Please open your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 21 and we'll be looking at verses 15 to 17. Deuteronomy 21, 15 to 17. It reads like this. If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and they have born him children, both the loved and the unloved, and if the firstborn son is of her who is unloved, then it shall be on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, that he must not bestow the firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn. But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all he has. For he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his. Now, this text here has much to say to us about many practical areas. Let's pray before we go into it. O Lord, we thank You for every word of God is pure and is adequate to equip us for every good work. I pray now that You would come and do that with us. That You would take us as an unformed people and form us up. according to Your ways. Lord, that You would come and bless us with all of the things that You have delivered over to us, that we would accept them with all of our hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, this passage of Scripture speaks again of God's love for sinners. And He reminds us in this whole principle of the inheritance that it is God who covers all of our long-term liabilities. Think on that for a moment, because I think this is really the heart of the shadow, the image that is here. An incident in Luke chapter 2 shows us that there are many tensions in families surrounding this whole matter of inheritance. One jumped out of a crowd to the Lord Jesus and said, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me?" And Jesus answers him and helps him to understand what's really going on in his life and in his heart. We'll get to that later. But, Deuteronomy 21 is the first time that there's a didactic text on inheritance. Now, the principle has been mentioned a number of times in the narratives and the first born receiving inheritance is assumed in a number of the stories that we've already read in the Pentateuch. But this is the first didactic text on this matter. It's relevant across a whole range of subjects that press in on us every day. And it's, I would just suggest too, it's even important, it's even relevant in view of the vote in the House of Representatives yesterday that voted for a new health care package that is rife with all kinds of violations of some of the principles that are here. And so. As we think through this text, as we labor in it, I want I want to give you seven things that I want you to notice in this text as we go through it. So I want to just sort of cast a vision for it first and then we'll move into it. But I want to give you seven things that I want you to be looking for in this text. And the first is, see a world at war with God to cover up His will, to provide an inheritance in heaven. Problems that would disfigure God's principle of inheritance come from the following places, from social convention, from personal feelings, and from mistakes in the past. Those are all in this text here. So, see a world at war against God in His desire to grant inheritance to His people, beginning with the firstborn, which is an image of greater things. Something greater than this son is here in this text. And then see an exposition of love. Every word of the law is an exposition of some aspect of love. The law is summed up in one word, love. And whenever you read anything from this law or this text here, it's not appropriate to say, this doesn't mean anything for me. But it is appropriate to say, this shows me what love looks like. Too often, we've been looking for love in all the wrong places, but you can find it right here in this text. Okay? The only right place to look for love is in Holy Scripture, and He'll tell you how to work it from there. And then thirdly, see, and this is really a fascinating aspect of this passage, see how Moses shows fathers what love looks like. And this is where Moses shows fathers what love looks like. He brings direction to fathers how to think and act regarding the inheritance of their children. It's a way of love that he's given fathers to exercise. And he explicitly gives instructions to fathers for what they do regarding their firstborn sons and their inheritance. And Moses acknowledges problems in this text, sin in families, gut-wrenching decisions that have been pressed upon you because you pressed sin in you. And you've done things you shouldn't have done in your marriage, and now you've got all kinds of problems. What do you do when immorality or divorce or polygamy has afflicted your family? What do you do? Well, God is so kind to give us laws to help us understand how to deal with the problems that we've created because we've departed from God's laws. How many of you have departed from God's laws and are suffering from and have difficult questions before you because there are things that weren't done in the past and now you've got to play clean up? Moses is helping his people play clean up with problems that afflict them. So, see how Moses shows fathers what love looks like. You know, it also shows how to deal with problems that come from The death of a spouse according to the sovereignty of God. What do you do when you had a wife who died and then you were married again and you had more children? What do you do? What do you do with these children now that God, that God in his kindness has given to you? These are some of the issues that are here. Number four, see how a father's authority is limited. See how a father's authority is limited. Moses limits the authority of fathers in homes. as it's related to giving inheritance. He does not allow fathers to act on emotion or their personal feelings of love or in response to manipulation, but he calls fathers to act on principle. He calls men to be men and do the right thing and to set their own little personal feelings aside for a while. And, you know, this is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of our salvation, is that we are still left with many feelings. And many