AN 4 Our Eternal Inheritance I Peter 1:3-5 2/15/2025 Aaron Nicholson In the 1800s, Cornelius Vanderbilt built a fortune in the shipping and railroad industry. He was the richest man of his time. At the time of his death in 1877, he was worth about $100 million, which would be equivalent to about $3 billion in today’s standards. He left the majority of his estate to one son, William Henry Vanderbilt, believing that most of his other children were incapable of managing the wealth. Cornelius is reported to have said to his son, William, that, “Any fool can make a fortune; it takes a man of brains to hold onto it.” In less than a decade, William Henry actually doubled the fortune, from $100 to now $200 million dollars. When he died, the Vanderbilt family wealth was even larger an estimated $7 billion in today’s standards. However, this was the turning point. Despite his father’s advice, William split the wealth between three of his four sons. It was here, in the 3rd generation, where the Vanderbilt fortune began to decline. One son, William Kissam, outsourced the railroads to another firm and retired. He immersed himself in social events such as opera and yacht racing. The youngest brother, George, had by far the least interest in the family business. He spent much of his fortune on building an estate of more than 146,000 acres. The entire Fifth Avenue blocks in New York City were filled with extravagant Vanderbilt mansions. Over time, the Vanderbilt’s continued to amass properties and spend their wealth on luxuries and so their wealth continued to dwindle. As of 1947, all of the Vanderbilts’ New York City homes had been demolished. By 1973, when 120 of Cornelius Vanderbilt’s descendants gathered together for a family reunion, not one of them was a millionaire. In less than just 100 years, one of the largest fortunes in American history had largely evaporated. When you think about what you might inherit in this world, what are you hoping for? What kind of inheritance are you anticipating most? What do you hope you will receive one day? Many young people are hoping to get married. To buy a house. To have a couple of kids and land a fulfilling job so they one day they can say, “I haven’t worked a day in my life.” Many adults are hoping the future will bring new excitement. They’re hoping to get that job promotion, or maybe they’ll finally be able to upgrade their home, or maybe even receive a substantial family inheritance. Many older adults are hoping for good health. They want to enjoy their retirement stress-free. They’re hoping for good family relationships, comforts, and a strong legacy to leave behind. Now God is good and He certainly allows us to enjoy and look forward to many things on this earth. But for the Believer in Jesus Christ, our highest prize is not any form of an earthly inheritance. It’s a heavenly one. Turn in your Bibles to I Peter 1. In this letter, the apostle Peter is writing to Believers scattered as exiles among the five Roman provinces in Asia Minor, it’s modern-day Turkey. This letter would have been likely circulated around the churches in this area. Right away, Peter tells us that these Christians are suffering. Look with me at I Peter 1:6, “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.” You see, I Peter was written during Nero’s reign, around 64 AD. At that time the city of Rome was set on fire. Rome had high wooden buildings and narrow streets and so the fire spread quickly for three days. At first, the Romans believed it was Nero who was responsible for the flames. After all Nero loved to build, and so maybe by setting the city on fire, it was an easy way to start over and build more. It was said that Nero sat and watched the fire burn from the Tower of Maecenas, dressed up, as he often was, in stage costume singing “The Fall of Troy” and playing the lyre. The Romans were understandably suspicious toward Nero and so Nero needed to redirect the attention away from himself. According to Tacitus, Nero blamed the Christians for the arson and of course a great persecution broke out that lasted 200 years. Christians were already a small and unpopular group because they split families. They followed the teachings of Jesus who said you must love me more than your father, more than your mother, your brother, your sister. Because these Christians ate the flesh and drank the blood of Christ, they were cannibals and because they spoke about a day when the world melt with intense heat. II Peter writes about that. Nero thought that these misunderstood Christians would be a perfect scapegoat. So, Nero persecuted them. He sewed them up in animal skins and set hunting dogs on them to tear them to shreds. He imprisoned them, lynched them, lacerated them with red-hot irons, threw them on the horns of wild bulls, and crucified them mercilessly. It is through the midst of this persecution that Peter exhorts these Believers to persevere, to keep excellent conduct among the Gentiles even while they’re being slandered and suffer for the sake of righteousness. Turn to I Peter 4:12, the apostle Peter writes, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange things were happening to you.” Peter’s reference to “the fiery trial” could refer to events such as Christians being rolled with pitch and used as living torches to light Nero’s imperial garden parties at night. Turn over another chapter to chapter 5:10. Here Peter offers words of hope. It says, “and after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, strengthen, confirm, and