Thank you, Eddie. Now in the 25th chapter of Genesis, the first verse. It's one of those tongue -twisting passages. Let's see if I can do it. Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jochon, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbach, and Shuah. And Jochon begat Sheba and Dedan, and the sons of Dedan were Ashurim, and Latushim, and Leumim. I confess that I just think some of those Jews were nuts. Can you imagine this? A little Jewish boy and a little Jewish girl out under the moonlight, and they were courting and in love. And he turns to her and says, I love you, Lithiumium. She says, I love you too, Ishbach. Oh my. Oh, it gets worse. And the sons of Midian, Ephah, and Ephah, and Hanak, and Abidah, and Eldah. All these were the children of Keturah. And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. I think the reason he gave Isaac everything was because he's the only one whose name he could remember. But unto the sons of the concubines which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts and sent them away from Isaac, his son, while he yet lived eastward unto the east country. And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life, which he lived, and hundredthreescore and fifteen years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. And his sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron, the son of Zoar the Hittite, which is before Mamre. The field which Abraham purchased, the sons of Heth, there was Abraham buried and Sarah his wife. Abraham's wife, Sarah, had died, and Isaac was married. And in his old age, Abraham marries again. He has many children by the new family. The Bible tells us that he had concubines as well. It does not commend him for doing so, for it is strictly forbidden in the word of God. He was not to have done it, and from the beginning it was not so. But the Bible is a plain book recording the sins as well as the successes of the saints. Of this marriage and the children that were born, there is a striking statement that is made. He gave all that he had unto Isaac. At the time of his death, Abraham, knowing that it was time to die, did two things. One was to arrange for his own funeral with the gracious surrender of his spirit. Now, he did not take his life by his own hand, but as was said of our Lord, that he gave up the ghost, this expression means that he willingly died and was anxious to depart from this world, leaving, choosing to leave the world that he had become tired of before it had become tired of him. Now, the Bible records that although he gave gifts, passed out tokens to all of his children, it is a strange thought to us that he gave everything that he had, all of his possessions and the abundance of the inheritance that was his to his own son, Isaac. The obvious question is simply, why? Now, remember that it was the preparation for his death and the giving of his gifts to his children and the inheritance to his own son that were the precipitating factors for the writing of this entire chapter in the Bible. There are no unimportant chapters in the Bible. And I believe that the heart, the basic truth that our Lord speaks to us tonight, of which our Lord speaks to us tonight in this, is simply that because of the death of the Father, gifts are given and inheritance is provided for the son. Why to Isaac? There were other boys, there were other girls. He blessed them all, for the rain comes on the just as well as to the unjust. But God, as he deals with us, deals in some very strict ways. There are some constant unchanging truths regarding the relationship of God to his children. And to those who are not his children. One of them is that God deals with the unsaved on a cash, on a credit basis. Now when we Christians do wrong, God judges us and deals with us immediately. But with the non -Christian, he lets it pile up. And the Bible says, storeth up wrath against or until the day of judgment. Likewise, in the dispersing of gifts, our Lord is very general with the non -saved because the goodness of God is intended to entice the unconverted to repentance. But to the child of God, he gives specifics. And they are all the abundance of their inheritance. The Bible tells us that the judgment of God restored allows the benevolent nature of God to be distributed, dispersed upon the unconverted as well as the converted. We all get gifts. And to be sure, many a man, because he is not sick or does not break his leg or lose his job, thinks that God is pleased with his life. But the Lord himself said over and over again, let the wheat grow with the tares. Let them both grow together. And I will separate them at the hour of death. Now here at the moment of his death, the Bible tells us that the Lord, having given good gifts to all, in a sense of the people on the earth, all who are his by creation, but only the special inheritance to his one son that was the promise of the seed of faith. He is the heir. We sing a beautiful song, Blessed Assurance, that goes heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his goodness, spirit, and washed in his blood. We are indeed heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And so again, the New Testament, being its own best interpreter of the old, sheds light. The principle is that all men have some good possessions, some good that comes to them, but that because of the death of the benefactor, the heir is especially blessed. The world may be richer than we. It may be more prominent. It may have more of the things that the world thinks are important, but the Christian, only through the heirship of God, through the sonship of Jesus Christ, receives the things in life that are really important. The principle of the death of the innocent for the guilty, the difference of attributed righteousness, the difference of unmerited favor. And young people, that's what grace is. And that's what we need to tell these kids, what amazing grace means, that the grace is unmerited favor. Grace is the goodness of God on men that do not deserve it, are all the result of the death of the benefactor. Now, over in the book of Romans, chapter 8, 32, we have again the New Testament exposition for us of this Old Testament passage. Turn over there with me if you will, please. Romans, chapter 8, verse 32. And before and after, we find the context in which this great truth is taught. Romans 8, 32. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Now, look at it in your Bibles. I should like us to read it aloud. Together, please. Share it with one nearby. Romans 8, 32. All right. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? And so we learn again that the foreshadow, the preview, the type in the Old Testament, is made manifest in the new. That by the death of Jesus Christ, through death, we are benefited. Now, the better translation is simply this. he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up, God -given Christ for us, how shall he not with him, the better translation is through him, by him, because of him, also freely give us all things. And so we see that all of the things that are the special things come to us by the death of Christ are the inheritance that make us because we are the heirs of God through Jesus Christ. Now what are these things? Obviously one must look to the context in which this statement is made. And so the verses that precede and follow it give us that definition. First of all in the 28th verse we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. The certainty of the providence of God's goodness is one of the most important benefits of God given to us because of the death of his son. As Isaac got some special things that the world did not, so the Christian as joint heirs with Christ, receives some very special things, not the least of which are the constant abiding truth of the confidence of the fact that regardless of what happens, our Lord for our good is working out his will. We may be assured that regardless of problems and difficulties and reverses, though all things are not good, sometimes God must allow the bad with the good for us to produce the best. Verse 29, whom he did for dough, that's us, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. And so the other basic benefit of God is a confidence of God's goodness and a confirmation to God's likeness. I repeat, the two basic attributes for us in this life as Christians that come to us through the inheritance, which the world does not have, that we have in particular, are the confidence of God's goodness and the image of God's likeness, conformity to his likeness. Again, those that he foreknew how they would choose, he did determine to conform to the image of his son. And so it merely means that the main earthly benefit of being a Christian is that we become progressively like Jesus Christ. Now we must be born into the family of God before we grow as Christians. A boy cannot become like his father until he is born into the family of his father. But the similarity grows and the likeliness, the likeness is enhanced. Now we do not progressively grow as Christians. We are instantaneously, through what the Bible calls the new birth, born into God's family by faith and repentance. But once having been thusly born, we are to take on slowly the image of the Father, to become more like Jesus Christ. Now that being the case, a divine transfusion and infusion takes place and the personality, the character of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit is infused into our being. In oneness like him, the possessions, the attributes, the characteristics of Christ slowly become ours as we grow more like Jesus Christ. The Bible says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. This word mind literally means likeness. Let this likeness, this personality, this image of Christ being in you, make you slowly as was our Lord. Now, what then are the basic characteristics of Jesus Christ that he offers to us? What have we better than the children of the concubine and the son of Hagar? What makes our heritage better than those who are not joint heirs with Jesus and sons through faith of the living God? simply everything. For I suggest to you that everything the world really wants, we have in Jesus Christ. If I were to ask you, what are the five things this world wants the most? Though it may seek them in the most ridiculous ways, up the most blind alleys that man can imagine, what at the heart of human personality do men crave? They are all given to us because of our relationship to Jesus Christ. I suggest this list, wisdom, peace, wealth, eternity, and love. I think this, one would agree, would probably pretty nearly fit the list that in the deepest heart of every man human nature desires the most. Number one, wisdom. Now I am saying to you that not just good cars and good homes and money, but the things that really count. The world may have the gifts, but we have the inheritance that only comes through the death of our benefactor. Consequently, as he is in us through faith, his possessions become ours, his character ours. The first is wisdom. Jesus Christ was the wisest man that ever lived. They tried to trap him again and again with the law, with questions on the kingdom, and with the scriptures. But Jesus Christ won every test. The woman taken in adultery became a theological question. They were not concerned with helping her, only with making her a theological football. To which our Lord said, he that is without sin, let him cast the first stone. The wisdom and insight of our Lord again and again confounded the critics of the light of the world. They asked him whose superscription was written on the coin. He told them, and having told them that it was that of Caesar, they said, then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. The rich young ruler came to Jesus and would trap him, but was himself trapped in the process. They indeed recognized that he taught not as the scribes, but as a man with a supernatural wisdom. Wisdom is simply the ability in the light of God governing oneself prudently to make decisions that are lasting and well and wise. Every day we are called upon to decide. We who have the mind of Christ in us by the new birth experience can commit and yield our difficulties and dilemmas to our Lord, who has ways of giving us the revelation of his will, and we can act in faith. The wisdom that the world seeks