Let's turn to Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1. I remember when I was a child
walking along with my father, occasionally I would get distracted
and I would try to look off and turn away and start trying to
walk a different direction. My father would just grab me
and just turn me and just turn me right back and bring me right
back next to him and we'd keep walking. Well, in this world
the believer is going through, we get distracted like a little
child. And we turn to the side sometimes. And Paul was telling us in Colossians,
he said that one of those things we get distracted by is men who
think they're growing in grace and they're speaking wiser things
and greater things and they start talking about angels and they
start talking about heaven and they start talking about things
that are things that aren't really revealed. And they begin to talk
about Sabbath days and touch not, taste not, handle not, all
these things. These things are really a show
that a man's holy, they say. But God said it's a show of will
worship. It's a show of false humility.
It's a show of neglecting the body and just trying to so everybody
will know it. It's just a self-righteous bunch
of nonsense. And so God literally, Christ
is walking with us in this earth just like my father was walking
with me. And He turns us. He takes us and He turns His
child back to Him just like my father did me. And He does it
by opening the eyes of our understanding so that we can see more fully
Him. Him. And so that's why the Apostle
Paul prayed that the Father of Glory would give the Ephesian
believers the spirit of wisdom and revelation, the eyes of their
understanding being enlightened. To know these three things, verse
18, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, that's
what we looked at last time, the hope of His calling, and
what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe."
Paul says, I want you to turn and be able to see what is His
hope, of His calling, of His inheritance, of His power. I want you to see Him. I want
you to stop looking at you. I want you to stop worrying about
what you're doing and not doing and look at Him. If you do that,
you'll start doing what's right. But anything else is from a motive
of self-righteousness and God won't receive it anyway. It don't
matter if you do it perfectly. So let's see here this second
what that we're going to focus on this morning. This second
what. Verse 18, And what the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints. That is, that you may know what
the greatness and the glory of His inheritance is. This is something
believers have an interest in. This is what we have grounds
to hope for. For those found believing in
Christ Jesus, not having a righteousness of
our own which is of the law, but that righteousness which
is by the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, given to
us through faith in Him, We shall receive an inheritance, a rich
and glorious inheritance from our Father. It's reserved for
us. It's there. It's held for us. I've titled
this His Inheritance in the Saints. And I want to show you three
things. I want to show you the description given of the inheritance. We see here riches and glory. Riches and glory. And then secondly,
who are the recipients of this inheritance? It says, His inheritance
in the saints. And then thirdly, what good will
it do for us to know this more fully? What good is that going
to do? What's that going to do for us? All right, first of all,
we have the description given of the inheritance with these
two words, riches and glory. Let's talk about riches just
a minute. Turn over to Revelation 21. Hold your place here and
turn to Revelation 21. And hold your place in Revelation
21. We're going to come back here a few times. Revelation 21 is where God describes
the riches of heavenly Jerusalem. And this heavenly Jerusalem is
a picture of the church of God in her eternal heavenly glory. That's what this is a picture
of, a description of, a vision of. But it's also a description
of the church's present glory, right now. Because by virtue
of our union with Christ, in Christ the church of God, and
every member of it, is perfectly and eternally complete. Do you
hear what I said? In Christ, every single individual
believer in His whole church together is eternally and perfectly
complete. Complete. We're complete. Now listen to this description.
Revelation 21.9. It says there in verse 9 that
the angel said, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the
Lamb's wife. That's what we're fixing to see.
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain
and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending
out of heaven from God. Now, he's showing him the bride,
the Lamb's wife, but it appeared as this holy city coming down
out of heaven. But this is a picture of the
church. And look at verse 11. Having the glory of God. Do you see that? It has the glory
of God. That's where these riches come
from. That's where this beauty comes from. It has the glory
of God. We have the glory of God. That's
the adornment that adorns His people. And her light was likened
to a stone most precious. Most precious. Who's our light? It's Christ. Is he not most precious? Sure he is, most precious. Even
like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Now look at verse 18.
