You inherited a miserable estate. Wow. Welcome to church. Question 19 as we read and responded this morning. What is the misery of that estate where into man fell? All mankind by their fall lost communion with God are under his wrath and curse and so made liable to all miseries in this life. to death itself and to the pain of hell forever. Some of you are familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien's novels, particularly in the novels, but I think it comes through in the movies just as well. There's this literary pattern that he frequently employs, so if you don't know the story enough, it's okay. There's a pattern that he employs, and it's a great pattern. And particularly for maybe the audiences that he originally wrote to, it worked better. We don't think this will always stay. But this pattern that he employed was to give you intensity and to ratchet it and ratchet it and ratchet it up until seemingly you're at the edge of your seat. And then he gives you relief from the intensity. there's a big battle scene and then people are saved and they go off and they find rest and comfort at somebody's house or amongst cockatoo trees or something like that and they have this relief and this rest and whether you're aware of it or not what he's doing is he's bringing you up to this peak and then he's kind of letting you down easy and he's just giving you this comfort And so tonight, I want you to think of it in these terms, that you have a need. This need that you have, or this need that is that you are in this misery. And what I would guess is that when you, like me, are in misery, you seek relief. You know, when the intensity gets To this level, you look for comfort and help, relief. So tonight, what I want you to do is I want you to seek relief from your misery. If you've been following us going through the Westminster Shorter Catechism, you've been on this little trajectory, and part of the trajectory has been lately, Adam, and his sin, and then sin, and then how that sin is transferred to you, and it's just, and here's this aspect of sin, it's original sin, and now here's the results and the effects of this sin, and I just, week after week, it's, here's this sin ever before you. And for some of you, maybe you're just, you're thinking, is there no relief? Yes, there is relief. Tonight. There will be relief alongside this inherited miserable estate. And I want to enumerate them for you. Loss of communion with God. Under his wrath and curse. General misery in this life. Death and hell. How they're enumerated. I want you to find relief. Relief in Jesus Christ. You can find relief from your misery through faith in Jesus Christ. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2, 1, familiar? And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of the world. Ephesians 2, 1, part 2. Because of the fall, you have lost right standing with God. Remember this for all of you, that's everyone in here. Born of an ordinary human generation, you're dead. You're stillborn. You're outside of a legal relationship with God. The Bible gives you all kinds of metaphors, if you will, all kinds of pictures of what does it mean to be in sin, dead. unrighteous, unjust, outside of this legal standing. And you're unrighteous, and you're unrighteous in those two ways that were mentioned last week, that you carry this original sin, this lack of original righteousness, this guilt, this total corruption in your bodies, or total corruption in you. And so you carry original sin, and then you have all the sins that proceed from your nature of sin. You're not in a right relationship with God. But it doesn't stop there because the next thing that the catechism tells you is then the result of all this. You're destined for a miserable life. Now, we conjure up images when it says that and I want to be very, very clear that it doesn't just mean a depressed life or a life filled with tragedy or something like that. As I mentioned, all of you have miserable lives. Or at least did outside of Christ. Everyone has experienced what the Catechism will tell you is misery in this life. So what we have here again is this corrupted spring, Adam, and then this fountain that flows out of it, which is corrupted water, you and me. Everything being corrupt that flows from a corrupt spring. Your source was evil, you were evil. This is the estate that you inherit. You're sinful. You're in need of justification. You're miserable. You have this state of misery. You need relief. You need relief. You were dead in your trespass of misery. But what does it mean to actually be miserable? How does it say that you have a life of misery? How can I make the contention that you have a miserable life? Well, very simply. The first misery is that you have lost communion with God. But I want you to turn to John chapter 1. The first misery is that you've lost communion with God. However, Jesus Christ has come to restore that line of communication. John 1, 12-14 says, But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus Christ has come to restore the lines of communication that were lost in the fall. We saw last week, Romans 3, there is no one who seeks after God. There is no one who is righteous. There is no one who is going around looking for God to speak something to him. No, it was God's idea to come down to you. And He does, and this is what John tells us, the very thing that God had wanted to do from the very beginning, to dwell among His people. We see that in Jesus Christ He has come to dwell among His people. Remember, the Garden of Eden, it was God's garden. It was His tabernacle, it was the place where He was communed with, it was the place of fellowship, it was God's space, right here on this earth. And when Adam and Eve sinned, in Genesis 3, verse 24, it's the most horrific verse, if you ask yourself and think about it, in Genesis chapter 3. It says that He drove them from the garden of Eden. And then He stuck a big angel there and said, do not enter. Man lost the meaning of God. But God's desire was always to tabernacle with His people, to tent with them, to dwell among them. And John tells us that Jesus Christ came to dwell among His people. That was God's intention. And we see that in Genesis 3. Now turn to Revelation 21 verse 3. with them as their God. That's what Jesus Christ came to do to you. To open up that line of communication so that God