ground you.” Peter did not write to these afflicted Believers in Asia Minor about how to have their best life now or how to have victory, and health and wealth. Instead, he wrote that trials may be necessary and that they must suffer for a little while. With razor sharp clarity, Peter stated that these trials have a purpose, and they’re for their growth, and they are temporary, and there is a tremendous hope at the end of all their suffering, an eternal inheritance. Tonight, we’ll study three aspects of our eternal inheritance from I Peter 1:3-5. We’re going to look at its content, its changelessness, and its certainty. By dwelling on what God has in store for us in the future, you and I will be motivated and encouraged to bring greater glory to God in the present. Let’s read God’s Word together. Start in I Peter 1:3 with me. This is the start of a long sentence that runs through verse 12 in the original Greek. Verse 3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” First let’s uncover the Content of our Inheritance. Verse 3 begins with a word of praise. It says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” the Greek word for blessed is eulogétos. It means well-spoken of. It’s where we get our English word, “eulogy” which means a good word. In the Septuagint, the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament, both God and men are said to be “blessed”. The difference is that when God blesses men, He adds value to their life. Just think of the way God blessed Abraham, or David, or Solomon. He added riches, and honor, and wisdom to their life when they had none. Conversely, when men bless God, they add no additional value to His person or to His worth. God is perfect. God doesn’t need anything. He cannot be improved. In theology, this is called Divine aseity. The aseity of God teaches that God is independent, He’s self-existent, and He needs nothing outside Himself for existence or for His own happiness. Deuteronomy 32:4 says “The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.” So, here’s the first thing we need to know about the content of our inheritance. It begins with our blessed God. As a side note, notice how the language reads in verse 3. It says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Why does Peter call God the God of Jesus Christ? God is Jesus’ God? Is Peter Tri theistic? Does he believe there are three different gods? The other day a young salesman knocked on our door. We invited him in, offered him a piece of garlic bread, it was pasta night that and he stayed and we talked with him and found out that he was a Mormon. He argued from the Scriptures that the Scriptures teach there are three distinct gods. He said the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are “one” in purpose, but not in essence. He pointed out that Jesus called God His God several times just like we see here in I Peter in Scripture, and he was correct about that. In Matthew 27:46, Jesus said on the cross, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” In John 20:17, Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, “Go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and my God and your God.” However, Jesus calling God His God does not imply inferiority to the Father, or that He is a distinct and separate God, but rather it highlights a difference in roles. Jesus was and is submissive to the Father’s will. On the cross, Jesus was quoting Psalm 22 and reminding that He was the fulfillment of David’s prophecy. When Jesus spoke to Mary Magdalene in John 20, He was emphasizing the brotherhood we now share with the Son of God incarnate. Before the resurrection, disciples were called “slaves” or “friends” but now for the first time, they were called “brothers”. Because of the resurrection, Jesus is “our brother” and we share God’s inheritance together. We are not His equal but rather, in terms of describing our new relationship His Father is our Father and His God is our God. In addition, to all these Tri theistic claims, they do not override the clear statements of the deity of Christ and Scripture. That Jesus is God and that they are one in essence. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Colossians 2:9, “For in Him [that’s Jesus] all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily.” Back to I Peter 1 and the content of our inheritance. We know it begins with our blessed God, particularly in view, God the Father, and then Peter gives three reasons for blessing God in verse 3. First, God acts in mercy to save us. You see it there in verse 3, it says, “who according to His great mercy.” Each one of us is in desperate need of mercy. Not just a little mercy, great mercy, abundant mercy. Turn with me to Romans 3. In this passage the apostle Paul unveils our true condition. It’s hard to hear, but this is who we are as lost sinners. Romans 3:10-18, “As it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks God; All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; There is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.’” Every person born into this world is wicked. It sounds harsh, and it is, but it’s true. By default, we are opposed to a Holy God and His ways. When you and I were conceived and born into this world, we inherited a sin nature. We have the natural propensity to sin. This is why you don’t have to teach a toddler to be selfish or to lie. They just do it on their own just fine. No one is righteous, no one understands, no one seeks after God. Humans are not even