And the building of the wall of it was of jasper. The walls
were just like the city was, just like the light of the city
was. And the city was pure gold, pure gold, like under clear glass. And the foundation of the wall
of the city, the foundations of the wall of the city were
garnished with all manner of precious stones. They were adorned. And he lists those various precious
stones down there. Jasper, sapphire, emerald, amethyst,
and all those things. Look at verse 21. And he says,
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls. The gates were twelve,
but one gate, look at that, every several gate was of one pearl. One pearl. And the street of
the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. Now turn
back to, hold your place in Revelation 21, we'll come back. Turn to
Ephesians 2. We're told what these riches
represent. These riches that we're seeing
here that the bride is described in, that the lamb's wife is described
in, what are these riches? Where do these riches come from?
What comprises these riches? What are they? Look at Ephesians
2, 7. God has called his people for this purpose. He's quicken
us together with Christ for this purpose. Verse 7, that in the
ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches. of His grace
and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. All that rich description
that gives us an idea is to give us an idea of the unsearchable
riches that God has made His people and bestowed upon His
people and and just laden His people down with by His grace
through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's so of you and I in particular,
brethren. That's a description of us in
particular. We're going to spend eternity rejoicing in the riches
of His grace and His kindness toward us through the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what heaven's going to
be about. That's why here, we come here and we get a taste
of heaven. What do we talk about here? We
talk about our works? No. Do you think you're going
to talk about your works in heaven? No. We talk about His works. The believer just wants to talk
about His works. His works are the riches. This
is how we've been adorned. Now, how do we come to have these
riches? It says there, through Christ Jesus. Now, you know this
scripture. 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 says, you
know the grace of our Lord Jesus that though He was rich, Yet
for your sakes He became poor, that through His poverty we might
be made rich." Though Christ was rich, our Savior is God. Jesus of Nazareth is God. And He owned everything. He created
everything. He made everything for Him. And
He owns everything. Psalm 50 verse 10 says, Every
beast of the forest is mine. He says, In the cattle upon a
thousand hills, I know all the fowls of the mountains, and all
the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I
would not tell thee, for the world is mine, and the fullness
thereof. He says in Psalm 104, 24, it
says, O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou
made them all. The earth is full of Thy riches. See, they all belong to Him.
The heavens and the heavens of heavens is the Lord's, Thy God.
The earth also with all that therein is. the heavens, and
the heavens of heavens, and the earth, and all that is therein
He is. He said, the silver is mine, the gold is mine, saith
the Lord of hosts. Everything belongs to Him. Yet
our rich Savior would not, He would not be heir of all things
by Himself. He would have all those that
the Father gave unto Him in eternity to be joint heirs with Him and
to be given a division of this great spoil of His riches together
with Him. Though He was rich, He did that.
As poor, He says, yet our rich Savior, He says, for our sakes,
yet for your sakes. Though He was rich, yet for your
sakes. Us now, us who were bankrupt
sinners living in the gutter of our depravity, feeding in
the pig trough of this world and our sin. He did this for
us. For your sakes, you and me who
despised Him, you and me who rejected Him, you and me who
broke His law, you and me who sinned against Him with every
fiber of our being, The Lord said of our heart, our natural
heart, in Genesis, it's only evil continually. That's what
you and I are from our mother's womb. Only evil continually. And we cursed His people. We
hated His gospel. We hated Him. We couldn't stop
breaking His law. We wouldn't stop breaking His
law. We would not submit to Him. We would not bow to Him. We hated
everything about Him. ate everything about it. We were
no good. There was no goodness in us.
We were dead in trespasses and sin. And yet, for your sakes,
he became poor. He became poor. For your sakes,
he left the riches of glory with his father. And he came down
and was born in a cow stable, took poor parents, a root out
of a dry ground. For your sakes He went through
life with nowhere to lay His head. This One who owned everything
didn't have a place to lay His head. He went through this life
for our sake, brethren. He traded glory where He was
the choice Son of Heaven for this place among sinners where
He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with greed, and we esteemed Him not. It says, yet
for your sakes he became poor. For your sake he traded the life
he had to endure the shame of the cross. The life he had as
he walked this earth, he traded that for the shame of the cross.
What's the shame of the cross? He hath made him sin for us. Who knew no sin? That we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. For your sake, the
sake of all His elect, the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. For your sake, His own self bore
our sins in His own body on the tree. He was made a curse for
us. And for your sake, He said, My
soul is in an agony even unto death. The oppression of it was
so great upon his conscience. That's where sin is. It's in
the conscience. God didn't put something in Adam.
He took something away from him. Somewhere in the garden, something
was taken from our Savior, and He began to be pressed down,
pressed down so that it squeezed the blood out of His pores like
sweat. And then he went to that cross.
