Grace to You Weekend

John MacArthur: And this inheritance can never perish, never be stained, never fade and is secured to us and we to it. And Peter says, I don't care what your physical circumstance, I don't care what your earthly condition. You ought to praise God for that.

Phil Johnson: Welcome to Grace to You Weekend, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Several years ago, one of the most popular athletes in professional sports said that even after winning multiple championships, earning tens of millions of dollars, playing a game he loves, he admitted there's got to be more than this. He had all the wealth and fame he had ever dreamed of, but it hadn't brought him the satisfaction he craved.

Now, a testimony like that should resonate with you if you're a Christian. It confirms what the Bible says, even the best this world can offer won't bring ultimate fulfillment. So what does promise ultimate joy and deliver every time? Consider that as we continue John MacArthur's study called Our Great Salvation. And now, with today's lesson, here's John.

John MacArthur: Stephen Charnock writing in that great classic on the existence and attributes of God said, regeneration is a universal change of the whole man. It is as large in renewing us as sin was in defacing us. Regeneration. What's the result of it?

The result of it is we are born again to a living hope. A living hope. What does he mean by this? Well, a hope which is perpetually alive. A hope which has a quality of life. You say, why does he say that? In contrast to the hope of men, which is always a dying or a dead hope. You realize, don't you, that all hope that men and women have in other than Jesus Christ is a dead or dying hope. The world knows only dying hopes.

At best, all the hopes and dreams of men will die when they die, if they haven't died long before. That's why the scripture says, if in this world only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable. You're a miserable person if your only hope is in this world because it'll all die. They all die. Death cuts the nerve of all hope. But we have an undying hope. We have a living hope. A hope that never dies. A hope that comes to complete, total, final, glorious, eternal fulfillment. That is our hope.

The hope as Peter says it in 2 Peter 3:13, for a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. That's our hope. An eternal hope. That is the hope that sustains us. That is the hope that God in his wonderful grace and through his marvelous promise will fulfill. And that's what causes Paul to say, for to me to live is Christ and to die is what? Is gain.

How can it be gain to die? How can that possibly be true? Because then your hope becomes reality. To die is gain. To gain the glorious sight of God. To gain the glorified presence of Jesus Christ. To gain the full and uninterrupted and unhindered fellowship and enjoyment of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, angels, and saints. Death is gained because we gain a room in heaven's glorious splendor. And death is gained because we gained the unreserved and full fellowship and service that God designed us for. To die is gain because we gain the perfection of eternal holiness, eternal perfection, eternal righteousness, freedom from sin.

To die is gain because we gained the the royalty, the honor, the glory of heaven. We gained the pleasures that are at thy right hand forevermore. And so William Gurnall says that death, death is not something that a Christian fears. In fact, he says, hope is the saint's shroud wherein he wraps himself when he lays his body down to sleep in death. Hope. Hope for the resurrection of the spirit. Hope for the resurrection of the body.

And what has given us that hope back to verse 3. It's through the resurrection of Jesus Christ out from the dead. The means then of our receiving this inheritance is the new birth, which gives us this living hope in the coming of that inheritance and that hope is built on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. John 14:19, Jesus said, because I live, you shall live also. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life.

And what a wonderful thing. He then proved it by raising Lazarus from the dead to demonstrate that indeed he was. And he said, whosoever believes in me shall never die. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the great resurrection chapter, in verse 17, it says, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins. That's it. And even if you hoped in Christ in this life and that was it, you're damned.

But Christ came through the grave and took the key and unlocked the door of the treasure house of hope. The resurrection of Christ then is the crown of his atoning work. He shows us that he and his death has canceled the sins of the world, satisfied the righteousness of God, conquered death, and thus our hope is a living hope. He came out from among the dead to give to us the same incorruptible life that we might have a living hope, a hope that never dies.

