Our text this morning is going
to be this one phrase, this one glorious truth in Ephesians chapter
1 and verse 11. In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance. In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance. That's what I've titled this,
Inheritance Obtained. Our divisions, we're going to
see that it is in Christ that we've obtained an inheritance.
It says in whom. Then secondly, we're going to
see who has obtained this inheritance. It says we have. Then thirdly, we'll see the fact
that our inheritance is already ours. It says we have obtained. Done. Past tense. We have obtained. And then we'll consider what
our inheritance is. Let's see first here that our
inheritance is obtained in Christ. Verse 11 says, in whom? In whom? That's a person. In whom? Do you know this? Everything that God has for His
people, He has in His Son. Everything that God shall give
to His people is all in, by, and through His Son. Everything. Everything. God gave the work
of glorifying His name and of saving His people to our Lord
Jesus Christ. And our Lord Jesus Christ has,
is, and shall do everything that is required to give all the glory
to the Father and to save all the children that the Father
gave to Him. That's His two-fold purpose in His work, to glorify
the Father and to save His people. And He shall do it. And I hear
folks say, y'all don't preach enough on the Holy Spirit. The
Lord Jesus Christ said this about God the Holy Spirit. Do you think
God the Father, Son, and Spirit are divided on this? God the
Holy Spirit, He said this about the Holy Spirit. When He, the
Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth,
for He shall not speak of Himself. But whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak, and he'll show you things to come. He shall
glorify me, Christ said. For he shall receive of mine
and shall show it unto you. If you begin to hear somebody
and they're just preaching on the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit ain't preaching that message.
Because the Holy Spirit's going to preach Christ. He's going
to give the message that declares Christ. He's going to glorify
me, Christ said. Everything God has for His children
is in Christ. Just look at our text. We've
looked at this before, but let's look at it again. Verse 3, God
the Father blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. Look at verse four, according
as he's chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
Look at verse five, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself. Verse six, to the praise of the
glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved. Verse 7, in whom we have redemption
through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. Verse 10, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in Him. You see, everything is in Christ.
Verse our text says, in whom we've obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. I think the
counsel of his own will is that everything be in his son. That's
what it looks like. Verse 12, that we should be to
the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. Verse 13,
in whom you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. In whom? Also, after that you
believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Look at verse 15. Wherefore I also, after I heard
of your faith, in the Lord Jesus Christ, love unto all the saints. Look at verse 19. He manifests
the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe according
to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead. Look down at Ephesians 2, 6.
And He's raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Look at 2, chapter 2, verse 10. For we're His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. Look at chapter 2, verse 13. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye
who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Look at verse 21, in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth into a holy temple in the Lord. Look at verse 22, in
whom ye also are builded together for habitation of God through
the Spirit. I want you to be overwhelmed
by this. I want you to be overwhelmed by the fact that everything's
in Christ. I went through this book. I went
through it and I wrote these things down. You can get the
notes later on the internet. Listen to it right now. Just
listen to this. John 1.17 says grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Romans 8.1 says there's therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8.2
says the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the
law of sin and death. Romans 8.39 says the love of
God is in Christ Jesus. That's the only place it is.
Romans 12.5 says we're one body in Christ. 1 Corinthians 1.2
says the church of God is sanctified in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians
4.15 says in Christ we're begotten through the gospel. 1 Corinthians
15.19 says we have hope in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15.22 says
in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15.31 says our
rejoicing is in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 16.14 says our
love for one another is in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 2.14 God
always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 3.14
says that veil that's covering your heart so that you can't
see shall be done away in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 15, 17 says,
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. 2 Corinthians
5, 19 says, God reconciled us unto himself in Christ. Our liberty is in Christ Jesus,
Paul tells us in Galatians 2. Galatians 2, 17 says, we're justified
by Christ Jesus. Galatians 3.17 says the everlasting
covenant is confirmed of God in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3.26
says we are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3.28 says we are all
one in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 4.21 says the truth
is in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5.18 says you are darkness. but now are you light in the
Lord Jesus. Philippians 1.11 says we're filled
with fruits of righteousness by Christ Jesus. Philippians
2.1 says our consolation and our comfort of love is in Christ. Philippians 3.14 says the high
calling of God is in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4.7 says the peace
of God keeps our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4.13 says we can
do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Philippians
4.19 says God supplies all our need according to his riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. Colossians 1.28 says every believer
shall be presented to God perfect in Christ Jesus. Colossians 4.17
says the ministry we have received is in the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4.16 says the dead
shall rise in Christ. Jude 1.1 says we are preserved
in Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 1.14 says the grace
of our Lord is exceeding abundant with faith and love which is
in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 1.1 says the promise
of life is in Christ Jesus. God saved us and called us not
according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
1 Peter 2.5 says we offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. We've been called into eternal
glory by Christ Jesus. Do you see? Everything this book
is telling us is that everything is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything is through the Lord
Jesus Christ. So you know why I preach Christ
and Him crucified to you? Do you see why I preach Christ
and Him crucified to you? Everything God has for His people
is in Christ. If there was an island, and you
lived on an island, a nation, let's say. And it was about to
be annihilated. It was about to be just blown
off the map completely. And there was a boat, one boat,
to get you off that island. One boat docked in one place
and you had to get to that one boat to get off that island.