And he was on his way there, he was shamed, he was mocked,
he was spit upon, he was scourged. For your sake, brethren, his
visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than
the sons of men. For your sake he treadeth the
winepress, the winepress. You know what a wine press is?
They put grapes in it. And they press those grapes.
They crush those grapes. They crush them till the juice
of those grapes pours out. He went under the fierceness
of the wrath of Almighty God because He was made sin for us.
And God charged Him with all our sin. And all that was due
to us was poured upon Him. And He tread the winepress, the
winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. He bore Satan and all his hellish
hosts and everything his hellish hosts could unleash upon Him
in that time when it was His power of darkness. I remember
when He was arrested and He said, I was with you all the time,
you did nothing to me. And He said, but this is your
hour and it's the power of darkness. It's the hour that the power
of darkness can have His way. And He had His way. He had His
way. And for your sake He bore it
all alone. He bore it all alone. His disciples
fled and His Father in holy justice, and this was the very essence
of it, His Father in holy justice separated Himself from Him and
turned His back on Him. And He sat there and suffered
the wrath of total isolation from everybody. With nobody with
him but just hell, Satan and his hellish host, powers and
principalities gnawing and gnashing upon him with their teeth. And for your sake at last, his
broken body was taken down off that cross and was put in a borrowed
tomb. He became poor. He became poor. that through His poverty we might
be made rich. And so we read in Isaiah 53,
5, He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed. Heal. Rich. He's made us rich. His incomparable
depths of poverty, He's taken us to incomparable heights of
richness by what He's done. Justified from all our sin. Past, present, and future. God says, I remember it no more. And I will remember it no more.
I will remember your sins no more." He says, I will remember
your sins no more. He says, they are cast behind
my back. They are as far from me as the
east is from the west. Go east and you'll never go west.
Go west and you'll never go east. They're as far as the east is
from the west. They're gone. Our scapegoat took
them upon himself and he went into a land not inhabited and
he left them there. He left them there. And to those
that look for him, shall he return again without sin and bring us
unto salvation. The sin's gone for His people.
It's gone. And He's made us the very righteousness
of God in Him. So verse 7, Ephesians 1, verse
7 says, In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace. Verse 11 says,
"...in whom also we've obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will." You know in Scripture, God's
attributes are called riches. He's rich in mercy, He's rich
in grace, He's rich in goodness, rich in forbearance, rich in
long-suffering, rich in power. Brethren, heaven is having all
God's riches turned into our safety and our comfort and our
happiness. The true riches are riches of
His grace, riches of full assurance. That's true riches. That's true
riches. And that's the reason believers
don't join with this world. When He opens this up and sees
it, you can preach morality all day long. You can tell a man
all day long, don't steal. Don't steal. But the thought
of being able to go around his competitor in an underhanded
way and cheat his competitor or cheat his customer and make
a little extra money is just too much for him. He can't stop
himself. And he'll do it. But you preach
this message to him and God opens up the eyes of his understanding
and sets his affection on the riches of God's grace above.
This will do for him what no morality preaching will do for
him. That's right. This will make him set his heart
on the true riches. And for that, I want to honor
his father who did this for him. And so the Spirit of God tells
me as your pastor, He says, charge them that are rich in this world
that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches. That's what all of them are here.
But in the living God, there's the true riches. Who giveth us
all things to enjoy, richly to enjoy. My God shall supply all
your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. All right? Look at the next word,
glory. Glory. Glory in the Scripture signifies
an excellency of things. An excellency of things. In Matthew 4, verse 8, Satan
showed Christ the kingdoms of the world, and it says, and the
glory of them. That means he showed Him the
excellency of the kingdoms of the world. You know when Moses
came down from the mount and his face shone and they couldn't
look upon his face for the glory of his countenance, that means
the excellency of his countenance, the brightness of it. That's
what it refers to in scripture. Our inheritance shall be glorious
because it's the workmanship of the triune God. Look at verse
17. He's the Father of glory. You see that? He's the Father
of glory. So His glory which shall be revealed
to us is incomparable. It's incomprehensible for us
right now. That's what Paul said. He said,
I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. There's nothing in this world
to compare the glory of God to. If you took all the riches, all
the honors, all the gold, all the silver, all the highest seats
in office and all of these things together and brought them all
together, it'd just be a bunch of vain nothing compared to the
glory of His excellency, the glory of this inheritance. When
the queen of Sheba came to see the king of Solomon, the scripture
says, he had so much glory. You remember the Lord referred
to the, in all his glory, in all his pomp, in all his excellency. She came there and she was rich.