And all of that is ours through the new birth, through regeneration, the transforming power of God. So the inheritance then has as its source God, as its motive mercy, as its means new birth. Let's look at its nature. This is so wonderful. Verse 4 says, we will through the new birth obtain the inheritance, which is three things, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. This causes us great joy to know that we have an inheritance, which first of all is imperishable.

Imperishable. Aphthartos means basically not corruptible, not subject to passing away, or not liable to decay or passing away. But beyond that, it has been used in secular language, secular Greek, to speak of a very interesting concept, and that is to refer to something that was unravaged by an invading army. Unravaged by an invading army. That's an interesting thought.

If you take that thought back to the Old Testament, you will remember that when God gave to Israel their inheritance. Their inheritance was the land of Canaan. Do you remember that? The land of Canaan was the inheritance of Israel. I will give you this land. The land that flows with milk and honey and so forth. They had then an earthly inheritance. But many, many, many times that earthly inheritance, Canaan was plundered by invading armies. Plundered by enemies. Ravaged by enemies.

And there may be a sense in which that word is enriched to us if you understand it in that kind of connection. That the Old Testament inheritance, the land of Canaan, an earthly inheritance given to Israel was plundered and ravaged and devastated and destroyed and leveled. But you have an inheritance that will never be ravaged, plundered, devastated. It's imperishable. A fortune that can't be spent, and so it can't be diminished. A treasure that can never be taken, stolen, robbed, plundered.

You see, that's exactly what Jesus had in mind in Matthew 6 when he said, lay your treasure up in heaven, where moth and rust does not corrupt and thieves do not break through and steal. Put the treasure where it is safe. Where it is imperishable. Listen, there's no place on this world where you can do that. You think you're covered, you got your treasure over here and over there and you've got your goods and your bank accounts and your bonds and your stocks and certificates and whatever else you're storing it up. It's all perishable. And if it happens to survive this world until you die, it'll all perish when you die because you won't be able to claim any of it.

But the treasure that God has given us in the eternal inheritance of salvation, yet to be revealed in the last time as our full and final glorious salvation, is a treasure that will never be ravaged by an enemy, will never be touched by an invading army, will never be taken by a thief, will never be moth-eaten or rusted. It can't be touched. Second word is undefiled. Amianthos means unstained, unpolluted. Unstained with sin, evil, decay. Everything in this world is defiled. Everything in this world is stained. Everything in this world has been touched by sin. Everything in this world, do you get this, is defective. Everything.

Everything fails. That's why the Bible says in Romans 8, the whole creation groans waiting for its adoption, waiting for the glorious manifestation of the sons of God. The creation is stained, it is defiled. There is moral leprosy that has corrupted everything in this world. I mean everything. We live in a polluted world. We breathe infested and infected air. And we transmit it to everything we touch and the pollution isn't smog and the infection isn't AIDS, it's sin. It's sin. All earthly inheritance is defiled. But there is an inheritance that is not.

All the best of this earth is dung, rubbish, manure to Paul, but not that treasure which is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, he says in Philippians 3:7-9. That's an inheritance that is not stained and not defiled in any way. How wonderful. Where's your focus? Where's your treasure? The third term he uses is one word, unfading. The new American translates it will not fade away. It's the word unfading. It's basically used of flowers that decay, that wither and die.

And it suggests to us here that we have an inheritance that will never lose its supernatural beauty. It'll never fade. It'll never grow old. You see, the kingdom of heaven has no decaying elements. It has no sin. Nothing perishes, nothing is defiled, and nothing fades away. All the strokes of time can't touch it because it's in a timeless place. All the taint of sin can't touch it because it's in a sinless place.

Peter says that when the chief shepherd shall appear, we will receive a crown of glory that is unfading. Unfading. Oh, how wonderful. How wonderful. And because of our inheritance, which can never be corrupted, and never be defiled, and never fade away, Peter says we ought to rejoice. We ought to bless God. We ought to adore God. The last point that Peter makes, and a rich one, is the security of our inheritance.