is in Jesus Christ. And then there is inner peace. Jesus Christ was the most impoverished, persecuted, misunderstood, neglected, hated, reviled minority group man that ever lived. And I submit to you that as a psychologist Charles poor said one day recently that Jesus Christ had absolutely perfect mental health. Jesus says in me you can be like this absolutely perfect and filled with peace and with poise. May I say to you in all of the sweetness and uh, in honor of my heart that I believe that the most Christ -like man, the most poise -filled, consistent Christian that I have ever known is our own minister of education, Frank Vouch. I've never seen him that he was not sweet. I've never seen him that he was not consistent. I've never known a man that I believe to be more Christ -like, never frustrated, always sweet. Jesus gives inner peace. Frank will be the first to tell you, as will any spiritual Christian, that it is all of the Christ who dwells within. The third thing that men seek is of course riches. The world wants to be rich. In the beginning was the word, Christ. And the word was with God, and the word was God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the creator, the controller, the owner of this world, says all that is in the Father's hand, give I thee. It is ours. He who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, has said that you have yet to see what I've been preparing in heaven for you for two thousand years, eternal life. He says in the 30th verse that he will ultimately bring to glorification with no separation all of the things that he has prepared for us, that he will never remove us from his salvation. And the last thing I suggest to you that the world wants the most is love. Real love. Not the true romance kind, but the kind that changes hearts. The kind that makes men love other people. I think there is no greater miraculous power that I see enacted every day of the gospel of Jesus Christ than the capacity that it gives people to love. George Wetherall, a young man studying for the ministry, a member of our church going to Houston Baptist College in a few weeks, the sergeant at arms of a murderous gang here in our own city, but now a new trophy of grace in Jesus Christ, told me that if there was one thing in this world that 22 years of living had inculcated in his personality, it was hate, hate, hate. And he said, I could kill, I could destroy, boy, I could hate and never feel an emotion. But now that same man is bathed with the most compassionate heart of love of any boy his age I've ever seen. And I've seen him weep and cry and pray over his friends that do not know the Lord. How the lives of men I have seen filled with anger and for an unforgiveness and prejudice and hatred have been removed because the old time religion does make me love everybody. Real love is the product of the presence of Jesus Christ who loved all in the human heart. Why then is it that this old world has so many Christians in it that are living in the lap of spiritual luxury and are yet so spiritually hungry and so needy and so unlike the Savior and so barren and impotent and bankrupt spiritually when there is so much offered in the sonship relation through faith in Jesus Christ? Well, the only thing I can know is that folks just don't take the time to know him and to love him. It takes time to pray. The Bible, the song says, take time to be holy. Take time to be holy. It takes time. It takes time with the Word. It takes time with the Lord. It takes time in prayer. Forgive me, I know I've told you this before. I think it bears repeating. A woman impoverished in Russia was moving out into the poor home. One of the young men noticed on her piano who was helping to move a picture of her son, John, who had moved to America. He said, I don't understand why you're so poor, lady. I have to know that your son has become rich and done very well in the new country. Has he not cared for you? Has he not met your needs? How is it that you are so poor? She said, well, I don't know, but I have nothing. He never wrote. He never sent you anything. Oh, yes, she said he wrote. Oh, were there any, was there anything in the letters? Well, just some pictures, some funny little green pictures. What did you do with them? You didn't throw them away, did you? Oh, no, I have saved them all. He went into the other room and there on the poor woman's bedroom wall were hundreds of fives and tens and twenties and hundred dollar bills. She was rich, rich, but she didn't know it. She was a beggar in the midst of luxury. And so many beggarly Christians with all of the wisdom and the love and all of the eternality and all of the goodness and all of the poise that God has given us through Jesus Christ, which is distinctly ours, separate from what this world will ever know, is the inheritance of all of us. Why do we have it so little? Could it be that it is because we praise a little? We have never taken the time. We don't spend the hours consistently to have our minds open to be able to see what is ours and experience what through Christ is all about us. Christian, you need not be a spiritual pauper. You are a son of God, an heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his spirit, lost in his love. This is my story. This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. And it is ours. It is ours through prayer and through prayer alone. For the conclusion of this service, I want us, in preparation for what we pray, we'll see 3 ,000 young people converted, Pentecost duplicated in the next 20, 25 days. I want us to spend the closing 15 minutes in prayer. Now let me repeat. Everything this world really wants and that we really have is in Jesus Christ. The reason we don't experience it and do not get it out to other people, I believe is probably exclusively a lack of prayer. Oh, pray for yourself, church. Pray for the world. Pray for those to whom you witness and pray for Sparino. Pray as you've never prayed. Everything that we have to get out, to offer, to experience a hungry world will fly on the wings of prayer. This is what will make spiritual revolution now a reality. I would like to ask you quickly to stand, please. Thank you.