And she came there, but what she saw in Solomon, it says,
there was no more spirit in her. It just took her breath away,
what she saw. And God's glory immeasurably
excels Solomon's glory. Immeasurably. Now one aspect
of this glory of his inheritance will be the excellency of the
way in which he gives it. The excellency of the glory of
the inheritance is that it shall be given to the perfect number
of children that he chose in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Whenever He speaks in Revelation of the 144,000,
and then He talks about a distinct number from each tribe that was
chosen, He's not telling us, brethren, that that's all that
will receive this inheritance. He's telling us it is a precise,
exact number that shall receive it. Look at John 6 in verse 39.
John 6, 39. This is the Father's will which
hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And
this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life,
and I will raise Him up at the last day. You see, He's not going
to lose one. Now, if we're dead in trespasses
and sins, and it's God's will that whosoever believes on Him
will have this inheritance, something's going to have to happen within
us to make us believe Him, right? Who's going to do that? He is.
God the Holy Spirit is going to come and quicken us and make
us cast our care on Him, every one of them, so that He loses
nothing but raises it up again at the last day. And then the
excellency of the glory of His inheritance is that it should
be measured to His saints in exact perfection. and the measure
shall be glorious in its abundance." You remember when the Lord brought
the children of Israel into their inheritance? The Lord said, now
you count the exact number of children in each tribe, in each
family. And He said this, He said the
glory, He said that He said that each one that had the exact numbers,
that the family that had more, they would get more of an inheritance,
and the family that had less, they would get less inheritance.
And what it teaches us, brethren, is he's going to measure it exactly
to his people, so that everybody is equal in what they get. Every
saint there will be equal. And then, remember too, when
He brought them in, He gave them exactly every boundary line,
told them exactly where the boundaries of their inheritance was, all
around, with exactness, so that as He promised, that's what He
gave them. The exact thing He promised them, that's what He
gave them. And that's what it teaches us, brethren. In Revelation
21, verse 15, it says, The angel that talked with me
had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof,
and the wall thereof. And the city lieth four square,
and the length is as large as the breadth. And he measured
the city with the reed twelve thousand furlongs. The length
and the breadth and the height of it are equal. The length and
the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured
the wall thereof, 144 cubits, according to the measure of a
man, that is, of the angel. 1400 miles high, 1400 miles long,
and 1400 miles wide. That's big. But you know what
it teaches us, brethren? It teaches us that it's complete
and in perfect symmetry. That means it's perfect. It's
perfect. It's altogether perfect. That's
what the excellency of this inheritance will be. Perfect in abundance
and equal to all his saints. Equal to all his saints. And
then the glory of his inheritance will be this. It shall perfectly
include all things. all things. Paul, speaking by
the Spirit of God, said in 1 Corinthians 3.21, let no man glory in men. Don't think that you have to
depend upon a man for anything. Let me repeat that. I know that
women's livers just started jumping up and down and clapping when
I said that. I mean man, woman, boy, girl, anybody. Don't think
you have to depend on a human being for anything. a sinner
for anything. You know why? This is so of the
believer. You know why? For all things
are yours. Whether it's Paul or it's Apollos
or it's Cephas, whether it's your ministers that God's given
to minister to you, whether they're in the flesh or whether they're
the angels He sent to minister to you, they're yours. Or whether
the world, it's all yours. Or life, it's all yours. Or death, death is yours. Death's yours to walk right through
like a door and just walk right into glory. And things present
and things to come, all are yours. And ye are Christ's and Christ
is God's. You see that? That's what Paul
means when he says, our life is hid with Christ in God. You see that? Because you're
Christ and Christ is God. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things and I'll be his God and he shall be my Son. So you
see the excellency of it? It includes all things. But more
than anything else, the excellency of this glory is Christ Himself. It's God Himself. He will be
the very glory Himself. Look at Revelation 21. His glory will lighten heaven. In Revelation 21-23, it says,
The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine
in it. For the glory of God, the glory
of God, the glory of God did lighten it. And the Lamb is the
light thereof. and the nations of them which
are saved shall walk in the light of it." And those nations that
the kings are going to bring their glory into it, you know
what I think that is? I think that's when, speaking
of the kings that being faithful men, servants like the Apostle
Paul, who are going to stand there with all those he ministered
to, and give them to Christ. Because remember over there,
I believe it was the Philippians, where He said, what is our joy
and our crown of rejoicing? He said, at the day of Christ's
coming. He said, are not you our glory? Why are you working right now?