Would you want me to spend my time telling you how to tie your
shoes? Or would you want me to tell you where that boat's at?
Would you want me to spend my time telling you how you ought
to dress and buckle yourself up and how you ought to get your
suit and clothes on and iron and press your clothes? Or do
you want me to tell you about that boat? Which one? Why in the world would we spend
all our effort talking about this meaningless, dumb when the
issue is Christ, when it's God's good pleasure to glorify His
own Son, when in the end it's all going to have this issue
in Him, and we're going to see Him, and every knee is going
to bow to Him, and all salvation is going to be in Him. You sitting
here that don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, it would behoove
you to avail yourself of every opportunity you have to seek
to find who this One is. To listen to every message you
can hear. To read everything you can read. To try to come to His feet and
beg Him to have mercy on you. Because you all, if you get this
whole world, If you become the most powerful man in the whole
world and own everything in the world, you don't have squat if
you don't have Christ. You've got nothing. But if you've
got Christ and you don't have anything in this world, you've
got all things. All things. Find out who he is. Quit trying to find out how to
work the newest iPod. Quit trying to find out who the
latest singer is and what the next hit song is and how you
can get tickets to the next concert. And find out who this one is. Did you just hear everything
I read? Did you just hear how much is in Christ Jesus? Christ
is all. We gotta find out who he is.
He's all. He's all. Oh. So that's who,
that's who. Listen to this. I want to give
you this one last time. 1 John 5, 11. This is the record. This is it. God hath given to
us eternal life and this life is in His Son. Verse 20 says,
We know that the Son of God has come, and He has given us an
understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are
in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. That's who He is. Alright, secondly,
who has obtained this inheritance? Who has obtained it? We have. Who are the we? I'm going to
tell you who the we are and you listen closely and you see if
this applies to you. You see if you are the we. Do
you fit in here? This is who the we are. Now everything
I'm about to tell you, all this has got to apply to you if you're
the we. Because this is so with all of us who are the weak. We
got this all in common right here. The first thing is this.
We believe ourselves to be so thoroughly ruined and undone
in sin that there's absolutely nothing we can do to save ourselves.
That's who the we are. That's who the we are. Do you
believe there's nothing you can do to save yourself? Do you believe
there's no work you can add or contribute that God's going to
even recognize as being anything that gives you entrance into
heaven? Nothing that you do is. Nothing that you do is. All the
works are of Christ only. Do you believe that? Do you believe
you're that sinful? That even the very best deeds
you've done will not gain you entrance into heaven. They're
filthy rags. They're worthless before God.
That's who the we are. Secondly, the we are those who
have been sanctified, set apart, and made holy by our triune God. We were sanctified by God the
Father in divine election. We were sanctified by God the
Son in His blood redemption. And we were sanctified by God
the Holy Spirit by regeneration, being born and made a new creature,
created anew in righteousness and true holiness. so that now
we see all our righteousness and all our holiness is in Christ
Jesus. We've been united to Him. That's
who we are. We give thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. We're talking about an inheritance.
How do we get that? He made us fit to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. He delivered us from
the power of darkness and He translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. And in His Son we have redemption
through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. This is how we come
into His presence. That's who the we are. Thirdly,
we are sons by adoption and therefore God sent forth His Gospel and
His Spirit and gave us life. We didn't become sons by believing.