of those feelings were formed through affections wrongly developed. And so, we have help from God. But here, that help is expressed in the fact that Father's authority is limited in the home. And He can't do whatever He wants to do. Then also, number five, see a vision of fatherhood and sonship. The fatherhood of God is the pattern for earthly fatherhood. Everything in this book is a shadow of greater things to come. You find in this earthly father something greater, the fatherhood of God. And it's interesting and so strange to think that God would take sinful fathers like like are here in this room. And He would give them the same kind of work to do that their Father in Heaven has been given. Isn't that amazing? That He would say to a father, give your son an inheritance. Why? That's what I do. Be like me. Here's a vision for fatherhood here. God the Father is the pattern. God the Son is the pattern for sons and daughters. So we find we find a vision for fatherhood and sonship in this passage of Scripture. God makes fathers on this earth, his representatives, and he gives them a work to do that mirrors his own work. And I think it's pretty obvious to most of us that social conventions, our background, our culture, all kinds of things, even our government tries to steal away the vision of fatherhood and sonship that God has established. And right now, government is your father. in America. And what do you do? What do you do when you live in a land like that? You've got to do your duty. That's what you do. So then, sixthly, we'll see how a fatherhood responsibility is revealed, that fathers are obligated to evaluate their sons. The moral character of their sons. God does not bless evil sons. He disinheritance. He disinherits them. That's what we find out in the next text after this one. And then finally, finally, number seven. As we move through this passage, this last thing that I've already alluded to a number of times, even just in the few minutes we've been speaking, one of the most heartwarming aspects of this passage is that it is clearly a foreshadowing of greater things. So see the picture of the gospel. See the picture of the gospel that's here. See inheritance. See a father's love. See a father's judicial obligation to do the right thing for his sons. And there is an inheritance waiting for us in heaven. I said at the beginning, I'll say it again, God has covered all of your long-term liabilities. Do you just rest in that today? Do you understand that? You didn't bring anything into this world. You can't take anything with you except one thing, and that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation, the eternal inheritance, that it is secured for you in heaven. And so God and Christ has provided an eternal inheritance for us. Well, this passage of Scripture has a number of problems within it. It begins with a very startling assumption, polygamy. It assumes polygamy. And that's very clear from the passage. And all of these glorious things that I've just spoken of are communicated through sinful problems that are resident within a family. And isn't that such a, really not a surprising thing. God glorifies himself in the lives of sinful families who are grappling with trying to bring themselves in order. So let's move into the text here. We begin with messy family life. We begin with the problem that is presented in verse 15. Sin forces difficult decisions along the way in a family life. Culture introduces poisons in the family life that destroys relationships. And we see that in vivid color right here in this text that there is There is a family that is broken by polygamy, by an immoral influence in their family. Here, what we find, we find a culture that has been corrupted by polygamy and marriage and its proper use had been set aside. And now there are problems in a family and their tensions in giving inheritance to the firstborn. in a family that has been broken. There are many examples of this in Scripture. Rachel and Leah, Solomon, Gideon, David, Sarah and Hagar. This is the thorny problem of this text, that it shows the clay feet of people to set aside the commands and the principles of God regarding marriage. So, it assumes the existence of polygamy. Now, let's not get too self-righteous about this, as one man said in our Bible study on Tuesday. He said men sleep around and they're totally irresponsible. And what is polygamy anyway? Polygamy is just part of one big giant category. It's just one little check in the category of immorality of some kind. It's the next step from adultery and fornication. The heart of polygamy is no different than the heart of clicking on a wrong internet site. It has to do with licentious thinking about sexuality and marriage and men and women together. That's all polygamy is. It's just another category. We say this is the big sin of the Mormons, but it's not really just the big sin of the Mormons. Polygamy is big in the news today, and we're seeing a culture shifting in favor of it. Even a couple of seasons ago, there was a sitcom called Big Love that really described a polygamous relationship. Truth is, it really wasn't much more than the kind of licentious love that's on television and every other single program. They just put a different name on it, made it look a little bit different, shined it up and make it look a little sweeter than rank immorality that we see normally in these kinds of stories that are played before on our television sets. What's happened with polygamy in our own culture is that it's really the result of kicking the biblical definition of marriage in the head. Once you kick that in the head, once you redefine marriage not to be one man and one woman, then all bets are off for anything. Once you destroy the biblical definition of marriage, as we've done in our culture, we should never be surprised that polygamy now is cool. And that's what's happened. No fault divorce laws create these kinds of relationships that are implied here. The no fault divorce laws in our nation today. really create no different issues than are in this text right here. This is