You working, preacher, for a reward for you? No. What are you working
for? Why are you laboring? So that
every one of the sheep that live anywhere close to where I am,
that God's given me giving me a ministry to preach the gospel
so that every one of them will be called out by Him, by His
grace and brought to faith in Him. My glory is going to be
that He did it all. He did the whole thing and there
they all are. There they all are. Did you see?
He's the glory. Moses asked to see God's glory.
And God put Moses in a cleft of a rock. And that rock pictures
Christ, our foundation, our stone. Because the glory, the light,
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is revealed
in the face of Jesus Christ. the knowledge of the light of
the glory of God. How are we going to know God?
How are we going to perceive God? He's invisible. We're going
to see Christ. Who are we going to see when
we get to glory? You are Christ and Christ is God. Our life is
in Christ and hidden with God. We're going to see Christ when
we get there. That's who we're going to see.
And when we see Christ, we're going to see God. We're going to see
the Father and the Lamb, our triune God and the Lamb. That's
who we're going to see. The fullness of God in a body. Now, for now, God the Holy Spirit
has given us a few of Him through a glass, as in a mirror, and
it's very darkly. We see the God's glory in the
face of Jesus Christ. And by that, we've been changed
into His same image inwardly from glory, that old glory, to
this new glory. Remember Paul, in 1 Corinthians
3, 2 Corinthians 3, he was talking about that glory that was under
that legal dispensation, and he said, this is the glory that
exceleth this gospel dispensation. And when God gives us a view
of Christ, we're created in His image and we're taken out of
that legal glory of the law and that yoke and bondage of the
law to where we were doing everything we were doing because we were
under legal constraint of our old flesh and our old self-righteous
religious man. We came out of that glory into
the glory of this glorious inheritance where we stand complete in Christ
Jesus. And so He's given us that. But when we see Him as He is
and know Him fully, you think that was something. You think
what that did was something by seeing Him through faith. When
we see Him fully, we're going to be changed completely, completely. That's some sanctifying sight,
isn't it? The sight of Him that will do that. The psalmist said,
ìAs for me, Iíll behold thy face in righteousness, and I shall
be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.î ìNow are we the
sons of God,î John said, ìand it doth not yet appear what we
shall be.î Weíre talking about these things, and the best we
can do is just sort of imagine it. But we know that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him. Why? For we shall see Him
as He is. He's going to change our vile
body, there's that word vile again, that vile body we hate,
that body of flesh, this body of death, that vile man. He's
going to change our vile body that it may be fashioned like
unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He's able
even to subdue all things unto Himself. And then we shall fully
know, for that's when he's going to fully make known the riches
of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had before prepared
for glory. Brethren, the inheritance of
the saints in life is the inheritance of saints who have been made
perfect in his life, conformed to Christ the light, by Christ
the light. And everything about our inheritance
shall be the richness of royalty, the excellency of God's glory
and eternal. And that's why it's called a
crown of glory that fadeth not away. That's what it is, a crown
of glory. How do you wear glory? You're
made glory. That's how you wear it. You're
made glory. All right, secondly, let's look at this. Who are the
recipients of this inheritance? It says, His inheritance in the
saints. Now there's no doubt, the glory
of the Lord, the Lord Himself will be our inheritance. The
Scriptures, Isaiah 28 5 says, In that day shall the Lord of
hosts be for a crown of glory, for a diadem of beauty unto the
residue of His people. He will be that crown of glory
for us. Galatians 4.7, look there, just
back a page there from our text. It says, Wherefore thou art no
more a servant, Galatians 4.7, thou art no more a servant, but
a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. We're in God's family. If a son,
then an heir, that's for sure. We're God's child. We're going
to be an heir of Him. But look at it like this. We
are an heir of God. God Himself is the one we're
going to inherit. He is our inheritance. God Himself. Now, we know that's true, brethren,
but let me give you something that's going to just give you
some assurance here like nothing else. We shall be His inheritance. We shall be His inheritance.