God sent forth the truth and He sent forth the Spirit into
our hearts because we were sons already. Galatians 4.16 says,
Because ye are sons. God hath sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father, wherefore
you are no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an
heir of God through Christ." We're talking about an inheritance,
an inheritance. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we're sons of God. And if we're sons, then
we're heirs. And if we're heir, we're joint
heirs with Christ. That means everything that is
Christ's inheritance is our inheritance. We're joint heirs with Christ.
Joint heirs with Christ. That's who the we are. The we
are us who don't just start out in faith and then go a little
ways and then putter out and decide, We've done enough. We're good.
We'll be saved. We're the ones who persevere
and continue to come to hear His Gospel, continue to strive
to enter into that straight gate, who continue to persevere in
good works and to honor our Father and glorify our Father and to
bear witness of our Father and His Son in this earth. We persevere
until the end. That Scripture in Romans 8 says,
If you're children, then you're heirs. Heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
Him, that we may be also glorified together with Him. You see, the
fact of the matter is, if we're not willing to suffer for somebody,
we don't love them. We don't love them. You men,
would you suffer for your wife? If something was about to happen
to her, somebody's about to endanger her, and it meant you stepping
in between them and her, that it's gonna cause you to suffer,
would you do it? Of course you would. You'd love
them. Anybody that we love, we're gonna
suffer for. And a believer loves Christ by
his grace, and we're willing to suffer for him by his grace,
by him keeping us right up until the end. The we are those who
believe we've been justified not by our works, but purely
by the work of Christ. Titus 3, 6 says, pure grace,
which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. Why are we going to be heirs?
He shed His grace on us abundantly through Jesus Christ. He justified
us freely by His grace. He made us heirs. That's why.
Do you believe there's no work you can do to justify yourself
before God? What do you mean justify? I mean,
do you believe there's no work you can do whereby you can come
up to God and say, but God, look at this. Is there nothing you
have, nothing whatsoever, you have nothing in your hand to
come to God and say, look it, at least I did this. We gotta
come to Him with nothing but Christ. Lord, I did nothing. Father, I did nothing. But this
one right here, I trust Him has done everything for me. That's
where we gotta come. That's how we gotta come to God.
That's who the we are. We, to whom God has sent forth
His elect angels to protect us and minister to us. That's who
the we are. Do you know that? We got elect
angels sent forth of God to minister to us. Listen to this. Are they
not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who
shall be heirs of salvation? Wherever you go, wherever you
are, We got angels protecting us. Unseen power protecting us. You remember the Lord when He
went across the brook, Cedron, and He was about to be arrested
by the soldiers, and He said His name, and they fell down
on the ground, and Peter draws his sword and goes to try to
protect the Lord, cuts the ear off the soldier. And the Lord
told Peter, He said, Peter, put your sword up. He said, I could
speak the Word right now, and I could have I could have more
than 12 legions of angels right here protecting me, if I wanted
to. That same Lord can speak the word and have 12 legions
of angels surrounding you, wherever you are, whatever danger you're
in. That's who we're talking about. Because they're going
to be heirs of salvation, and He's not going to let anything
happen to them. He done bought them, and so He's not going to
let anything happen to them. Here's who the we are. We to
whom God has shown the immutability of His counsel. We to whom He's
shown that His counsel shall never change. wherein God, willing
more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability
of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. Do you believe, are
you the wit, who believe that not only can God not lie, but
that he's gone out of his way to confirm everything to us by
an oath? And so you know and are persuaded
that everything God has promised to you He's gonna make good on
it. He has, he is, and he shall,
because he's faithful. God is faithful. That's who the
we are. That's who the we are. We are
the poor of this world. That's who we are. We're not
trying to get rich in this world. We're not trying to get more
of this world. We're not trying to, we're not trying to, we're
content with whatever the Lord's given us. Wherever He's put us,
we're content with it. Listen to this. Hearken, my beloved
brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich
in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which He's promised to them that
love Him? You see, we're heirs. Does that mean that everybody
that is a believer lives on the poor side of town? No. It means
we're poor in comparison to what people in this world have. It
means we're poor in comparison to what this world regards as
being successful and rich and having value. We don't have the
things this world has. Because we're content. If the
Lord gives us much, we're content with that. If He gives us little,
we're content with that. Because we have Christ. That's
the issue. That's the preeminent thing in
our hearts. We have Christ. We want Christ. We desire Christ. And so the
rest doesn't really matter too much. It doesn't really matter
too much. Here's who the we are. We who are Christ's And we who
are the true sons of Abraham, true children of Abraham. Galatians
3.29 says, If you be Christ, then are you Abraham's children,
his seed, and heirs according to the promise. Heirs according
to the promise. Here's who we are. Look back
at Ephesians 1. Here's who we are. We delight
in God's will and good pleasure and His purpose. Look at verse
5. It says, He predestinated us unto the adoption according
to the good pleasure of His will. Verse 9 says, He's made known
unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure
which He had purposed in Himself. And verse 11 says, we've obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
Now let me ask you this, can you say, I delight in God's will? Can you say, I delight for God
to do whatever pleases Him. I delight in God's good pleasure,
which He purposed in Himself before the foundation of the
world. It thrills my soul. That I didn't choose God, but
that God chose me. It thrills my soul that it was
not my will that saved me, it was God's will that saved me.