very contemporary. This is not some weird ancient Near Eastern polygamous scene. This is normal life on earth with some names on it that sounds strange. We shouldn't try to divorce ourselves from this problem here because it's really quite relevant. Polygamy is widespread in our nation, but we just call it by a different name. It's lust run amok, and it's the same thing. Honestly, I'll just have to tell you, I'll give you a perspective on this that I believe someone also brought up in our Bible study on Tuesday, that our current dating culture, the system of dating that really rules the way that people get together, really promotes the acceptability of multiple partners. It kind of gets us in the groove, gets us going in. Well, I like you. No, I don't like you anymore. I'll pick somebody else. I don't like you. I'm going to go pick somebody else. I don't like you. I'm going to pick somebody else. I'm going to get really close to you. My heart's going to beat a thousand miles an hour. We're going to hug. We're going to kiss. Nope, I don't like you anymore. Let's go again. The whole dating culture really creates a mentality that's perfect for the creation of a polygamous culture. because it creates one mini-marriage, one mini-divorce after another, as hearts are brought together. If you pick up Time, the Newsweek magazine, and people who comment about the state of marriage in America, they use a term called serial monogamy. It's not really much different than what's happening here. where people have multiple partners, not at the same time, but in series. This is not a new problem here in an immoral culture of America. We saw in Genesis chapter 4, 19, Lamech was the first one to take two wives, and it's been happening ever since. So it's not a new problem at all. And so there are, in this first verse of 15 that we're considering, There are all kinds of problems loaded into it. All sorts of family problems. There's divorce, polygamy. Marriage partners are at odds about a particular issue. A wife is unloved. Imagine that, to have a wife unloved, or a child of that wife unloved. It implies unloved children in a family. So it brings up all kinds of difficulties and temptations that happen in families. And then there's sinful behavior regarding an inheritance. There's manipulation and greed and deception, just like with Jacob and Esau that's implied in verse 15. It's all loaded right here. There's a whole world that is brought together in these three short verses that reveal all kinds of problems in families. Now, one of the issues that you have to grapple with when you deal with polygamy, as you do in verse 15, is that there's not one single command in the Bible against polygamy. You can't find it. Read the Bible till your eyes bleed. There are no commands against it. And you've heard some people say many times, well, if there's no command, I guess I can do it. If there's no command against it, then it must be lawful. That's absolutely ridiculous. There's no command against polygamy. But what is there? There's a broad principle that's communicated right at the beginning of Scripture, that the two shall become one. Two, one, does one look like Polly? No, it does not look like that at all. So that's why marriage has always been... marriage, one man and one woman, that's the biblical definition of marriage, has always been the standard for God's people, regardless of what happened with Abraham, regardless of what happened with David and Solomon and Gideon and all those others. They were sinning. They had departed from the will of God. So there are other things like this. You say, well, there's no command against it. But there are many things like that. There's no command in the Bible that a woman can't be an elder either. There's no command. Thou shalt not be an elder if you're a woman. But everywhere else in Scripture, elders are men. Everywhere. And so you don't need a command. to prove that something is not right. You need to understand the will of God on all matters. And there's no command in the Bible that crack cocaine is unlawful. There are many things that are not explicitly condemned in the Bible, yet they are condemnable because of principle. Polygamy is one of them. Even though there's no explicit command against it, it rails against every other command and principle that we find in Scripture. We've already read in Deuteronomy 17 where kings were not allowed to multiply wives that his heart might not be turned away. That was in Deuteronomy 17 verse 14. I would just like to suggest that this is just another one of the proofs amidst a long line of proofs of what a mess polygamy creates. It creates a terrible mess in a family. It's just another proof of the illegitimacy of polygamy. It creates nightmares for man, woman, and child. for bank accounts. It just messes everything up. And so monogamy is assumed. The two shall become one flesh. It's the biblical pattern. And so there's much that we can say really about the biblical doctrine of marriage. But this is very serious. The doctrine of marriage is very serious. How serious is it to have a polygamous marriage? How serious is it to have serial monogamy as part of your pattern? How serious is it to allow immorality into your marriage? How serious is it to lust after another man or another woman? It's extremely serious because it contradicts the gospel. Marriage is important because it's a picture of the gospel. Once you redefine marriage, you've redefined the gospel. So, when the subject of polygamy comes up in verse 15, we're talking about some gigantic issues that go straight to the heart of the gospel. How many brides are there? There is the bride of Christ. And there is a husband in the gospel. And husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. So when you redefine marriage, you redefine the gospel. So the issue that's before us is a huge issue. Now, the issue before us really is the issue of inheritance. But the whole issue of inheritance is challenged by this other problem, this other sin problem in the family. And we see it here. There's an unloved wife and a child in this