like him. So Hebrews chapter 1 is where we were. I think I might have said 2, but chapter 1. And is it all right if I take a little after-dinner nap? All right, we're gonna be serious. So we looked at some of the Old Testament statements and New Testament as well, but talking about the many times and the many ways that God has spoken to humankind throughout the entire history of mankind. And what a gracious thing, what a statement that is about God, how good he is, how gracious he is to communicate with us, especially with sinful man in such a way as he does. But now, all of those many ways and many various times and ways that he communicated and spoke to man, he now at this last stage speaks to us in or by his son. And so we wanna think about what he's telling us. You know, by speaking to us by his son, one way he does that is by his word, because after all, he is the word. And so when that was written, It had not yet been compiled. It had not yet been completed. But now we have the completed revelation and so he speaks to us fully about himself through his word. He is the word. And so that's one way that he now speaks to us in his son. And in His Word, in fact, in this very second verse where we just dabbled a little bit, where it says, Then He tells us two things. He tells us something, more and more, something that He wants us to know, something that is revealed about Jesus in His Word, the One who is the Word, and He reveals these two points which we want to dwell on just a little bit. "...hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things." So how much did your grandparents leave you when they died? You don't have to answer that, but I'm just posing that question. Some of you may have received a good bit, some maybe not so much. How much are you planning to leave your children? Well, some maybe quite a bit, maybe some not so much. But let's put that then, with that in mind, what we know about airship and being airs. Now let's go back to what it said. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God has appointed air of all things. Doesn't say all things on earth. Doesn't say all things in heaven. and on earth, it says all things. He's the heir of all eternity. He's the heir of all the universe, and some are suggesting that there might be something beyond this universe, and I don't doubt it. And of course, all the earth and everything in it. He's the heir of all things. So, why is that exciting to know? What is there about that that he is the heir of all things. God has appointed him heir of all things. You ever miss an appointment? I've missed a few. Some of you are nodding your head that you've missed a few appointments. Have you ever canceled an appointment? God never does that. And he has appointed his son heir of all things. You know, sometimes people get written out of wills for bad behavior. Get a, made grandma angry, said, well, I'll just write you out of the will. God has appointed, and God always keeps his appointment. Jesus Christ, his beloved son, is appointed heir of all things. God never misses an appointment. And thinking about God never missing an appointment, we're reminded of a verse in Hebrews chapter 9 that says, It is appointed by the same God unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. That's another one of God's appointments, and we're all going to be there. on time and give an account unto the God who made us for His glory of the things we've done in the body, whether good or bad. So isn't it an amazing thing and a wonderful thing that by faith in Jesus Christ we are counted children of God by faith? And we are also counted joint heirs with Jesus. Oh my. More, more about Jesus. Can you drink that in, what that means? Not just that you'll get to enjoy, that you'll get to, like sometimes you go into, maybe you go on a tour of some wealthy person's mansion, Brother Kevin was telling me about, he used to do some chefing, and one of his big catering jobs was in a sort of a mansion, I imagine, and a vast kitchen, and he had to put on the spread for a whole bunch of people. But just doing that didn't entitle you to just move on in, did it? And act as if it were your own. But we're heirs with Him. That holds a lot of weight, if we but ponder it a little bit. And so, think about what it says in Romans 8, in verse 14. Who are the heirs of what Jesus has appointed heir unto all these things? In the whole universe, and if there are universes beyond, the whole earth and everything in heaven? We can't even comprehend all that is His, appointed by God the Father, that He is heir to it all. In Romans 8, chapter 14, it says, As many as are led by the Spirit of God. Are you led by the Spirit of God? If you truly believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior, you have been led by the Spirit of God to that faith in Him. You can't do that in the flesh. That is of the Spirit entirely. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now, there's a lot of people that name the name of Jesus that are not led by the Spirit of God. There's going to be a whole bunch of churchy people that show up at that appointed judgment of all men. And we, in Matthew chapter 7, we read about that. Only to hear the heir of all things say, I never knew you. They weren't led by the Spirit of God. They said, Lord, we've done many wonderful works in your name. but they were not led of the spirit of God. There's a lot of big things going on. We had that discussion at the table too. And God is not in all the big things that are being done necessarily just because they're big. He's the God of a still small voice. He's the God of two or three gathered together in his name. He's not just the god of the hills, he's also the god of the valleys. Aren't you glad about that? Because we all have our turn. We love the mountaintops, but you can't have a mountaintop without a valley or two. As a matter of fact, it's two for one, isn't it? I've experienced that hike, and have you, Warren? Every one good mountaintop, there's gotta be two valleys, one on each side. But I'm thankful, I'm thankful for that. Romans said, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not, ye, Y-E, I love that old English, all of you who are born of God, all of you who are saved in Christ, all of you who by faith are counted as the sons of God, who are led and walk in the Spirit of God. It's good to walk in the Spirit. It's good to be filled with the Spirit. We had that conversation at lunch too. We had some good conversation at lunch. And I'm thankful for those conversations. There's no place like being filled with the spirit. We can walk in the spirit and not always be very full of the spirit. Mark mentioned that in his Sunday school lesson this morning. And it's true, we can quench the spirit. We're either full of ourselves and not full of the spirit at all, or praise God, when we occasionally get full of the spirit, there's not much of ourselves to be seen. God likes that. And I like it too, speaking of my own experience. Isn't it strange that we so readily quench the spirit? and deprive ourselves of the sweetest experiences that this life has to offer. As many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. There's a lot of things that cause us to fear. Seems like that was another thing that was mentioned at lunch, but we covered a lot of ground at lunch today. That's why I didn't eat much. Somebody was concerned about that, that I was talking to, and I told them not to worry about it. This is much better. It's like the Lord said, I have meat to eat you know not of. And it's not fattening, but it's pretty thrilling. So I'm thankful for those things. Let me mark a place here and just pause. This is a non-paid-for public announcement. Apparently, one of the things that might happen in coming back right after lunch to preach is that I may be prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. So you factor that in when we make a final vote whether to do this or not. So let's get back to Romans 8, verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. Faith and fear, they don't go in the same sentence. The Spirit of God would not have his people fearful. When we're fearful, we're not trusting God. We don't believe that He has everything under control. And so, as I've told you before in other messages, when we experience fear, let there be a red light go off and say, warning, warning, warning, you're not trusting God. And you can take exception with that, but like one preacher said the other day, you can take exception to that, but you're wrong. I lied, said that two or three times, just very matter-of-factly, you know. You're wrong. Faith and fear don't go together. And there are no, there's no fine print about that. And our faith, and my faith, you know, mine gets weak sometimes, too. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, we're in Romans 8, chapter 14, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, Father. While I was at that service Friday and Saturday, I saw a very touching thing on the stage, on the platform. when Brother Hilly's father flew down from Michigan where he pastors, his father must be 85 years old if he's a day, I think. But boy, he can still preach good preaching. His father's a preacher. His oldest brother is a preacher, and he was there and preached. And Brother Hilly's a preacher. Isn't that wonderful? It was so touching to me when Brother Hilly's father got done preaching. Brother Hilly came up on the podium and they embraced. I was very jealous. I never had that kind of embrace. But God the Father has embraced me as his son. And what an embrace that is. we have received the spirit of adoption. He didn't just love us and die for us, but then he adopted us. You know, that's a consummate act of love, isn't it? To take someone with a different gene pool. Now, in God's case, he knows all about that gene pool. He made it. But human beings, we just think about it humanly, it's kind of like a pig in a poke, isn't it? You don't really know what you're gonna get. And a lot of people have been plumb shocked by what they got. God provides a grace to deal with that, and does. And I saw one case, Brother Dale Wallace's daughter, Mary Beth, or Lori Beth, she and her husband could not have children. So they adopted some. And the first daughter that they adopted was, I don't remember how old she was, she was approaching teenhood, maybe 10 years old, somewhere in that neighborhood, about your age, Micah. And she came from a real mess of a broken situation. And she was kind of like that Arabian horse that was given to my daughter, Carice, years ago. I'll tell you, that was a handful. He would hurt you. And this girl was a handful. She had a lot of anger. It's one of the sad things that happen with people from broken situations. They have a lot of anger. But you know something? God gave Lori Beth, and her husband, especially Lori, she was the most hands-on there on those kinds of occasions, but gave her great wisdom, how to tame that nature. You know what it was? Wisdom that operated by love. And then the Lord saved her. Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful change in that adopted child of God. The Lord knows how to change us, too. He adopts us. He gives us the spirit of adoption so that we become, by degrees, conformed to our eldest brother, whose name is Jesus. Oh, my. More and more about Jesus. These words are so powerful, we often just read right over them and don't think about what we're reading. We cry, Abba, Father. Abba really is saying the same thing. It's just the Greek, Abba, Abba, Abba. It's like Daddy, Papa, Father. What an astounding thing that a sinner like me A wretch like me can call upon God Almighty in terms like that? Abba, Father? I sometimes use that word. And the Lord does what fathers do. He responds to the call of his children. That's part of our inheritance. in Christ. And then it says, more to the specific point, the Spirit itself, and we're still in Romans chapter now, 8 and 16, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. If you cry, Abba, Father, out of your heart, the Spirit is saying, you are a child of God, you are a child of God, and you have this great privilege that's been granted unto you, a privilege, a love privilege. And he'll bring you through all your rebellion the same way that he gave Lori Beth the wisdom and her husband the wisdom. He'll love us right through until we are conformed in the same chapter to the image of his son. It's part of our inheritance. We're joint heirs with Christ. Notice what it says in 17. If we're children, he just said that the spirit beareth witness that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, that's what we're talking about, that Christ is has been appointed by God, the father heir of all things. And so if we have the spirit of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father, And if we're children, then we're heirs, we're heirs of God, and we're joint heirs with Christ. You think he wants us to get it? We're heirs, we're heirs of God, we're joint heirs. He knew it would be hard to swallow, hard to believe, hard to understand, hard to get our arms around it, and so he says it three times here. If you're children, you're heirs, you're heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, couldn't he have put a period after joint heirs with Christ? Don't we wish that there was a period there and that was the end of the discussion? Father knows best. We can't be joiners with Jesus if there were a period there. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our salvation. who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now sat down at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. If we suffer with him, that's part of being in the family. And God uses every tear, every sorrow, every loss, every grief to drive out that rebellion toward the end product of being conformed to the image of his son. Oh my. God knows what he's doing. I call to mind, again, the experience of this weekend. I've been in that church three times. The first two times, it was kind of the same experience, different reason for being there, but similar experience both times. I won't say much more than that. I don't want to say the wrong thing. But I can tell you one thing. This time was very, very, very different in a positive way. There was so much love flowing through every heart in that place, and God was showing his love and showing wonders. They were revealed. All those adopted children, I sat there and was thinking about several that I knew in that building. who had had great trauma, Troy Shepard. Battle with cancer a few years ago. Didn't know if he was gonna live or die. You know the story, almost all of you do, so I won't say it again, but you know, just to remind you, just thinking about things like that, looking around. None are exempt. who have been adopted by the Spirit of God and are joint heirs with Jesus, there are NONE exempt from entering into the sufferings of Christ that are used for God's glory." Stephen, you mentioned this morning, a character study of Stephen. There's a prime example, that is, a penultimate example of what he did in a time like that He recognized that this suffering was for the GLORY of God, and he wasn't going to miss out on it. Now, we're talking about levels of faith at lunch. That's about as high on the scale as it gets. But he's not been alone, as I mentioned in his lesson just briefly. We've read lots about the Baptist martyrs and the Christian martyrs across the pages of church history. And there's not a few, not a few, that while the flames were licking at their body, they had faith enough to sing praises unto God at that moment, or witness to those that were standing by, or to the executioner that lit the fire. recognizing that this was their final opportunity to glorify God and show what faith in Him can do. Oh, it's wonderful, but it's gonna cost you something. But remember, whatever it costs you, it's for your good. How do you know that? Because God said it was. Not because you can feel it, not because I can see it. But Paul said we know. And you can know it too. For our good always. And it's most good for us when we have sense enough or faith enough to seize the opportunity and glorify him in that trial, in that pain, in that loss, in that suffering. May God give you that grace. It's part of our inheritance. Paul got to the place where he said, you know, now that I understand it better, I glory in my tribulations. Are you there yet? Because it was only in those tribulations that he really Learn something experientially about God's amazing grace and strength. I talked to the Lord about that today when I was coming into this day. I told Bunny when I, after, I got up at 3.30 this morning to prepare. And at 9.30 it was time to go to church. I was out of time. And I told her, I said, I feel absolutely empty. Absolutely empty. She said, you'll be all right. And I said, I know, I just don't feel all right. That's that absence of faith. I believed it, but I didn't quite believe it. But I told him, I told the Lord, you know, conversationally, I said, well, when I am weak, I'm good and weak now, so you show me your strength. But I also, like I told our friends, I've got a lot of Ebenezer stones, quite a few of them, stacked up here along Life's Highway. And God is faithful and I'm thankful for it. He gave me strength. And I'll ask forgiveness for using some of that strength to wander all over the highway. But the Lord is good. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Glorified together. What does that mean, to be glorified together with him? Well the word means honor, praise, adulation, Exaltation. But it's also manifested. It's manifested. We mentioned, I think this morning, didn't we, a little bit? We mentioned the Mount of Transfiguration. They were in their glorified bodies. The Lord was, and so was Moses, and so was Elijah. They were in their heavenly bodies. They were glorified, so that's part of what it means. We take on, we get rid of, this robe of flesh, we drop and rise. I think we sing about that, don't we? And so to be glorified with him, we shall be like him. We will have one of those glorified bodies as part of our inheritance in Christ. More and more about Jesus. We know these things, but somehow they lose their grip on us, they lose their power, they lose their excitement, their wonder to us. And so it's good for us to think about it and delve into it a little bit more about Jesus. In verse 18, he says, I reckon that the sufferings, have you suffered as much as Paul has suffered for Christ? I don't think there are too many people that suffered as Paul suffered, and that's just one of the many ways that he was an EXAMPLE, an EXALTED EXAMPLE of what the grace of God can do, and WILL do. Nothing impossible with God. And part of what he was given, because God had CONFIDENCE in him. And what he would do with the grace of God in him, that he made such an example of him, and he lists his—I can't even begin to list how he was beaten with rods several times, and stoned and left for dead, and spent a day and a night in the deep, and people hated him, and they coveted together to murder him, and all sorts of things that happened to him, imprisoned multiple times. But didn't he write Romans? And what do we read next? The same Paul said, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed, not to us, in us. Oh, the little words of scripture. Does that do anything for you? In your present suffering, perhaps? Or does it cause you to wish that you'd handled the last suffering a little differently? Because none of it compares, not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed, not to us, but in us. We shall be like him. That's part of the joint inheritance, joint heirs with Jesus. I remember you mentioning that verse when you were in the hospital, I believe, with pancreatitis, maybe the first time, and were in such, am I right about this? Sometime you quoted this verse, I think, when you were thinking about the pain that you were in. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy. Am I mistaken about that? You don't remember it. In context, probably. Yeah, in that context, yeah. That's a good time to think about that verse, when you're hurting real bad, when you're feeling all hope was lost. You remember Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 said, We had the sentence of DEATH in ourselves. Brother Hilley had the sentence of death in himself. They said, they gave a very detailed account of his few days of experience. His wife wrote a journal about the things that were happening. And I mentioned part of that story, I think, before Sunday school this morning, but on the day of one of his surgeries, maybe it was the first or the last, I don't remember, I think it was the last surgery, it was scheduled for late in the afternoon, And they had put out a bulletin of some sort, and they got the information out to missionaries and churches all over the United States, all over the world, in Thailand and in Ukraine, in Romania, some of the same missionaries that we support down in Peru, South America, different places. And everyone was praying at 11 o'clock in the morning, Eastern Standard Time, for Brother Nate Hilley and his operation. His operation was scheduled for, I think, three or four in the afternoon. And all of a sudden, the doctor comes in to his wife and says, I just had a cancellation. I'm operating on you at 11 o'clock. What a coincidence. No, Rick's shaking his head. No coincidences with God. And that surgeon said when he got in there, he said, if you had waited, I forget what the minutes were, five minutes, four minutes, four more minutes, you'd have been dead. He had the sentence of death in him, didn't he? But what did Paul, I almost forgot why I mentioned that, Paul said, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that, that's the purpose word of God, isn't it? We had the sentence of death. Brother Hilly had the sentence of death in himself. Paul had the sentence of death in himself. And you may yet have the sentence of death in yourself in some life experience that God allows in your life, but it will still be THAT we trust NOT in ourselves, but in the living God that brought forth Jesus from the dead. That's the PURPOSE of God in THAT. He always has a purpose. And that purpose is good if you belong to him. That's part of your inheritance. It's a point at all things. And that's why Paul's able to say all things work together for good. to them that love God. Do you love God? Are you the called according to His purpose? Look with me, Colossians chapter 1, along this same idea of