It thrills my soul that it wasn't my purpose-driven life that saved
me, it was God's purpose that saved me. And I'm saved by Him. Do you delight in that? That's
who the we are. That's who the we are. That's
who the we are. If we say no to any of these
things, Then we're not the we. We're not the we. If we say,
well, I can go with you, I can go with you a little bit of the
way, but now I can't go all the way with that. Now I gotta, I
gotta have some part in this thing. I'm sorry, you're not
the we. You're not the we. All right,
here's the third thing. The Spirit gives the believer
the good news that we already possess our inheritance. We already
possess it. It's currently ours. Look at
verse 11. We have obtained. We have obtained. The phrase means that we're passive
in obtaining it. That's what the phrase means.
We're passive. It's not a thing we seek. The words mean we have
been allotted or assigned a possession. We have been allotted a sign.
It means we've been chosen and apportioned an inheritance by
lot. Did you read that scripture that
Art read? I can't believe he read that. Isaiah 34 verse 16. It's exactly what it's talking
about. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read, No one
of these shall fail. None shall want her make. For
my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them."
Now watch this. He hath cast the lot for them. That's what
it means. He's cast the lot for them. His
hand has divided it unto them by line. They shall possess it
forever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein." When
he set the bounds of Israel, when he carried them into Canaan,
he set their bounds according to the number of Israel, according
to his children. That's how he set the boundaries.
You realize everything our Lord's doing in this earth is according
to his children. He's setting all the bounds in
this world according to the number of his children. He's dividing
it to us by line. You know how you take a big plot
of land and you divide it by line. I had a great, great grandfather,
they tell me, that owned, he owned, he had 12 grandchildren,
I think, or 12 children. And when he died, he left every
one of them, what's a square block of land? 650 acres, something
like that. He left every one of them 650
acres. That's a lot of land. That's
a lot of land. And he divided it to them. He
said, this right here is the marker. This right here is the
marker. This right here is the marker. This right here is the
marker. And there's your name on that one. There's your name
on that one. There's your name on that one. There's your name
on that one. And that's what God's done for His people. That's
exactly what He's done for His people. Just as passively as
we receive forgiveness of sins, just that passively we receive
this inheritance. It's God's to give. It's God's
to give to whomsoever He pleases. That's it. It wasn't a thing
we deserve. It was the free gift of God in
Christ, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. It's not an
inheritance like our earthly father gives us. If you have
an earthly father, He'd give you his inheritance just because
you're his child. But there's a lot of Abraham's
children that don't get this inheritance because they're not
the true sons of Abraham. This is an inheritance given
by God's choice, by Him choosing who His children are, by divine
adoption, by blood redemption. Christ has purchased this inheritance
for His people and so it's ours. He shall divide the spoiled with
the strong, because He's poured out His soul unto death. He's
made intercession. He's made atonement for our transgressions. He has the right to divide this
to us by lot, by His will and purpose. Now, does that describe
you? Have you passively been given
forgiveness of sin? Have you passively, without doing
a thing, lifting a finger, done anything, been given an inheritance
by God? There's not many people in this
world tell you that they have not done anything and have passively
received forgiveness of sin. Most everybody tell you they
did something. They went to the side room and prayed through
with somebody. At least I did. I went to the
side room and somebody in the back counselor talked me through.