family. This was the case of Jacob. One was loved and the other was unloved. And it begs the question of unloved children in the family. This is a problem that is in this text. And how to treat the son of an unloved wife. And so there is first a problem, two wives, and then second, there's an opportunity, and that is bequeathing inheritance. And how do you do that in the right way? And then we come to the time of inheritance is coming in verse 16. So if you're following with me in the outline, this is really the second major point in this and try to understand this text. The time of inheritance has come. And so it says, then it shall be on the day he bequeaths his possessions to his sons. Do you see what Moses is saying? He's talking about a day. He's introducing something that's going to happen. And it's there's a particular day in which inheritance is to be given. And then and then there's a command that he not do something wrong on that day, because fathers often do the wrong thing on that day. because they don't understand what God has said about inheritance. And let's just stop for a second and just ask ourselves, is it possible that we don't know enough about God and inheritance that we would just do the wrong thing on that day? Because we haven't thought about it. We haven't considered it. We've not studied the Scriptures on inheritance. So, we're going to do the wrong thing. You know, there's a whole generation who never thought about it and they did the wrong thing on the Day of Inheritance. Because they just didn't hearken unto the Word of God. They thought it didn't matter. But there's a day of bequeathing that is considered here. You know, as you consider As you consider that day of bequeathing of an inheritance, consider what you're doing. Consider that you're doing what God has committed to do for His people, to grant an inheritance to His people, to give a deposit and a down payment, and then finally, to bequeath all of the blessings of that inheritance. In this way, fathers stand in the place of God, and they do They do something for God in this world that reflects His own glory. So, consider this for your own self. Consider that you are a man and that God has given you a responsibility to be like Him. And so, what this text would say is, don't do the wrong thing. Do what God has expressed in His will ought to be done. So, there's this day that is coming. So, before we move on from this point, let me just ask this question. Have you thought about it? Have you thought about what that day should contain? Have you prepared for it? Have you set yourself to prepare an inheritance for your children? That in the heavenly vision, fathers They created inheritance for their children. That's one of the things they're thinking about. They're not just spending it. They're not just wasting it away and whatever they want on this thing or that thing. They're thinking about something greater. They're thinking about standing in the place of God and bequeathing an inheritance for their children so that there would be. really a vision of God in the world. It's not that the money is all that important. What is important? But that it reflects the goodness and the beauty and the kindness of God to cover all of your long-term liabilities in eternity future. To take care of you all the days of your life in an eternal inheritance that will never fade away. And that's what you're doing. Yes, it's only money. It's only money. It comes and it goes, but it's really just a symbol of something greater. So consider the privilege that you have to stand before God after you have learned from him how he thinks about inheritance. And then there is a status to acknowledge. There's a status to acknowledge. The status is the first born son. And there is a this is a sort of a position in a family. We might like to think that there are there really is no that everyone has equal status. Well that's true on one level. Right. But it's not true on every single level. At least the way that this text seems to communicate it and. There are firstborn sons now scripture records many problems with firstborn sons Beginning with Adam Adam rebelled Adam the firstborn rebelled against God and he was cursed and yet God redeemed him we find Cain the firstborn son of Abel who killed his brother and We find Noah, who had three sons. We have find Abraham, who had two sons. And scripture records many problems surrounding first born sons. There were, you know. There was rebellion in the hearts of many of the firstborn sons of Scripture. Let that be a warning. All these things are written for a warning for us. Who are the firstborn sons in this church here today? Please understand that God has given you a position in the family. He has bequeathed upon you a particular status in the family. What will you do with that status? It matters. It matters what the firstborn son or daughter does. It casts a paradigm. It leads other children in the family in a direction. It can destroy years of family worship if there's a rebellious firstborn child. Do you understand that? You've probably seen that. Or it can make it a blessing like heaven itself. It matters. There's a status. There's a role here that God has brought to us You know, in this passage of Scripture. One of the young men said this week, the first born son is the father's 401k. I thought that was an interesting comment. It really does sort of sort of harken to some of the things that are here. And it's an interesting way to look at it. Jesus, Jesus spoke. Of the fact of rebellious sons, when He said, I say to you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. In Matthew 21, Jesus is acknowledging that it is the heart turned toward God that gives one the kingdom. That is what gives one blessing. And so it's not just where you are in station, but also where you are in heart. Because the kingdom may be given to someone else. Firstborn sons, if you hate the Lord, And what we find is that the Gentiles actually inherit the kingdom of heaven. Paul Paul refers to the Lord Jesus as the last Adam. The first man, Adam, was made a