looking for the truth about the right way to live. “Like rats in a maze, we are not just lost, we don’t even know we’re lost,” quoting the Old Testament. Verses 13-18 describe wickedness in the various parts of the human body, showing that evil isn’t merely performed with our minds it’s accomplished through our throats, tongue, lips, mouth, feet, and eyes. Verse 18 sums it up well, “there is no fear of God before their eyes.” We don't have to look far in our world to confirm that this is true. Statistics show that in 2025 in the US, 40% of first marriages ended in divorce, 87% of young men viewed pornography at least once per week, and two million people were incarcerated. Just when you think that those stats don’t apply to you, remember that divorce, immorality, and governmental defiance are not the only sins God hates. Galatians 5:19-21, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” There was nothing desirable in you or me that God should grant His mercy. He didn’t look down and see us as productive, attractive, or worthy people of His compassion. When we talk about our inheritance, I think the first thing we should remember is that the inheritance we deserve is eternal death in the Lake of Fire. Death should be our inheritance. This is the first reason why God is blessed is, it is because God acts in mercy to save us. The second reason according to I Peter 1:3, “God has blessed because God brings about new birth to transform us.” In our sinful state we were dead, unresponsive, lifeless toward God. So according to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again. This is the doctrine of regeneration or rebirth. Just as your physical birth caused you to inherit a sin nature and you entered into an earthly realm, so your spiritual birth causes you to receive a new nature, inherit a new nature and enter into a heavenly realm. The Bible presents our spiritual position in the past tense emphasizing that it is as good as done. Ephesians 2:6, God says “He raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Physical birth brings us into a world that will eventually perish. Spiritual birth brings us into a world where there is hope for the future. It’s a completely new start. Being born again brings you into a new relationship with God. You are now a useful instrument in His hands. Now you can bring glory to God by praising Him, praying to Him, reading His Word, and having a joyful relationship with Him. Being born again also brings you into a new relationship with others. All of a sudden, you have a new family. You are loved by people who have the same motives in life. By the people who have the same desires, who want the same thing. To know God and love Him forever. You have a new compassion for the lost who were just like you, lost and without hope. Your desire is to see them repent and be born again as well. Being born again brings you into a new inheritance. God has a rich inheritance for His children, it's better than any inheritance you could find on earth. He offers it to each child at the moment of Salvation. When my wife, Audree and I created a will, we intentionally added an “after-born children clause” to ensure that any children we might have or adopt would be included in our inheritance. This was not a hard decision; we knew that we would love any child that God gave us and we’d want them to receive the benefits of being in our family. When God causes you to be born again into His family you too receive a glorious inheritance that He has prepared for His children. You didn’t do anything to earn this inheritance just as you didn’t do anything to cause your physical birth. You just caused a lot of pain for your mother and expensive hospital bills and a hassle with the insurance company. Well, you didn’t do anything to cause your spiritual birth either. You were passive in the process. That’s why it says God has “caused you to be born again.” Looking again at verse 3, we’re talking about the content of our inheritance. As subpoints, we’ve seen that it begins with a blessed God who 1) acts in mercy to save us, 2) who brings about new birth to transform us, and 3) who offers a living hope to rescue us. I Peter 1:3 again says, “God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” When we are born again, not only are we made alive, but our hope is alive. This is not wishful thinking but it’s real, life-giving, confident assurance that Believers possess and that we know one day we will be raised from the dead to live with God for eternity. Our hope hinges on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Turn to I Corinthians 15. The Corinthians were confused about the resurrection. Some were arguing that the resurrection of Believers is a hoax and that the dead are not going to be raised at all. Paul writes in I Corinthians 15:3-8, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas (Remember Cephas is Peter, the author of I Peter), then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. After that, He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” Don’t let anyone accuse you of believing in the resurrection with blind faith. Blind faith is an unquestioning faith that doesn’t take evidence, proof, or reason into account. No! Belief in the resurrection is based on the evidence of many eyewitnesses. When Jesus was raised, He appeared to hundreds of people, including His closest followers, and 500 Believers at one time. Skip down to verse 13-14 in this chapter. “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.” Now