His inheritance in the saints. Listen to Isaiah 62.3. Thou shalt
also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal
diadem in the hand of thy God." He said, He's going to be a crown
of glory for us and a royal diadem to us. But it says, Thou shalt
also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord. and a royal
diadem in the hand of thy God." Deuteronomy 32, 9 says, for the
Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. And he says, and for the Lord
will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
Now why warn him? How am I going to be his inheritance?
I can see, I see it's obvious why he's my inheritance. Christ,
righteousness, justification, sanctification, acceptance, fatherhood,
sonship, grace, glory, all things. I see how he's my inheritance,
but how am I his inheritance? How possibly could I be his inheritance? He's going to come to be glorified
in His saints. Romans 8, 17 says that if we
suffer with Him, we're going to be glorified together with
Him. Now that means, brethren, we're
going to be exalted to dignity together, to honor, to excellency
together in like manner. Our glorification is going to
be that He's made us His glory. but His glory shall be what He
has made us. You understand that? Listen.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. The glory which shall be revealed
in us. That word revealed means manifest
before all, uncovered before all. And the very next word tells
us that because it says, for the earnest expectation of the
creature waiteth for the manifestations of the sons of God. They're waiting
to see. And look at Ephesians 3. This
explains what I'm trying to say best of all. Ephesians 3, 10.
Everything He's done, this is His inheritance. He's done it,
verse 10, to the intent that now unto the principalities and
powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold
wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which He purposed
in Christ Jesus our Lord. All this, the fullness of the
earth, sets forth the glory of the Son. Everything that has
life is the glory of the Son. The Son has grown it. The Son
has made it. It's the Son's fullness. So we
see what a glorious Son it is because everything has life from
it and is grown from it. Well, so His vessels of mercy,
His monuments of grace, they set forth the glory of God. And
through his work and his saints, God will make known to principalities
and powers in heavenly places, his manifold wisdom. You take
an artisan, he can take a worthless piece of iron, a worthless piece
of iron, it's worth nothing. And he puts all this work into
it, and when he gets through with it, it's a priceless work
of art, and valued at much. Well, God has taken us who are
nothing and nobodies and He's worked His work of grace for
us by the blood and righteousness of Christ, by the work of the
Spirit of God within us, and by that resurrection, raising
us anew in the power of His resurrection. He's going to show everybody. All heaven and all earth will
be there to see. Those that love Him, those that
hate Him, those powers and principalities that are unseen by us, they'll
all see what His workmanship has accomplished, what He has
done. And that, my brethren, that's
His inheritance. In our gardens, every flower
takes in all the sun's rays so that when it blooms, each individual
flower is showing the glory of the sun. And all together they
show the fullness of His glory. Well, when we're in there, each
child of God is going to show some aspect of God's fullness. There's going to be some there
that's going to manifest the glory of His patience. There's
some going to be there that's going to manifest the glory of
His wisdom. There's some going to be there
that's going to manifest the glory of His power. the glory of His
long-suffering, and on and on and on. And all together, we're
going to be the glory in Him who's called us out of darkness
into His marvelous light. And He gets all the glory. And
He says to us He won't share His glory with another. He won't
share it with another and if that means we're His glory and
that we're His inheritance because He's going to manifest His work
to all, that means He won't let one be snatched out of His hand
because then He's given His glory to another. You who are His glory
and He won't have it. That's why He says, I'll never
forsake my inheritance. There He is. And you just think
of this too, brethren. If God will show how glorious
a God He is by how glorious a creature He can make, how glorious must
those creatures be? Especially when their glory is
an inheritance of the Father's glory. God has a lot of glory
to manifest. And He's going to manifest it
like God will manifest it. That means we're going to be
made glorious in that day. And another reason is this. That's
one reason we're His inheritance. Another reason is this. When
a child is sick and they're on the brink of death and a mother
has nursed that child and they don't die and they're alive again,
she loves that child with a special love. And when a son, a prodigal
son has run off and he's in the world and that father has sorrowed
over him until he's been brought home and returned again to life
with him, that son's a special son. That's what we are. Every one of us who has been
called by His grace. Firstborn children. Peculiar
treasure to Him. Each and every one. Alright,
now let's look now at this third thing. This third thing, what
good will it do us to know this? Why are we wanting to know this?