living soul, but the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. So we have the first born son, Adam, and we have the first born of all creation, the Lord Jesus Christ. really casting a vision for the gospel. The first one fell. The second one, though, was a life-giving spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it matters what firstborn sons do. Think of the Lord Jesus as the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn in the family of God. He is the pattern for all firstborn sons. Sons who are firstborn in this room, let me warn you. Let me just so warn you. Also, at the same time, encourage you. Don't let your eyes depart from Jesus as a warning. But think of this, Jesus Christ is your pattern for how to be a firstborn son. Be a life-giving soul in the family of God. And all of this imagery of firstborn that begins here in this text, It carries through in Scripture. And it's finally culminated in the coming of the firstborn, Lord Jesus Christ. Who, what does He do? And then He makes all of His sons and His daughters the firstborn. And He takes them to heaven. Every little girl who trusts in Jesus becomes a firstborn son. Every person in the church of the part of the true church is a first born son of Jesus Christ because they were given a life giving spirit from him. So there was there was a status to acknowledge a status to acknowledge. Then there was an obligation to give. There was an obligation to give and Here is the father is is obligated to give to his to his first born. There's sort of a legacy that that is being prepared here. Our sons take our names and that's one of the one of the one of the ways that we continue a godly legacy in the world is by is by giving by by communicating the name of Jesus, breathing it into the next generation so that when it is received, it becomes salvation for them. And they carry it on to in following generations. And but there's an obligation to give. We learn from first Timothy five, eight, that if a man doesn't provide for his own, he's worse than an unbeliever. And I think we should think in terms I think we should include inheritance in this provision. There should be spiritual provision. There should be physical, daily provision. And there should also be provision in terms of inheritance. Those are the three things that Father should do. He should provide all these three things for His family. We understand that economies rise and fall, and God has it in His kindness and in His providence. at either one time or ten times or maybe at the very end of the time of a man's life to take everything away from him in some crash or some calamity that God ordained to cause him to trust in God alone. So, we understand that there will be times when men's resources will be stripped away from them and they won't have them. There's nothing wrong with that. That's perhaps often one of the most glorious times in a man's life when he's deprived of the riches that he once had. And there's such happiness in that. And God often brings that to them to increase their joy. He sometimes makes them absolutely penniless so that they would know that God and God alone is their comforter and their sustainer in this world. And I know that's happened to many of you in your lifetimes. Maybe you're in there right this second. Here's what you need to know. It's that God is greater than this moment that you're in now. because He is a God of an eternal inheritance that will not pass away. And then the authority of the Father is limited. Do you see that? He must not bestow the firstborn. So, a father must not operate by his feelings, but by principle. We're so used to operating by our feelings that we just make decisions that are reflective of whatever the common flit of our emotions is. And God does bring men under obligation. But, you know, I was talking about this with my wife last night, about this whole matter of obligation. Yes, yes, you are obligated. But how sad it is that you would have to be obligated. Does any son want to be loved just simply out of obligation? Okay, there it is. There's not a son in the world who wants that. There's not a wife in the world who wants that kind of love. Just the love of obligation. Me husband, you wife. I obligate. No, no. This is not the love of God. This is not the kind of thing that God has. But He does obligate men to do the right thing. He wants His fathers to love. He wants His fathers to favor. And He desires his fathers, to treat their children by the book and by the heart at the same time. Both are important. If you take away the heart, you've so harmed a son. But if you treat him by the book and the heart, now you've got something. And how easy it is for parents to lose one or the other. If you lose the book, you lose your son. If you lose the heart, you lose your son. And I would just like to suggest, you know, this text here should help you understand which one you may have lost or whether you're operating with both. Yes, there are obligations. There's the book, but there's also the heart. How easy it is to lose the heart while trying to apply the book. It's one of the great problems and temptations of parents. Because they see the sin in their children and they apply the book, but they lose a tender-hearted love for their children. And so then all their children have is book and no heart. They have no love. And this happens. This happens in Christian families. We don't have perfect families. When you only operate by the book, then you create a legalist. You create a hard-bitten, maybe nice, polite young man. But in his heart, there's stone, because he's not known the tenderness of his father. Fathers have particular temptations in this. I think, my opinion is that fathers struggle with this more than mothers. that God has so designed mothers to have more tenderness for their children when they violate the book than their fathers do. And mothers tend to have more heart and less book. Obviously, there are exceptions to this. And fathers tend to have more book and less heart. And this often causes tension in families. It causes difficulty. So, I