verse 16-19, “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” You, see? The resurrection is central to Christianity. This passage says that if there is no resurrection, then there’s no reason to be a Christian. You could throw it all away because this life is it. So, we hope for the resurrection, but then what? What will happen? What is our inheritance? Our inheritance is not intangible. Eternal life is not the Platonic idea of floating on clouds with harps and halos. No, our inheritance is real. It is physical is. One major aspect of our inheritance is our glorified physical body. Paul discusses the resurrection body starting in verse 35. “But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?’” Verse 41. Paul writes “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.” In other words, Paul is talking about the splendid variety of God’s universe, and just there is splendor in the universe so there is splendor between the earthly body and the heavenly body. Verse 42-44 “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a corruptible body, it is raised an incorruptible body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” Skip down to verse 50-53. “Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the corruptible inherit the incorruptible. Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on the incorruptible, and this mortal must put on immortality.” Our inheritance will be glorious. This passage tells us that we’ll have a changed, incorruptible, glorious, powerful body. It won’t be subject to decay, to weakness, to death. It will be the same body you and I have now, but transformed and glorified. Will you have the same scars? What age will your resurrection body be? Will you be able to teleport through doors like Jesus did after the resurrection in John 20:26? We don’t know. But one thing we know for certain is that we will be like Jesus. And in the End, another marvelous aspect of our inheritance, is that we will live in the New Heavens and the New Earth. Revelation 21:3-4. It says “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. The first things have passed away.” The New Jerusalem will be awesome. It will be a beautiful city, with gates of pearls, an incredible display colorful stones everywhere you look. Revelation 22:3-5 says, “There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His slaves will serve Him; and they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night, and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them, and they will reign forever and ever.” There is so much more we could say about our future inheritance, but my point tonight is that we’ve been given a living hope. A real hope. We must walk in that hope. We must think about it. Dwell on it. Consider our living hope when you’re discouraged. Consider our living hope when our plans have failed, when your health has failed, when people in your life have turned their back on you. Because having a living hope makes all the difference in how you handle the remaining years of your life. In 2020 in Chile, a team of 33 miners were working deep inside a mountain, excavating copper, gold and other minerals. Suddenly, they began to feel vibrations in the rocks. There was a massive explosion, and the passageways were filled with dust. The men discovered that a single block of stone as tall as a 45-story building and weighing two times the weight of the Empire State Building, broke off from the mountain and fell through the layers of the mine. They were trapped a half mile down. The men inside were devastated. For the first 17 days they had no contact with the surface, no confirmation of rescue. Nothing. The men became unraveled. Morale started slipping. Fights broke out about food rations. They only had enough food for two men for 10 days. Arguments arose over survival strategies. Some men began to become withdrawn, some stopped talking, and the men had concerns that the company or the government might not ever rescue them. But all that changed on day 17 when a drill from the surface broke through. The miners attached a red-letter note to the drill saying, “All 33 of us are in the shelter and we’re well.” They soon received word back from the surface that help was on the way. Even though they would not be rescued for another 52 days, the morale of the men transformed significantly. Knowing that the rescue was on its way was the hope that they needed to work together and to survive. The miners began to cooperate with each other. They created routines and scheduled things. On the surface, rescuers and family members made a makeshift tent city around the mine called, “Campo Esperanza” or “Camp Hope”. On day 69, the miners were rescued one by one, lifted out of their rocky tomb by using a capsule that fit through a 28-inch-wide shaft. As you can see, hope makes all the difference. Real hope changes your words, your attitude and how you live. As you think about this, do you possess this living hope, personally? Is your life characterized by anxiety or does your day-to-day behavior make it obvious that you believe in God’s plan for the future? Do you live with confidence that God is going to do what He said He would do? The born-again Christian is given a living hope, and it is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the content of our inheritance; our blessed God has acted in mercy to save us. He brought about a new birth to transform us and has offered a living hope to rescue us. For our second main point, we want to look at the Changelessness of our Inheritance. You see, no one looks forward to an empty inheritance. I was reading about a very wealthy woman from New York, nicknamed the “Queen of Mean” who upon her death, in her estate plan, shockingly disinherited a number of close family members and left $12 million dollars to her little Maltese dog named, “Trouble.” This, of course, triggered costly probate battles but it seemed like that was the woman’s intention all along. Point being, you can’t trust in earthly inheritances. The Jewish Believers would have known this word inheritance because God promised an inheritance to Abraham. Genesis 13:14-15, “Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him. Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your seed forever.” Notice the verb tense, I will give this land. Abram’s inheritance would be given in the future at an unspecified time. Abraham never actually received his full land and full inheritance in his lifetime. Stephen recalled this in Acts 7:5, “But He [God] gave him [Abraham] no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground. Abraham lived as a sojourner, as a foreigner. When Sarah died, he had to buy a burial site from the sons of Heth, which was the only piece of land that he legally owned. So, did God’s promises to Abraham fail? Was Abraham’s inheritance lost? No. Hebrews 11 says that Abraham was looking for the city which has its foundations, whose architect and builder is God. He was looking for a better country, a heavenly one, a city that God has prepared. In addition to Abraham, the nation of Israel would also have been familiar with this concept of an inheritance. In Deuteronomy 15:4-5 it says, “However, there will be no needy one among you, since Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, if only you listen obediently to the voice of Yahweh your God, to be careful to do all this commandment which I am commanding you today.” You see Israel’s reception of God’s inheritance was conditional, it was based on their obedience to God’s Law, the Mosaic Law. They couldn’t keep it. They wouldn’t keep it. As a result, they too did not receive their inheritance. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. When they went into the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, they were dominated by their enemies. The Philistines, Moabites, Canaanites, Midianites, and Ammonites all oppressed the nation of Israel because God was judging them for their disobedience. In II Kings 17:6, “the king of Assyria captured Samaria and took Israel away into exile to Assyria.” With sobering clarity, the next verse says, “Now this happened because the sons of Israel had sinned against Yahweh their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt and they had feared other gods.” Now if you were a Jewish Christian in the 1st century living in one of the five Roman provinces in Asia Minor, reading I Peter 1:4 about a promised inheritance, you might easily think, how do I know I’m going to receive this? Abraham did not receive what was promised. Israel did not receive everything that was promised to them because of their disobedience. What if I do not receive my inheritance because of my disobedience? I may be born again, but I’m not perfect. Will God reduce our inheritance if we sin against Him? Will He change our inheritance if we are unfaithful? Can God keep our inheritance intact? Turn back to I Peter 1:4 and let’s read about the changelessness of our inheritance. Verse 4. It says, “to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you.” With poetic beauty, Peter uses three words that begin with the Greek letter, “alpha”, and end with the same syllable, to describe our eternal inheritance. Incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. In Greek it’s aphtharton, amianton, amaranton. Incorruptible, aphtharton, means imperishable or undecaying. In secular Greek, this word was used of something that was untouched by an invading army, something that was left intact. The Bible describes God, our resurrected bodies, and God’s Word as incorruptible. They cannot be changed; they will never perish. Diamonds could last a billion years under stable conditions, but even them, they’re corruptible. They can burn, fracture, and turn into graphite under extreme pressure. On the other hand, our inheritance is incorruptible. The second adjective used is Undefiled, amianton. Undefiled means without flaw or defect. The word is applied to Jesus the great High Priest in Hebrews 7:26, to marriage in Hebrews 13:4, and pure religion in James 1:27. This is an inheritance that is unpolluted or unstained by evil. No sin can taint the purity of our inheritance, not even our own sin. Even the most beautiful man-made creations are flawed. Corners are never straight, musical notes are never perfect, and calculations contain errors. But our inheritance is not a man-made creation. It’s undefiled because it’s given by the undefiled God. Lastly, our inheritance is Unfading, amaranton. It does not wither. James 1:11 uses the antonym of this word. James says that “the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.” Fading is not just for the rich. Every human life fades in death. Even the name that’s inscribed on your tombstone will fade under the elements over time. But the Believer’s inheritance will never fade away. Peter goes on to describe this inheritance as “having been kept in heaven for you.” This verb, having been kept, is a perfect passive participle meaning that God is the