I did something. Everybody thinks they did something.
Have you done nothing? What about nothing? God's people
have done nothing. We didn't do anything to receive
this. It's all of His grace. Now get this. We have obtained
it. That means our inheritance is
not something that will be ours in the future. It's ours now.
We have obtained. Christ has entered in and He's
taken possession of our inheritance for us already. Listen to what
He said in John 14. in my father's house are many
mansions." It means dwelling places. And he says, if it were
not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And he said, and if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto
myself that where I am, there you may be also. And our Lord
Jesus went to that cross, and that's where he started preparing
that place for us. And He went to that cross and
on that cross He took whoever this for you is that He's speaking
to, whoever this is He predestinated to have this inheritance, that's
who He represented on the cross. And He went to that cross and
He was made sin for them in their place. And He bore all the punishment
of God, all the justice that had to be poured out upon us
in order for God to remain just. He bore that. And God's just
now to give all this inheritance to His child in great mercy,
completely free, because the price has been paid for you to
have it. It's all been paid by His Son,
and His Son gives it to us freely. And because it's by God's grace,
therefore our inheritance has each redeemed child's name on
it, and it shall never be taken away from us. Look at 1 Peter
1. 1 Peter 1. Look at verse 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you. Do you see that? who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, and this is ready
to be revealed in the last time. It's all done. He said, I go
to prepare a place for you. That means when you get there,
you're not going to have to go in and level up the land and
make sure that it don't flood and cut some timber and clear
off some place for you. Everything's going to be done.
It's all prepared. It's all ready. It's all finished
for His people. When Christ returns, the majority
of his people's already gonna be there. and it's gonna come
down out of heaven, already prepared for us, everything done for us.
And those who remain, the dead in Christ will rise first, and
us who remain will be caught up in the air with Him, and we'll
be with Him, and we'll see. It's all been done. It's all
prepared. And just like you pull into a
parking lot, if you're somebody, you pull into a parking lot,
and there's your name written on the parking spot, and nobody
can get that spot. It's your, you pull into that
spot. He got His name, our name. on our inheritance. It's ours.
And nobody else can have it. It's ours. We don't have to fight
over it. Can you imagine being content,
perfectly content? Can you imagine that? Perfectly
content with what you have. That's what we'll be. You know,
if we were perfectly content with what we had, it wouldn't
matter what we had. If we were perfectly content,
it wouldn't matter what we had. Well, what is our inheritance?
Well, let me give you an illustration. If you lost your husband or your
wife, your son or your daughter, whoever it is you dearly, dearly,
dearly love, you lost them. And it was told to you right
now on this earth, you can have anything you desire. You have
it right now, including that loved one that you've lost. Wouldn't
you trade everything else for that loved one? Wouldn't you
say, I don't want anything else I can have. I just want that
one again. I want them back. Christ is the
one the believer loves. He's the one we love. Christ
is our husband and we're his bride. He's the one we love and
he's the one we want. We say, you can have everything
else, He's the one we want. And He's our inheritance. Listen
to this. Christ is the inheritance of
all the children of God. He's been allotted to us for
our inheritance. Listen to Lamentations 3.24.
The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Listen to Psalm 16.5. The Lord is the portion of mine
inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. Psalm
73, 26 says, My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the
strength of my heart and my portion forever. He's my portion. He's my inheritance. The Lord
gave us a picture of this in the Levites. Remember the Levites? They were priests of God, just
like Christ has made His people kings and priests unto God. He
loved us and washed us from our sins and made us kings and priests
unto God. And when He brought the Levites into this land, into
the land of Canaan, He gave everybody else a different kind of inheritance,
but he said this in Joshua 13, 33. He said, the tribe of Levi,
Moses gave not any inheritance. He said, the Lord God of Israel
was their inheritance. As he said unto them, the Lord
God's your inheritance. Can you imagine? This is what
he's saying to us, brethren. He said, you're not going to
get what this world's going to get. You know what this world's
going to get? This world's going to have everything that's in
this world right now. They're going to have it. And
they're going to have a lot of it. And they're going to be holding
on to it with everything they got. And it and them are going
to burn up. You want that? You can have it. God'll give you exactly what
you want. He always does. He gives us exactly what we want. If you want the world, God'll
give it to you. If you want Christ, God'll give
you Christ. He gives us what we want. He
always does. And if we want Christ, He gets
the glory for giving us that willingness to want Him. And
if we want the world, there's nobody to blame but us. That's
true. And you know what the Lord Jesus
Christ wants for His inheritance? His people, His bride. Just as Christ has been allotted
to us, each and every child that He redeems has been given to
Him. Deuteronomy 32.9, the Lord's
portion is His people. Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. He said in Psalm 2-8 when he
raised Christ from the dead, he said, Ask of me and I shall
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, the uttermost parts
of the earth for thy possession. You know what he's talking about?