Why does Paul want our eyes of our understanding to be enlightened
to know this? Because we're surrounded by this world and our flesh,
our old man loves the world and would rather go with the flow
in this world. And we have a man of sin in our
flesh and a self-righteous Pharisee in our flesh. We're either doing
one of two things by our flesh all the time. We're either sinning
and then trying to fix the sin, and then patting ourselves on
the back because we fixed it. That's all the old man of flesh
is. He's a sinful, self-righteous wretch. And so, by enlightening
the eyes of our understanding, he sets our heart and our affection
on things above. I wish I could get you to understand.
Paul tells us there in Colossians 2, it's only as though you're
living in this world. So why is though living in this
world? Are you going to be subject to
earthly elements? Touch not, taste not, handle
not, which are all going to perish with the user. They're all going
to perish. It means nothing. It means nothing. That's a dim, dim-witted view
of the glory of God. We're not living in this world.
The truth of the matter is our life is hid in Christ with God. We are seated right now at the
right hand of the Father in glory. We are the treasures that we
looked at, the riches we looked at. We are complete in Him. It's
done, brethren. And when God opens the heart
to see that, the Lord Jesus said, where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also. And he said, And the light of
the body is the eye. If therefore that eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light. But if that eye be
evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. So whatever
the eyes of our understanding are set on as our treasure, that's
what that light of that object is going to fill our body. It's
going to govern our body. That's what it means. It's going
to govern your whole body. If our eyes enlighten to behold
that our life really is with God, we really have, our old
man really has been crucified, and we're dead now, and our life
really is hid with God. We're creatures of time and sense,
and we can't get this, but it's so, brethren. It is a reality. Paul never speaks of these things
as ill. He says, you account it to be
so, because it's so. It is so. And when He opens us
to see that, the light of this will fill your body and it will
govern your body. And that's how a man is made
to walk morally before God. And if God doesn't do the work,
it's the work of a man. and it's vain and it's useless
and it doesn't profit anything. But when God does this work,
that makes a man want to live to the glory of God and for the
good of his people. And a side note of it is it's
always more beneficial for us too. That's right. But if our eye is set on the
earth, and that's our treasure, all that touch not, taste not,
handle not, our sins and rebellion on Him, that very light, just
like the other, is going to fill our whole body and it's going
to govern everything we do. It's going to govern us. That's
why the Lord said, speaking of religious men, He said, If that light that's in you is
darkness, how great is that darkness? If that light that's in you that's
governing you is really the darkness of that show of will-worship
and that show of false humility and that show of neglecting the
body because you're trying to put on this show, that vain,
self-righteous show, and you really think that's light, you
really think that's honoring to God, That darkness is great
darkness because you think it's light. You think it's light.
See what I'm saying? Turn over to Ephesians 5. Paul didn't want them just to
walk. He wasn't just preaching morality.
He didn't want them just to be moral people. 50 cents will get you a coat. He
wants them to be following God, led of His Spirit, new creatures
in Christ. There's a big difference. So
when we see this sight of Him, this is what we'll do, brethren.
Look at verse 1. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children. walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, and offering
a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But fornication, and all
uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among
you, as becometh..." Look at this. Saints. That's what we
are, brethren. That's what we're saints. "...made
meet by the Father to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in life." filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are
not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know,
that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who
is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
of God." We will not be those things there, so why be them
here? Nobody who are those things will
be there. And God says that's not what we are now, So why do
we want to walk in that? And then he says, let no man
deceive you with vain words. Don't let a man tell you that
it doesn't matter either how you walk. Because of these things
cometh the wrath of God upon the children to disobey him.
Be ye not therefore partakers with them. He separated you from
them. For you were sometimes darkness,
but now are you light in the Lord. So walk as children of
light. For the fruit of the Spirit is
in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable
unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For
it is a shame to speak of those things which are done of them
in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest
by the light. For whatsoever doeth make manifest
his light. You know, he's telling us the
same thing we saw in Psalm 15 this morning. Don't esteem those
men. Don't join with them and give
credibility to them. Despise them. Reprove them. And esteem those that are God's
people. Choose to be with God's people. Walk with Him. Anyway,
so, I pray the Lord will bless that and give you a light, that
He will lighten your understanding, the eyes of your understanding.
that your whole body be full of that light, governed by Him.
Amen.