one who kept it from the very beginning and will keep it for the future. The beginning of what, you might ask. Ephesians 1:4 says, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” If you question whether or not God will keep your inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, consider the fact that He’s already been keeping it safe and secure since before the world was made, some 6,000 years plus. How can this be? What assurance do I have that my inheritance will be given to me? What if I do something so foolish, so sinful that it causes me to be excluded from God’s will? After all, wills can be changed. Just like it did for “The Queen of Mean” and her estate, just because you think your name is written in your family will does not mean that it won’t be written out! Our next point, we’re going to discover the Certainty of our Inheritance. In I Peter 1:5, Peter writes “to those who are protected by the power of God through faith for a Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Protected means kept safe or carefully watched. Protected is a military term. It describes the way ancient commanders would mount guards at the gates of the city as sentinels in order to protect the people from harm. The guards were to display their weapons and show that they’re ready to fight, or to protect, ready to do their job. But the semantic range of the word not only includes the idea of protecting someone from danger, but it can also mean to prevent someone from escaping. It is used both ways in the New Testament. For example, in Philippians 4:7, Paul says that “through prayer and thanksgiving, God will protect or guard believers with His peace. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Also, in II Corinthians 11:32, Paul uses this word to describe the way the ethnarch was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize him. “There the ethnarch, governor, was guarding the city because he was trying to prevent Paul from escaping.” God guards His children in a similar way. The old Robert Robinson hymn is true, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” You see, if we had it our way, we would forfeit our own inheritance. That’s because in our sinful condition, we are in love with this world. We were sinfully attracted to the things in it. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. These are the things that are in the world, and these are the things that we are attracted to if not for Christ as our Lord. We’re prone to believe the lie that these things will offer happiness and satisfaction when they never do. We would marry ourselves to this world if it weren’t for God’s merciful protection. Turn to Ephesians 1. Like Peter, the apostle Paul magnifies God for what He has done for us. We are going to start in verse 11. Ephesians 1:11-14, “In Him, we also have been made an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, to the end that we who first have hoped in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the word of truth, the Gospel of your Salvation having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” You see our inheritance is certain because God has sealed us with His Holy Spirit. A seal was an official mark or identification stamped on a letter or contract. The recognizable seal proved the authenticity of the letter. The Holy Spirit indwelling Believers is God’s seal on us. It’s a pledge, a down-payment, a guarantee of more to come. This sealing and pledge points to the doctrine of eternal security or perseverance of the saints. A true follower of Jesus Christ cannot lose his Salvation. Satan cannot steal it, the world cannot damage it, and you cannot walk away from God, not because of the power of your endurance but because of the power of God’s protection. Notice who is acting in these verses I’ll read for you: Jude 24, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy.” John 10:27-28, Jesus says “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. Romans 8:38-39. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” As you can see, Salvation is completely a work of God. God does it all. God causes you to be born again, God gives you a living hope through His Son, God grants you an eternal inheritance, and God protects you from all harm, within and without. So, what’s your response? What’s our response? How will we respond to such an incredible gift? Well God does require a response, and it’s there in I Peter 1:5. It says, “we are protected by the power of God through faith.” See the certainty of your inheritance rests on the power of God through your faith. God requires faith. Hebrews 11:6, “and without faith it is impossible to please Him.” Acts 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” Now I know I’m talking to many professing Believers in Jesus Christ here in this room. At one time, if you are a professing Believer, you felt convicted, you may have closed your eyes and prayed a prayer to accept God’s gift of Salvation. But may none of us be fooled into thinking that one-time faith at the moment of conviction is all that is required to receive an eternal inheritance. One-time faith is not true faith. One-time faith may occur because of an emotional worship service, or because you were in dire straits, or because of external guilt pressed down on you by your friends at a campfire, or maybe it came from your family. Or a shallow desire from within to please another person. One-time faith is fake faith, God hates fake faith. Instead, God demands genuine, personal, and