just want to remind us. Let's have a checkpoint. Let's do a heart check here. Do all we have is the book? If that's all you have, this should be a time. This should be a time of recognizing a sin that's so gripped your heart that you've thought that it was only about the book when it was not also about the heart. So there's an obligation to give. And then the authority is limited. And then The amount of the inheritance is established here. What we see that a father has to acknowledge a reality, he has to acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the first born. He has to acknowledge a reality and that you're feeling that his feelings should be regulated by God, that law is greater than family feeling. And that often our emotions distort our view of reality in the family. A father just can't make rules because of his feelings. And he just can't give an inheritance based on his own personal desires. Because his authority is based in the Word of God. Now, any authority that's not based in the Word of God is illegitimate authority. Yes, God has built authority and submission into his world through families and through governments and through relationships in the church. But it's not legitimate authority unless it's connected with the Word of God. And it has to be based there. Authority is easily abused. And this is one way that is abused by a father. So, fathers, you're not at liberty to do your own thing. You can't lead that little wife God gave you in your own way. You can't be a father to your daughter or to your son your own way. This is not your world. This is God's world. This is your father's world. And he calls you to be like him. And and so a father needs to acknowledge this reality that he is under obligation. And then a father needs to give faithfully, faithfully by giving him a double portion of all that he has by giving him a double portion of all that he has. And this law explains the law of limited primogeniture. What is that? It's that there's a firstborn son that gets a larger portion of an inheritance. It explains this law of generosity that God has given to fathers. Proverbs 13.22 says, A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. Proverbs 19.14 says, houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers. Houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers. That gives you an idea of what kind of inheritance you should. It should include it should include houses and riches. But he says, but a prudent wife is from the Lord. Wow, I love that. You know, how houses and riches are an inheritance from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord. Wow. Blessings, blessings are here. Proverbs 20, 21, an inheritance gained hastily at the beginning will not be blessed in the end. That has to do most probably with sons who have not been trained to handle money and they get too much too soon. Ecclesiastes 7.11 says, Wisdom is good with an inheritance and profitable to those who see the Son. So, the Father gives faithfully. He gives these things that Scripture speaks of. He does it as an act of faithfulness to His God because this is His Father's world. And then the Father needs to give proportionally. The oldest son has the duty to provide for the whole family, so he's given a double portion in responsibility and in resources. This is the way that God has ordered the world. You firstborn sons have a responsibility to take care of your parents, and there is a double portion for you to help you to do it so that you have the resources to make it happen. I mean, in some ways, this is kind of how a death benefit from an insurance policy is given out. It's just divided among the children. But in the kingdom of heaven, there's an acknowledgment that there may be one person in the family who has more responsibility and needs more in order to execute that responsibility. Luke 12, 47 says, He who has been given much, much will be required. And this is why the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12, 14, he says, now for the third time, I'm ready to come to you. But children ought not to lay up for their parents, but the parents for the children. That's the biblical pattern. Parents lay up for the children. And then they're enabled to take care of the parents. That's a properly ordered way. of doing it. Is it ever appropriate for a son to go help his father who came into calamity? Sure it is. It doesn't exclude that at all. But the basic principle, the thing that we ought to aim at, is that the parents lay it for the children so that there is a legacy that can be built upon that's greater. And so the portion is double. The Puritans, we give a portion at marriage and then a portion at death. Some profound questions have been asked along the way as we've been studying this in our Bible study. One of the questions is, what do you do when you're still losing and making money? What's the portion? What's the double portion? You've got to figure that one out. You just have to figure that one out. You see the principle. Now, go do the best you can with what you've been given, I think is what my counsel would be on that one. Do the math, figure it out. You know where you're at and what's all happened and maybe what may happen in the future. So, the firstborn son gets a double portion of the inheritance since he'll be the one who will be taking care of the parents. So, just by way of summary, parents have a duty to give an inheritance to their children if possible, if they have it. You can't suck blood out of a turnip. If they don't have it, they don't have it. That's the sovereignty of God as well. And we shouldn't obsess about that. Parents are also forbidden to set aside a godly son. And if there are no sons, the inheritance goes to the daughters. There's a beautiful story in Numbers chapter 27 of the daughters of Zelophehad. And these daughters, they were in the wilderness with their parents. And their father died in the wilderness. But he wasn't one of the rebellious ones that followed Korah. He was a good man, but he died in the wilderness. And so, there they are. Their father had