FROM THE PULPIT.

Southland Times, Issue 19517, 17 May 1922, Page 7

FROM THE PULPIT.

THE INCORRUPTIBLE INHERITANCE (Sermon by the Rev. J. Lawson Robinson.) An inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, re served in heaven for you, who are kept by the power o£ God through faith unto salvation. I. Peter I: 4-5 The Apostle has just been speaking of the living hope into which they are born who have accepted the faith of Jesus Christ by the Resurrection of the dead. In the passage before us he tells them it is not only to a living hope they are bom but to “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away.” Hope is to be succeeded by fulfilment; the shadow by the substance. I. It will be noticed that the Apostle ! is speaking of an inheritance to disinherited men. He addresses his words to the Jews of the Dispersion scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bikufuia. “Strangers” is the Apostle's word for them. They have no country they can call their own, as fatherland. They are disinherited, “strangers.” And not only were they without a country, but many of them were dispossessed of all their property. Savage and relentless persecution had scourged these folk. They had paid dearly for their allegiance to Jesus Christ. No country, no possessions, no friends. “Strangers,” and in a strange land. Disinherited. And so these words of the Apostle must have come as a great encouragement. He virtually says to them: “You have been driven from an inheritance, and have entered on a new and better one. The old inheritance was transitory. Death ended your enjoyment of its blessings. But the inheritance in Christ is eternal—it is “incorruptible and undefiled and it fadeth not away.” And what is the condition upon which this inheritance is made possible. It is what the Apostle John has called a new birth. We are bora anew into the household of faith, children of God, and if children “then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.” With, our regeneration we enter on a glorious spiritual estate, with all its inexhaustible possessions and treasures. We may lose the world, we gain our own soul. The world with all its attractiveness and gaiety may fade away but our feet are already treading the fields of God, and the glories of the heavenly country unfold themselves before our eyes. “All things are yours, for ye are Christ’s.” That is the inheritance awaiting these disinherited Jews. The idea is differently

expressed by the different Apostles, but the / substance is the same. But however the f idea is expressed, it is always in glowing language, and the thought of it is always wonderful. No man can compute the wealth of God, the incorruptible, imperishable wealth. “The silver and the gold are thine and the lake upon a thousand hills.” St. Paul in a noble passage tells us that the highest flight of human fancy cannot even remotely compass the glory of this heritage. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him.” Whatever this inheritance of ours may be, it is certain that it is “beyond all knowledge and all thought.” So St. Peter directs the thoughts of these persecuted and disinherited people from the contemplation of their immediate poverty to that of their divine inheritance. “You have lost that,” he says, “but you have gained this. And this is something nobler, brighter, better, of greater and more lasting worth.” “If the house of our earthly tabernacle be dissolved we have a building with God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” And all this is the gift of God through Jesus Christ, “who was rich, yet for your sakes became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” 11. This inheritance is “incorruptible and undefiled, and fadeth not away.” ' 1. It is incorruptible and in that respect is like its maker who is called the incor- ’ ruptible God. All corruption is a change ( from better to worse, but this inheritance I is without change, “eternal in the heavens.” And the possessors of this inheritance must also last for ever, for “the corruptible must put on incorruption.” “An inheritance incorruptible. . ; that is, beyond the reach of death. No grave is ever dug on this estate, no stone erected as a melancholy reminder of the transitory and the passing. Dr Moffatt translates the word “incorruptible” by the word “unscathed.” The idea suggested is that the inheritance suffers no depreciation. It does not come to us attenuated —a mere skeleton of its former glory. We know that earthly inheritances 1 often bear on them the mark of canker and decay. Property may depreciate in value, lands be laid waste. So many are the 8 causes that destroy the goodness of an inheritance. A heritage that is fair and noble to-day, a prized possession, may tomorrow be like a millstone round the neck. These things are a constant care. But not so the inheritance of the saints in light. That does not depreciate or decay. It is incorruptible.

So, said Christ, “lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal” Incorruptible! 11. “And undefiled.” And thus it is like the great High Priest now in possession of it, who is holy, harmless, undefiled. Sin and misery, the two great defilements that spoil this world and mar its beauty, have no place there. “UndefiledThat cannot be said of all inheritances. Many are tainted. Lands, gold and other possessions, have sometimes the marks of blood upon them. Wealth has before now been sweated out of the lives of men, and women, and children. Many a fair estate is built on dead men’s bones, or sucked out of the blood of a stricken people. Defiled I But there is no taint of defilement about the inheritance that is “reserved in heaven for you.” None need hesitate to receive it. Its acceptance causes no blush of shame to mount to the cheek, no misgivings to rise in the heart. Who enters upon it may fear no finger of reproach. It is undefiled. 111. “And fadeth not away.” It always retains its vigour and beauty, ever entertaining and pleasing the saints who possess it. It is likely that we have here an allusion to the crown of laurels given to the successful competitor in the amphitheatre. This was a much prized reward, eagerly trained and striven for. The winner received it amid popular applause, and its bestowal marks him. out as chief among many. The laurel crown was a much coveted distinction. But it did not last long. A few days and its beauty faded. It became as a thing dead, fit only to be cast away. And so many things in life fade away. We have seen riches take wings. Fame is a breath. To-day all men praise you; tomorrow the bubble of your reputation is burst. Even love is sometimes a cheat. Though you hold your inheritance intact in life, death will loosen your grasp upon it. You may grope for it over your bed with fevered hands, and not be able to hold it, and you will see it fading into the stuff that dreams are made of. The glory of a Bonaparte may be yours to-day; tomorrow the solitude of a St. Helena. But not so the inheritance God has prepared. It does not fade and pass away. It is not lost in death. Nay rather it is more fully entered into then, and its true beauty is discovered. It fadeth not away. There everlasting spring abides, And never withering flowers; Death, like a narrow sea divides This heavenly land from ours. “Incorruptible, undefiled and fadeth noi.

111. This inheritance is “reserved in heaven for you.” There are doubtless wonderful revelations, behind the gateway of the tomb, awaiting the eyes of faith. But we do wrong to think of the blessings of the eternal inheritance only in terms of the after life. Wonderful and glorious surprises await us there, splendid beyond all imagining. But we should think of the blessings of the eternal inheritance as available to us immediately. The Apostle’s reference is not to anything postponed or remote, but to the mystery of the Christian dispensation, so long hidden in God’s hand, sow at last revealed by the Holy Spirit, and actually being experienced by the people of God. Dr Hort renders this phrase “reserved in heaven for you” as “kept in the heavens for you or as having you in view,” who in the power of God are guarded through faith unto Salvation. And doubtless these scattered Jews realised, as the Apostle did, how real was that truth. Their heritage was already with them in the warm reinforcement of soul that enabled them to stand against all adversities, and made the fury and persecution turn to their salvation and not to their destruction. Let us apply the phrase to heaven by ail means, but let us not forget that Heaven begins here. The inheritance is doubly guaranteed. The Apostle gives an assurance not only that the heritage will be kept for the souls for whom it is prepared, but that these souls will be kept for it. Many a man has long anticipated an inheritance who has never lived to enjoy it. He has not been kept for it. A great multitude left Egypt when the waters divided, and fair was the promised land before them. But few of them reached it, and in the wilderness was left a heap of mounds, “the graves of lust,” which told to all beholders, not that there was any fault in the inheritance, but that those who sought it were corruptible and carried in their own hearts the seeds of ruin and decay. Those who receive Christ, however, are to be kept for the inheritance “by the power of God through faith.” They see the promised land and God will see that they enter in. “Kept by the power of God unto salvation!” There will be no failure on God's part, and none on theirs who are kept by Him.