continual faith. Your faith needs to be alive. Your faith needs to produce works. John Wesley was the second son of Samuel Wesley, a religious man and priest in the Church of England. His mother, Susanna, was a brilliant daughter of a Puritan minister. Susanna was known for reading the Bible, praying, and ministering to her children diligently. In 1711, she began to meet with each of her 19 children alone weekly for half an hour just to talk about their faith. It’s no wonder that in 1724, their son John, decided to become a priest himself. He was ordained four years later. At Oxford, John Wesley and his brother Charles, formed a Bible study group that was derisively called Methodists because of their emphasis on methodical study and devotion. It was also called the Holy Club due to their frequent communion services, charitable deeds, and for fasting two days a week. In 1735, John and Charles set sail for Georgia as missionaries with the aim of spreading the Gospel to the Native Americans and serving as pastors to the English Settlers. The only problem was that John Wesley had fake faith. He wrote in his journal, “I went to America to convert the Indians, but oh, who shall convert me? Who, what, is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief?” He described his faith as disciplined and religious but not genuine. It was rooted in the things he had done for Christ rather than what Christ had done for him. He wrote, “I had, even then, the faith of a servant, though not that of a son.” But on May 24,1738 at a meeting on Aldersgate Street in London, John heard someone reading from Martin Luther’s commentary in the book of Romans. The text discussed the supernatural change that God brings about in a heart when someone puts their faith completely in Jesus Christ alone. Wesley said, “I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for Salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” It was at that moment, when John Wesley realized an eternal inheritance and was protected by the power of God through his faith. Growing up in a religious household does not secure your inheritance. Going to seminary does not secure your inheritance. Becoming a missionary or practicing good deeds with extreme discipline does not protect your heavenly inheritance. God uses means. God protects your inheritance through faith. Now for those of you who are true Believers, for those of us who have a living and an enduring faith, what does the Bible say to us? What encouragements or warnings are written for us? For that let's turn to Hebrews 3:12. The author of Hebrews is writing to believing Jews. These are partakers of the heavenly calling, verse 1. Hebrews 3:12-14. “See to it brothers, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “TODAY,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.” Do you see the warning? Remember, this is written to Believers, and yet he says watch out, guard yourselves against the temptation to have an evil, an unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. Do not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. He talks to these Believers in such a way as though they could lose their Salvation, it is as though they could apostatize, abandon the faith. This is a good question for us to think about. If our Salvation is eternally secure, then why does the Bible warn so strongly against apostasy, abandoning the faith? We know the reason is not for God’s benefit. God does not warn us this way because He is afraid that we might slip through His fingers and elude His grasp. No, God warns us about apostasy for our benefit. He warns us about the danger of leaving the faith, so that we would react and examine ourselves carefully and make sure we know where we stand. II Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves.” Turn to I John 5. If you are ever doubting your Salvation or you feel that you are really struggling to know whether you’re saved or not. I encourage you first of all, to know that you’re asking the right question. Way to be obedient by examining yourself and putting yourself to the test. Second of all, God has answers for you. Go to His Word to learn how to have assurance of your Salvation. I John is a fantastic place to start because apostates fail the test. Here are four tests from I John starting in chapter 5. Test #1, Apostates fail the test of assurance when they deny Christ. I John 5:10-12, “The one who believes in the Son of God has this witness in himself. The one who does not believe God, has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness which God has borne witness about His Son. And the witness is this, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” So, it’s stated positively and negatively in verse 12, you must believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, in order to have eternal life. Test #2, Apostates fail the test of assurance when they practice sin. Turn back to I John 2:3-6. “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, truly in him the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” Do you know Jesus Christ? Do you keep His commandments? Do you walk in the same manner as He walked? No one is perfect. Verse 1 says Jesus is the solution for that, but is it the practice of your life to keep His commandments? Is the pattern of your walk to be more and more like Jesus Christ. Apostates do not have a desire nor a practice of keeping Christ’s commandments. Test #3, Apostates fail the test of assurance when they do not love Believers. Turn to I John 4:7-8. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Verse 11, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Do you love your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ? Look around you. Do you have a desire to help them, nurture them, pray for them, and see them grow? Let’s not leave this in the abstract, how do you love them? Do you spend time with them? Do you look for ways to be around them and get involved in their lives? If you haven’t yet, consider some practical ways to love others here in this church. We can pray for each other; we can take each other out to lunch or coffee and talk with one another about the Lord. Talk with each other about what God is doing in their lives, visit each other in the hospital, serve each other’s needs. Whatever it might be, we have to get involved in one another's lives if we are to love them. Loving your brother is a mark of a Believer. Apostates fail this test. Test #4, Apostates fail the test of assurance when they apostatize. Turn back to I John 2:19. Apostatize means, is the act of abandoning the faith. I John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they were of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be manifested that they all are not of us.” False believers don’t endure. They depart from the faithful. Oftentimes, they take others with them. Really this means that apostates were never Believers to begin with. They were fake Believers, counterfeits. They prove it by not persevering. So, Believer, make sure you pass the tests. Confess that Jesus is the Christ, forsake sin, love Believers, and endure with Christ until the end. God will be faithful to His children. If you are truly His, your inheritance is certain. Turn back to I Peter 1. Let’s continue dwelling on the certainty of our inheritance and let’s look at the last statement here in verse 5. I Peter 1:5, it says, “Who are protected by the power of God through faith for a Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Our inheritance can be summed up in a word, Salvation. Oftentimes, we use Salvation to refer to the act of being saved but here it refers to the future glory that all Believers will enjoy and notice the language here. This Salvation already exists. It simply needs to be revealed. Revealed means to take away the veil or the cover. One commentator described it as being like a new car that’s in the showroom and it’s about to be unveiled and revealed and put out on the floor for the customers to see. Christians, at this time, if you’ll bear with the metaphor, are the ones who get to take it for a test drive. The official unveiling, Peter’s phrase, the last time, refers to the revelation of Jesus Christ. Read the next verse, verse 6 with me, it says “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.” Peter thought that the last time was very close. He believed that these trials were temporary, they might only be for a little while and that they had a purpose. Verse 7, “So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Throughout this letter, Peter is keenly aware that Jesus is coming back to be revealed, to judge, to show His glory, and to crown the faithful. Peter was faithful. Yes, he made his share of mistakes, poor guy, they’re immortalized in Scripture for us all to read and learn from. He rebuked Jesus, he spoke ignorantly at The Transfiguration, he boasted falsely at the Last Supper, and he slept in the garden when he was supposed to be praying, and most severely, he denied His Lord three times. But Peter didn’t resign. He didn’t lose faith, instead he grew through the knowledge of God and the power of the Spirit. The same way you and I grow in faith. The Bible does not record how Peter died but early tradition states that he was martyred two years after he wrote I Peter. Writers such as Clement and Eusebius stated that Peter’s wife was led out to die before him. Peter reportedly encouraged her, calling her by name and saying remember the Lord. Peter too was martyred under Nero’s reign according to tradition, being crucified upside down, because he refused to be crucified like his Lord. If that tradition were true, then I believe Peter and his wife faced their death with confidence. They knew that death could not separate them from the love of Christ and that their inheritance was certain because it was protected by the power of God through faith. We have a tendency, don’t we, to put people like Peter and Paul on a pedestal because of their great faith and their incredible work that they did for the church, for the Lord. But may we remember that we too possess the same Spirit. We have the same God. We have the same inheritance awaiting us. We have every reason to be just as faithful with our time, with our testimony to the lost, with our love for other Believers. May God use us to do great things for His glory. My prayer is that by studying this marvelous passage of Scripture, you and I have a greater hope for our eternal inheritance. My deep desire is that as we critically think about the content, the changelessness, and certainty of our inheritance from God, we’ll be stirred up to serve. We’ll be encouraged to love our God, and we’ll feel ignited to live boldly and passionately for Him to a lost and dying world. It was JI Packer who said, “The goal of theology is doxology. The study of God should lead to the worship and praise of God. Worship is our reasonable response to news about our inheritance. So, let’s worship God this week. Let’s pray together. 1