no sons. And so, these daughters went to Moses and said, what do we do? Do we get an inheritance? And Moses says, absolutely you do. So daughters receive the inheritance if there are no sons. Daughters are not left out of this picture at all. And so you say, well, I don't have a first born son. That doesn't matter at all. The principles apply across the board. Where there is no son or daughter, the next of kin receives the inheritance. You know, so how does this all apply? I mean, the promised land doesn't exist anymore. What does this mean for us? I think it means that the principle of proportionality should be acknowledged and honored in our thinking about inheritance and that inheritance should be handled through the family, not the state. We live in a time where the state has become the family and it does everything for the family. And it does it through taxation. And the IRS is now taking the double portion from our parents. And they're doing something wrong. We should give it to them, but they're doing something wrong. We should pay our taxes. We're obligated to pay our taxes. God will take care of us. But let's don't look through fuzzy glasses and say this is a beautiful thing. It's not a beautiful thing at all. It's a wicked, ungodly thing. It's a departure from the law of God. We live in a nation that's departed from the law of God. The state wants all of these obligations for themselves. They want to take the money for it and then distribute it however they desire. That's the environment we live in. And then there's an explanation of the reason for why all this. For he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is His. This is the idea of the beginning of the strength. That children have to do with strength. This is part of the whole biblical doctrine of children. That they are strength. They're beauty. They are wonder. They're a blessing out in the world. And they should be fortified and cared for. They should receive an inheritance to promote their activities in the world. We know the prodigal son went and got his quickly. And we know what he did with it. But the reason is for strength. Not to fritter it away, like the prodigal son did. But to use it well. And to help sons to know how to do well with it. To spend their money well. I happened to have a son who, when he was very little, when he walked into a store, his eyes were like magnets. And he was just mesmerized by thousands of things in the store, and he wanted every one of them. And at the beginning, he would bring me everything his hands could reach. Papa, can I have this? No. Can I have that? No. No. Well, I was training a son not to deal in doodads, not to think that he had to have everything. In fact, there's a season to have nothing. And I will have to say, he's done well. He's done very well. And he's not a son who has to have everything. But sons have to be trained. They are the first. They're the beginning of strength. And so they need to be trained. They need to be prepared to handle the resources that will be put in their hands so they don't abuse them and use them for wrong things. So they're not like the prodigal son who just spends them on their pleasures, but spends them on things that are beautiful and good. Well, let's move to application. First of all, I would just like for us as a people to just soak in something for a minute. Okay, can we do that? I just want us to soak in something that I think we should just acknowledge, is a very beautiful thing. It's a good sauce. It's a wonderful thing that God has given. And just rejoice. Let's just rejoice in God's passion for orderly, principled, loving family life. For beneficial, good family life. It's not run on the emotion of some dad out there. But it's run on the beautiful commands of God. God is so kind to come and try to order our families in a way that is pleasing in His sight and that is beneficial. All of His paths are peace. Every word of God is pure. And this principle is the same. Moses is just making it really clear that you can't make up family life as you go along. It's not a random process of trial and error. It might feel like that. But it's not a matter of personal creation. It's a matter of obedience. So, let's just rejoice that God has given us ways. Let's do those ways. Just soak in it. Soak in God's good ways and commands for your family life. And He desires to govern it. Yeah. God wants to run your life. He wants to run your family. He wants you to do your family His way. Oh, that's legalistic. No, that is the heart of God Almighty. He desires it to be done a certain way and not to be done another way. Let's don't be stupid about life and think All laws are legalism. That is absolutely insane. It's an insane thing to say if you read the Bible, because God does desire certain things to be done in a certain way in His families, and God has been kind to us so that we don't have to go figure it out ourselves. Number two. This is a question. Is there order in biblical thinking in your own house regarding inheritance? Are you calibrated? Are you just thinking sort of like the way you've always thought about it? We all grow up thinking a certain way about inheritance. We've had people give us little one-liners all our lives to help us think about inheritance. Maybe you've had some of those one-liners. Well, I ain't going to give my kids no inheritance. I'm going to make sure they do what I did and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and make it on their own, just like I did. How biblical is that? It sounds good, but it doesn't stack up that well with this. So, is there order and biblical thinking in your own house Regarding inheritance, regarding retirement, are you working a plan for the retirement of your parents and your own retirement that fits the things that you read in Scripture? Or do they fit the things that you read in Obama's health care policy? I mean, really, there's a law somewhere. You're going to obey a law somewhere. Let's don't pretend that there's laws and then there's not law. No, that world doesn't exist. For some, it's either going to be