being joint heirs. And while I'm talking about joint heirs, you know, we're heirs by adoption. This is something I think Brother Pierce preached on many, many years ago. I remember it and I believe it's true that an adopted child has more rights in inheritance than a natural child. You can't take them out of the will. and they will inherit before a natural child. I believe that's correct. The significant takeaway that I'm confident in is that adopted children, by man's law, get more consideration than a natural child. And so we can make application of the special privilege place that we have in adoption. and in being joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And so in Colossians 1, verse 12, the same Paul writes, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us MEET to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. It took God to do that. What do you know about your sinfulness? What do you know about yourself that other people don't know anything about? I probably know more about myself in that regard than you do about yourself. Now I'm not gonna sit down with you and compare notes. But I know more than I wish I knew about myself. And I know that God knows more than I know about myself. So when I take that into consideration in reading a passage of scripture like this, when Paul says, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet made us acceptable, made us to be qualified to receive the adoption, to receive the inheritance, rather, of the saints of light. That is an amazing thing, that God could do that. It would take God to do it, that he would make us, qualify us to share in the inheritance. of the saints of light. And how did he do it? He tells us a little bit about that. "...who hath delivered us from the power of darkness." That's what's going on in our world right now, brothers and sisters. The power of darkness is in the ascendancy, and it's getting darker and darker and darker and darker because the power of darkness is being ALLOWED to RUN AWAY with the show. God is allowing that to happen, to bring in the prophesied closing of the age at some point in what I believe is much nearer than it's ever been for sure. But we have been rescued by faith in Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of God, by the preaching of the gospel, by the gift of faith in Jesus Christ. He has washed us and cleansed us in His own blood, not by silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ as a Lamb without blemish and without spot. He has made us MEAT, suitable candidates to be called, not sinners anymore, but the children of God, the children of light. and joint heirs with all things with his son Jesus Christ. How do you drink that all in? And how did he deliver us? God had to be delivered. into the hands of sinful men for us. And so he was delivered. And Peter, when he preached about it in Acts chapter 2, said, Ye by wicked hands have crucified the Lord of glory. But that Lord of glory was delivered into your hands by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. That's incredible. That's incredible. That we could be translated into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. We're not getting very far. But I'm gonna stop there. Some of you look sleepy. I'm not sleepy anymore. So I'm not gonna let you take a nap if I can't. So I'm gonna quit right there. I'm just kidding. You've been very good. It's been a good experience, a good experiment. And you know, it occurred to me when I was talking to Carice at the door after the morning service that this thought occurred to me for the first time. That one of the reasons the Lord moved upon me to go back to Plant City for another all-day session on Saturday, was to give me a wonderful, undeniable verification that it didn't matter how out of gas I was, he would take care of it. I believe that. I believe that. And I believe that's even why that gentleman came in this morning to the parking lot. Kind of, you know, it was, I don't, you know, just something else to think about and deal with, you know, unprepared. God said, I'll load your wagon and I'll show you. I can handle it. Praise God for that. Let us trust him more, more and more. And the more we learn about Jesus, more and more about Jesus, some of that learning that he talks to us in our suffering. Romans chapter five, tribulation, work, patience. You got enough of that yet? Be honest now. Tribulation, work, and patience. Patience leads to experience. What kind of experience? Well, nothing you'll find in the world. Experience with the Lord. experience with his faithfulness, experience with his love, experience with his goodness. That leads to hope. We need some hope, don't we? People are taking pills, people are taking drugs, people are committing suicide, people are doing all sorts of crazy things because they are being rendered hopeless! I'll tell you, to be in this world without God, well, the Bible says, if you're without God, you're without hope. No wonder they're so crazy. No wonder the world is turning into, as Brother Pierce used to say, before the Antichrist comes, this world is going to be one big insane asylum. And we're seeing that, because the Spirit, one by one, as the righteous are being taken from the earth and unconsidered, they're not being replaced one for one. And we'll thank God for hope, the blessed hope, the anchor for your soul. Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior? Do you have an anchor for your soul? There's only one. His name is Jesus Christ. The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. The one who is willing to die under the hand of God's judgment. for your sins, because He loved you that much.