You know, you'd say to yourself, well, it would be wonderful if we could enjoy this inheritance. If we could really rejoice and bless God, but I'm afraid we might lose it. How do we know we won't lose it? How do we know that somebody won't come and take it? How do we know that it can't be plundered or stolen? Peter wants to answer that. He wants us to enjoy the inheritance without that fear.

So in verse 4, at the end of the verse he says, reserved in heaven for you. Did you get that? Somebody might say, you know, somebody else might get this. What happens if if under this persecution and under this hostility and under this rejection, and under the difficulties of the time in which I'm living, what happens if I somehow fall into sin and I forfeit this and somebody else gets it? And so Peter says, it is reserved in heaven for you.

Wonderful. The word reserved means to guard. It's guarded in heaven. And the already existing inheritance is presently under guard in heaven. Presently being and continually being guarded for you. Wow. And where is it being guarded? In heaven. Is that a safe place? That's the safest place there is. Safest place there is. That's the place where moth and rust does not corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal. Jesus said, that's the safest place there is.

Heaven will never know any invasion. Heaven will never know any spoiling of its treasure. Heaven will never know any laying waste, any defacing of its beauty. Heaven will never have armies tramping into it to fight against its inhabitants. Heaven will never experience some coming and taking away its glories as booty. Not heaven. The treasure is secure.

And somebody's gonna say, yeah, but I know the treasure's secure, but how secure am I? Maybe I could blow it. There are some you know who teach you can lose your salvation and somebody else gets the whole thing. Maybe I can lose it. So he says, it's reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God. Not only is the treasure guarded, but you're protected. Isn't that wonderful? You're protected.

Am I protected? Yeah. What am I protected by? The power of God, the omnipotence of God, the sovereign, almighty power of God. You don't have to fear. Beloved, we might as well rejoice. You understand that? You might as well rejoice. Nobody can steal your treasure, and nobody can disqualify you from receiving it. You say, don't I have any part in this at all? What if I just turn my back and curse God and walk away? Well, let's look what the verse says.

Who are protected by the power of God through faith. That's your part. God works that in you. Your continued faith in God in Christ is the evidence of God's keeping work. God didn't save you apart from faith, and God doesn't keep you apart from faith. When God saved you, he energized that faith in you, and as he keeps you, he energizes that faith.

Faith is kindled and preserved and made strong by grace alone. Even the faith is by grace. Grace, he says, reaches into the heart and the soul and works spiritual effects. Boy, that's wonderful. So that while you have on the one hand, God in his power shutting the lion's mouths and protecting Daniel. You have Daniel's faith at its peak. The two always go together. They always go together.

The protection of omnipotent power and the perseverance of faith. It isn't apart from faith, it's through faith. So that the true believer is not only protected by God, but is given a sustaining, persevering faith. As I said before, you weren't saved apart from faith, and you aren't kept apart from faith. You were saved through faith, and you are kept through faith. That's why it's so ludicrous for people to say you can be a Christian even if you don't believe.

Not so. God doesn't protect you through sovereign act, independent of anything that you do. He saves you through sovereign act by activating by grace your faith, so that you continue to believe. Beloved, what has God given to us for which we should adore him? Peter says he's given us an eternal inheritance. He's given us a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last season.

What he means by that is we haven't yet entered into the fullness of it. We haven't yet experienced all there is of it. That still waits the revelation, the revelation obviously of Christ in all his glory that comes in the last time. We have a taste of it now, but not the fullness. But God has granted it to us, it is now an inheritance. It is a an inheritance which we possess in some measure, but not yet in all its fullness.

But which is guaranteed to us. God is the source, mercy was the motive, and that's so wonderful, because he gave it to us not because we deserved it, so we don't have to keep deserving it to keep it. He gave it to us because we were so miserable, he had compassion on us. And no matter how miserable we will be after that, we'll never be as miserable as we were before that. And so he will continue to have that same compassion. And his mercy will be new every morning. And the means by which the inheritance came to us, the new birth, which has given us this living hope based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ out from the dead.