Obama's laws or God's laws. You just take a choice. Maybe it's the law of your great-grandfather who said, well, I can give no inheritance to my children because I pulled up myself and my bootstraps. What's a law? That's a law. Everybody lives by a law. You know, it's hard. It's hard for particularly, you know, my generation and the previous generation to even think biblically about this. Somehow, somehow we quit doing it for about two generations. And now nobody even has any memory of it, of how to think about inheritance. So, you know, honestly, the operative default position of most parents, my parents' age, is this. They would never dream of being taken care of by their children. They would never dream of it. It's sin. It's a horrible idea. It's anathema. It may actually just be pure selfishness. I don't want to be bothered by these kids. I don't want to have to live in somebody else's different kitchen. It may just have to do with selfishness. Is it possible? Is it possible that the excuse that so many parents give for why they come and live with you in their senior years when they're failing, it's really just selfishness. It's masked. It's, oh, we don't want to be a burden. The truth is they don't want to be burdened. Is it possible that that's it? It's possible. Don't want to be bothered by children. Don't want to be bothered by a wacky schedule in a young family. Maybe that's God's design. Maybe God likes wacky schedules in young families. Maybe He likes what it does to old people. One of my most favorite lines of my father in the last five years was I was sitting with him and he said, son, it sure is good to be with young people. And he was talking about me. I said, Dad, I'm over 50 years old. I ain't young people. OK. He said, well. So there's something there's something that happens when you're with young people, whoever, however you define it. I kind of like that tag. I'm going to start taking I'm a young person. So for sons, for sons and first born daughters, I'd like to speak to you directly through Proverbs 17. A wise servant will rule over a son who causes shame. and will share an inheritance among the brothers. So, this has to do with wisdom. Wisdom can trump position. Wisdom can trump position. Well, this whole thing is a shadow. This whole thing is a shadow for the heart of God to give His children an inheritance. And there are many principles of heavenly inheritance. This earthly inheritance that's spoken of here is a shadow of greater things. In my reading this last week, someone wrote, the Bible is your deed of inheritance. The Bible is your deed. Here it is. It tells you what your inheritance is. It shows the great inheritance that God has given. We first of all, I want to give you several aspects, several distinct aspects of this inheritance. And then we'll close, first of all. We are the children, the Bible says that God's people are his inheritance, that he inherits us. Isn't that amazing that we are part of the strength? We're the strength that he inherits in his kingdom. In Isaiah chapter 19, He calls Israel, My inheritance. He says that we are His inheritance. Number two, God Himself. Not only are you His inheritance that rises up to Him for all eternity. Secondly, God preserves an inheritance for His children. David said, Oh Lord, you are the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You maintain my lot. He said, The lines have fallen to be in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance. And he was talking. He was talking about his heavenly inheritance. Have the lines fallen to you in pleasant places? Have you just always thought about that in your earthly context? There's more. God has caused the lines of His inheritance to fall in pleasant places. The Lord will not cast off His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance. Psalm 94, 14. Psalm 47, 4 says, He will choose our inheritance for us. He will choose our inheritance for us. That should be a great comfort to all of us. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children. And if we are children, then we are heirs. We are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share the same sufferings, we may also share in his glory. Paul said now. I commend you to God and the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are being sanctified. Christ is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. In Him, we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His own will. And Paul prays that he's giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. And so God is a God who gives, gives an inheritance. And as I said at the beginning, you know, Christ is the firstborn. And so we are the firstborn. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. In Romans, Paul says, for whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. The firstborn among many brethren. He makes all of us who have repented His firstborn sons. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things, He may have preeminence. And finally, in the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, chapter 1, verse 5, we read, And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over all the kings of the earth, to Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood. It's so easy to see how this law of inheritance cuts quickly to the cross, to the blood, to eternal sonship, to the forgiveness of sinners, to the rescue of people who have messed up their families and messed up their lives. But have come humbly and cried out to God and said, O Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. I'm a son of the devil. Make me your son. That's what this text is all about. It's about the tender, loving heart of God who reaches down to make sons and daughters His own for all eternity to the praise of the glory of His grace. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this inheritance that you've cast a vision for in this passage. Lord, thank you. Thank you for taking care of all of our liabilities by your great fatherhood. You are such a good father to provide for your sons and your daughters so well. Amen.