can now be your God and He can dwell with you, among you. We see that ultimately as what will be fulfilled in eternity. God will be our God and He will dwell among us. The very thing He wanted to do right from the beginning. God dwells among you. But, indeed, you hear the Word of God regularly. You've lost communication. The communication lines are open. He dwells among you. But it's not a one-time event. It's an everyday occurrence. It's a weekly, in-church occurrence that you hear God's Word as He speaks. That's how we hear Him. That's how He's dwelling among us. The second misery that we find is that you're under God's wrath and curse. Turn to Galatians chapter 3 verses 9-11. So Christ has opened up the line of communication. But the second one is that now we're under God's wrath and curse. Galatians 3, 9-11. Again, very, very sad words. So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. Jesus delivered you from God's wrath and curse. You are under, or were under, God's wrath and curse. That's the second misery. in any attempt that you would make to get to heaven is futile. It's vain. It doesn't work. That's Paul's idea behind this works of the law. You can go and say, I want to build my ladder to heaven. I'm going to do this, and this, and this, and this, and I will be close. And God says, no you won't. I have to come down to bridge this gap. And it's interesting because you see what Paul just said there. He says That's a curse of the law. The curse of the law is that each person has to keep it perfectly. That's a curse to you. It's a curse for you because you can't do it. You can't kill it in any way, shape, or form. Not keep most of it, not keep all the ones that I'm familiar with, but every single part of it. In thought, word, and being. all the time. No one can do that, except Jesus Christ, who came and did that. And what does it say just a couple of verses below this? Verse 12, that the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. God has delivered you from his curse and his wrath. If you are not convinced that you have to keep every aspect, think of Nadab and Elijah in Leviticus 10. It's not clear exactly what they did, but whatever their strange fire was, it was bad. God took them instantly. I'll bring the next two." Can you imagine being the next two? I mean, I don't know what would be worse than being made to have to abide with being the two younger brothers. You want me to put those clothes on? I don't think so. They were dead. Not only dead, they were telling Aaron to don't cry. This was serious. They did not eat. Every flaw perfectly. And Jesus bore this curse for you by being hanged on a tree. You are delivered from God's wrath and curse. The third misery. The third misery is that you are made liable to the miseries of this life. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 3 to 7. You are made liable to the miseries of this life. 1 Peter 1, 3-7 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, Though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. You can have hope, you can have hope in a grief-stricken miserable, strife-filled, sickly life. I didn't use enough adjectives. I don't have enough papers. But you can have hope in the midst of all of that. Look what Peter says here. He begins by saying, God caused you to be born again to a living hope. And then as he works his way through, what he tells you is that there is this inheritance that is unperishable, it's not fading, it's undefiled. And then he makes a big contrast with the testing of the genuineness of your faith through the trials that you go through right now. That faith that you profess is tested, regularly. And yet, your hope is not in making it through that, but it is in heaven, undefiled, imperishable. That's where the hope is. The hope is not in the miseries of this life. The hope is there. And not only Peter does this, but Paul does this too. They offset the temporalness of suffering here and now with the magnitude beyond comparison of glory and attainment. It doesn't lessen anything that anyone goes through. It doesn't make You go, well, I shouldn't grieve, or I don't suffer, or it's not a terrible thing. It doesn't relieve any of that. But it offsets it to say that this life, in this life, everyone experiences this, visually. I mentioned before, it's not all the same visually. I don't experience everything that you experience, and vice versa. However, none of us are unique. in experiencing misery. I don't say that to be cavalier. I really, really don't. I say that because I want you to understand that the Bible recognizes that you and I live in a miserable state. It recognizes that. You're sinful. The world's cursed. You're starting at a bad position. It tells you that for those who have faith in Jesus Christ, you have a hope that is significantly and proportionally better than the misery, the tragedy, the heartache, the sickness that you experience here and now. Which is why I think that each of us are called to grieve when people grieve, and to rejoice when people rejoice. We can do both. Because we experience hope, but you can't have hope. It's a terrible place to be, this idea of inheriting this estate. But the reason I chose this passage was because Peter contrasts it by casting it in the light of inheritance. There's something that somebody's waiting to give you in eternity. This is what your first Adam left for you. Heartache and misery. What he left for you. What he left for me. Do you have someone else who's leaving you something infinitely better than heartache and misery? In eternity. Versus temporary. I don't know why I thought of this, but I have a friend, I had a friend, who, um, just your basic average working guy and he had a family so he never seemed to have lots and lots of extra money. His dad died. He and his dad were actually kind of estranged, but his dad died and left him an inheritance. A nice chunk of change for some guy who basically didn't ever have two nickels throw up together. So you're thinking like, oh great, you know, you pay off your credit card debt or, I don't know, fix the car or whatever. Not my friend. He went and bought two jet skis. And the trailer, the pool, went on. And he bought one of those things. He bought at least five years worth of music to go along with two jet skis and a trailer of food. He did. Because now he not only didn't have two nickels to rub together, but now he had two jet skis to maintain. And if you were going to drive them, you had to put gas and oil in them. It always struck me that sometimes you're given an inheritance and you think this is a really awesome thing and it's not. What God has in store for you is infinitely better than anything that you can imagine right here and now. Have hope. Because you see, this is only sliding towards the worst in terms of the miserable effects of that sin. So not only have you lost communion with God, and not only are you under His wrath and cursed outside of Christ, you will also have this miserable, grief-stricken life. But death is the fourth one. Death is that ultimate end, or not ultimate, the penultimate end, to life. Turn over to Romans chapter 6 verse 23. Most of you probably can quote this to me. I can quote a few. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Your death is but a temporary separation of body and soul." Death is temporary. It's a temporary body in the ground, soul in another place. Temporary. But it's a continual reminder. It's a continual reminder of that result of the fall. It's a continual reminder. It's a continual reminder of not only the result of the fall, but God's judgment. Death. Every single one of us knows death. Maybe as good Americans, oftentimes we like to try to shuffle it off to the side as much as we possibly can. It's that judgmental feeling. The wages of sin. But for those who are in Christ, it is but not only a temporary situation, but also, in some sense, a good situation. And it is such, because unlike the Gnostics, who are still around today, who are seeking to shed themselves of this mortal coil, as we tend to call it, and getting into that pure spirit, we recognize that it's that one step closer to being in eternity with Jesus Christ. When we have left this world, We are now in this temporary state until Jesus comes again and restores body and soul together to be with him in eternity. For Paul, it was this step, 1 Corinthians 15. When he is arguing for the resurrection of Christ, he includes that we benefit from that. He's arguing, he said, For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those who also have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, that's what you and I would experience. by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. And for those who are in Christ, you will experience that also. That's why you can have hope. That's why it's a temporary situation. It's a temporary arrangement. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits. Then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. And Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians, for those who die in the wilderness, you grieve, but you grieve with Him. Because you're also looking forward to the day and that body is reunited with that soul and is then communed with Christ. Throughout women and young women. Relief from the misery. In each and every aspect of the misery that is given as a result of the fall, Christ has provided relief for women. Then lastly, eternal damnation. The pains of hell forever. Turn to Matthew 25, verse 46. This is the end of the parable, including the division of the sheep and goats, the end of the parable of feeding the hungry and so forth, visiting the sick and those in prison. The last verse of this, and this is Jesus' judgment, and these, that is, those who didn't do the things that he had required, these will go away into eternal punishment. but the righteous into eternal life. The last degree, eternal damnation. Your separation from God remains unless you repent. You are separated eternally from Him into damnation and hell forever and last. There are two options. Once again, you saw this in Romans, that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Here, those who didn't do what they were supposed to do go into eternal punishment, but those who are righteous into eternal life. You see, always both are positive together. You don't want to lose hope. You don't want to have no relief from that misery. It's conventional wisdom, at least it was a few years ago, to consider that hell was just a big party. You probably wouldn't want any of those stuffy old people who were, you know, sticks in the mud there, anyway. Unfortunately, conventional wisdom is extremely wrong. That the catechism itself does not put the pains of hell forever just to use up space. And it will be a place of eternal torment where, interestingly enough, there's more than that. It's not a good thing. In fact, often it just brings a big lump into my throat. I know people who didn't die in the war. And I think about that. I know people. I know people who died in the war. And they're wounded. The comfort and the relief for you is safe in Jesus Christ. In fact, on the flip side of the catechism, Question, I think, is 86 asks, what is the relief, and actually it doesn't even have to be the relief, for those under the wrath and curse of God? For sleepiness, repentance, faith in Jesus Christ, and the youth of the ordinary youth by which he communicates salvation. You know, the ordinary means that we talk about here in the world. Prayer. Fasting. Probably most, if not all of us tonight, have come to faith and have repented. But it doesn't stop there. It's not a one-time deal. It's an ongoing deal that we continue to engage. those means of grace by which we see in you, God, telling you, look to me for your salvation. I, and I only, can give it to you, faithfully, repentantly, to ordinary men. Alongside your inherited, miserable state, is the relief offered in Jesus Christ. Find and know that relief. Amen. Not wishful thinking, but in Jesus Christ who has secured something for you, an inheritance much, much better than your first Adam's father gave to you. Your second Adam gave you a much better view, repent, believe, and engage the ordinary You'll find your relief from misery if you faith in Jesus Christ. Lord help us. Again, help us find relief. You offer us comfort and hope. Relief. May we look to you. May we engage you and may we see and hear regularly Jesus Christ lifted on high at our only need of salvation. For that we give you praise, we give you glory, we give you honor. Keep us now as we go and leave this place. May we go in your spirit and may we declare the excellence of those things that you have done for us. In Jesus' name, Amen.