bobcat in my daddy's house. Bobcat. Stuffed bobcat on a tree limb. About killed the family fighting over who was going to get that thing. Who's going to inherit it? People do silly stuff.
They fight over couches and TVs and cars and beds and that kind of stuff. And who gets the land? Who gets the house? And let's kill each other to make sure I get what I want. I just want you to understand the gospel.
I'm not fighting with you over stuff in heaven. I'm not fighting with you over everything my daddy has.
Are you with me?
You understand that our Father owns everything? Everything. Do you understand that as an adopted child, there's a word that comes with adoption? The word is heir.
I'm an heir.
You're in Christ, you're an heir. Heirs receive an inheritance. What is the inheritance we receive?
Everything.
It's all ours in Christ Jesus.
We don't have to divide it up and fight.
And act like a bunch of small brats on a playground. Everybody who's in Christ receives everything that God has.
We're a family.
He delivered me.
He redeemed me. And He adopted me.
And the logical outcome of my adoption is an inheritance that cannot be denied. And that brings us to the fourth set, number six and number seven. You find them in verse eight. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
And the other I will, the last one, the seventh one, I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord. You will receive the promise delivered, redeemed, and adopted. If that's true, then you will receive the promise.
To your offspring I will give this land. Those who are in Christ will inherit the entire earth. But it's not me saying these things. I'm just bringing the sense and meaning of them to you. But if we can understand an illustration, it's like back in the old days in court, you put your hand on the Bible, you raise your hand and you say, I swear, and you swear to tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth, and this type of thing.
And so here in our text, it's as if God, the Maker of heaven and earth, raises His hand and He says, this is what I swear to do.
Verse one,.
But the Lord says to Moses, now you shall see what I will do. You say, I'm uncomfortable a little bit with God swearing to do something. Well, that's your problem. Look, in Ezekiel 20, let me make it very, very clear in Ezekiel 20, when Ezekiel talks about this passage, this is what he says in Ezekiel 20 verse 5.
Thus says the Lord God, on the day when I chose Israel, I swore, three times in this passage, I swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob, making Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, I swore to them saying, I am the Lord your God.
On that day, I swore to them, I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into the land I had searched out for them, a land that is flowing with milk and honey.
Ezekiel says, back there God swore.
That this is what He would do.
Could you grab ahold?
It's like the cake and the icing.
And everything with it, and you can eat it and not even get fat. I mean, it doesn't even mess you up.
It's just all good.
I get delivered from my burden. I get redeemed from this oppression that I'm under. I get adopted into the family of God. And then there's this inheritance that is out here, and this inheritance is secured by God Himself because He swore to give it.
The promise is all grace. God will bring them out by His mighty axe. He will bring them through His very own providence. He will bring them with infinite wisdom. And He will give them a land, a possession, free of charge.
Free. All grace.
Ask the question,.
Why did things go so bad for Moses in chapter 5? Why were there so many problems for Moses delivering these people? Well, because Moses needed to know he couldn't do it. And we need to know that we can't do it.
Brother Allen can't build this church. I've been in my church 24 years. I can't build my church. Sometimes I wonder if we're going to make it to the next week. I don't understand how it works. I just know I can't do it.
And I know if, by the word, Baptists in Texas is going to be there next year, it's going to be because God sustains it. Because God grows it. Because God supplies. It's for sure in all the failures I've committed, I know I can't hold the thing together.
And that's what Moses found out. If we're getting out of Egypt, it's going to be God. You hear this verse at every funeral you go to. I like the verse, but I've heard it so many times I've kind of grown cold to it.
Forgive me. It's a great verse. If I go to prepare a place for you, we'll come again.
I'm going to go and prepare a place.
If I do that, I'm going to come.
He said,.
I'm going to take you.
I'm going to take you to Myself.
What's the very heart of Christ? That where He is,.
You may be also delivered, redeemed, adopted, and taken into the presence of Christ. What a great family! And lastly, which doesn't mean a lot other than there's a lot of time left in this sermon, salvation is of the Lord.
Jonah knew it. Moses knew it. You ought to know it. Now, I want to take this last section and I want to submit to you tonight in this tent that these seven I wills of Moses are all accomplished in Christ.
Just very briefly, we heard the word deliverance. Revelation 1 .5 To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood. Christ delivers. We heard the word redemption in Ephesians 1 .7. In Christ we have redemption through His blood.
We heard the word adoption. 2 Corinthians 6 .16 I will make My dwelling place among them. I will walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be My people. We heard the word promise. Promise to give you this land.
Promise to give you this inheritance. In the book of Peter it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He caused us to be born again through the living hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance.
An inheritance.
What kind?
Imperishable. Undefiled.
Unfading.
ESV says kept. It's the word reserved.
Reserved. Reserved where? Reserved in heaven. Reserved for who?
You!
You understand that God's reserved you a spot? Those who would believe in Christ are delivered, redeemed, adopted, and you have a reservation waiting on you that God Himself has made. I use this story all the time.
I need to look it up. I just remember, it's engrafted in my brain,.
That book,.
And on the front cover there's a table. Wide and narrow. It looks like it goes for eternity. And there's chairs all the way down it. And on the back of every chair, there's one word.
Reserved!
God reserved you a spot.