His elect scattered to the four winds of the earth. He said,
Ask of me, I'll give them to you. And Christ says, That's
all I want. That's all I want is them. Listen
to this now. We are the riches of his glory. I wouldn't say this about us
if the Scriptures didn't. We are the riches of His glory. His inheritance is His saints. That's what it says here. Look
at Ephesians 1.18. Paul says, I want the eyes of
your understanding to be enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His
inheritance and the saints. Explain that to me. Listen to
this. Viewing His saints as His inheritance,
Christ sees us as we really are, complete in Him, with all our
sins washed away by His precious blood, made the righteousness
of God. So when He looks upon us, He
sees the riches of His glory. You see, it's like if I had a
bunch of riches, a bunch of jewelry and diamonds and things, and
I just covered you over in them, so that you're covered in them,
and I looked at you, you know what I'd see? I'd see the riches
of my glory. I'd see the riches I put on you.
And when he looks it up, he sees the riches of His glory in His
inheritance in His saints. That's what he sees when he looks
it up. That's amazing! We're His portion. So that He
says, the words apply to Him from Psalm 16, 6, the lines are
fallen unto Me in pleasant places. I have a goodly heritage. I've
got a good inheritance. That's what He said. He did everything
to make us the riches of His glory. And then He looks at us
and says, what a good inheritance I have. If His saints are that dear to
Him, We ought to treat them that way, shouldn't we? They ought
to be that dear to us. They are that dear to Him. They
ought to be that dear to us. Every one of our brethren ought
to be that dear to us. When you look at Him, you ought
to see the riches of His glory. That's His inheritance. Here's
the last thing. As far as what all our inheritance
will include, we're going to have to wait to see about that. But this is what we're told. This is what we're told. Look
over at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I want you to think right
now about the blessings we have. Think about the blessings we
have as believers. We have eternal redemption. We
have reconciliation to God. God's our friend, like what Christ
has accomplished for us. We have free justification from
all our sin. We have forgiveness of all our
sin. We have the righteousness of
Christ imputed to us. We've been made meek to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light right now. And we could
go on and on about all these things that we have. And you
know what the Lord tells us about all these blessings we have?
You ain't seen nothing yet. You ain't even come close to
entering into it yet. He says there in Ephesians 2,
7, in the ages to come, He's going to show the exceeding riches
of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Look here at 1 Corinthians 2, 9. As it is written, I hath not
seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. He showed
us some of them. He's given us a foretaste. But
we ain't even imagined. We ain't even scratched the surface
yet of what all this inheritance is going to include. We're going
to have to just wait and see. Revelation 21. Look over there.
Revelation 21. This gives us some idea of it.
Revelation 21. Now you remember this. This is because Christ poured
out of His blood. It's because Christ's body was
broken for His people. Everything God has is in Christ.
Everything. Everything. Look at Revelation
21, 3. I heard a great voice out of
heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will
dwell with them, and they shall be His people. Now this right
here just gets me. God Himself shall be with them. God Himself shall be with them.
You ever want to see God? We're going to see Him. We're
going to see Him. Face to face, we're going to
see Him. And He's going to be their God. Look there. Be their
God. Verse 4, And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed
away. Look down at verse 7. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things. All things. Carol, that's a lot of things.
When God says all things, he always sees what's on this
earth. That's things we've never even seen. And He says everything's
going to be yours. Everything. All things. Now look
at this. And I'll be His God. And this
is the other thing that gets me right here. And He shall be
my Son. He'll be my Son. Every saint, this is what we're
going to have. Perfect communion with Christ. perfect commitment to Christ,
perfect conformity to Christ. No man has any excuse for not
believing a God this good. No man has any excuse for not
believing a God this good. I pray he'd give you grace to
believe him. I really do. Amen.