And this inheritance can never perish, never be stained, never fade, and is secured to us and we to it. And Peter says, I don't care what your physical circumstance, I don't care what your earthly condition. You ought to praise God for that. You ought to bless God for that. May our hearts do that very thing. Let's pray together. Forgive us, Lord, for taking for granted that reality, for which we will spend eternity in constant praise. Lord God, how this shows us the sinfulness of our own hearts. Thank you for unmasking that. Give us a new compulsion to live in the heavenlies, to invest in eternity, to long to be with you, and to endure anything in this life for the sufferings here are certainly not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be ours in that day when we see Christ face to face. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Phil Johnson: You're listening to Grace to You Weekend, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current series is titled Our Great Salvation. Well, John made it clear today, your inheritance as a believer is secure. Obviously, it's comforting to know an inheritance is awaiting and can't be taken away, but perhaps you find yourself wishing that you knew more specifics about your heavenly inheritance, as well as what to expect at the moment of death. I talked about that with John in studio not long ago. Here's what he said.

John MacArthur: Yeah, I think it was Woody Allen who said, I don't mind dying, I just don't want to be there when it happens. Um, you will be there when it happens. So yeah, you will have a you'll have an eyewitness account to give for all eternity on your death. Um, I think that part of the lack of interest in heaven is the ignorance on heaven. I just, I don't, I don't hear this much. I don't know when the last time I heard a preacher preach on heaven. There are a few books that have been around over the last years.

Phil Johnson: Yeah, you have one.

John MacArthur: Yeah, but you don't you don't hear much about it. And look, this is where we're all headed. Look, I can go back to the days when Patricia and I were going to take a long-awaited vacation and we'd stack up brochures just to look at what the brochures said and photographs to fill our hearts with anticipation for wherever we're going to go. The Bible will do that for you with regard to heaven. If you don't have the enthusiasm that Paul had when he said far better depart and be with Christ, then you don't understand heaven. So to help you with that, we have developed a booklet titled The Truth About Heaven. It's free to anyone who would like a copy. No need to settle for fictional accounts of heaven supposedly from people who went there and came back. No need to be ignorant. The Bible says a lot more than you might think. If you're a Christian, you need to know what is being prepared for you in the presence of the Lord. The title again, The Truth About Heaven. It will take you all the way from the apocalyptic visions of heaven in the book of Ezekiel to those in the book of Revelation, giving you the composite clear picture, one that you probably have never had of the glorious realities of our future home. Along the way, this booklet dispels popular myths about heaven and clearly spells out the only way that you can get there through faith in the saving work of Christ. If you want a copy, just ask us.

Phil Johnson: That's right, friend, you don't need to be ignorant about the glorious future for you if you're a believer in Christ. I encourage you to ask for John's booklet, The Truth About Heaven. We'll send it free of charge to anyone who asks for it, to be encouraged by what's waiting for you if you're a Christian, request your free copy of The Truth About Heaven when you contact us today. Call us at 800-55-GRACE. You can reach our customer service team Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 4:00 Pacific time. You can also request your booklet from our website, gty.org. Again, the title of the booklet to ask for, The Truth About Heaven. We'll send it to you free of charge. Our number one more time, 800-55-GRACE, and our website, gty.org. While you're at the website, gty.org, keep in mind that you can access thousands of free Bible study resources there. You can read daily devotionals, you can listen to thousands of John's sermons from 56 years of his pulpit ministry, and you can dig into the Grace to You blog. At the blog, look for the series of articles called The Believer's Inheritance. It's a helpful supplement to John's current radio series. Our website again, gty.org. Now for our entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to watch Grace to You Television on Sundays, you'll find it on Direct TV channel 378. And then be here next week as we continue John MacArthur's study called Our Great Salvation with another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace to You Weekend.