An Inheritance

If you would to Ephesians chapter 1 Ephesians chapter 1 will continue our study in this wonderful chapter we're going to be reading verses 7 to 12 and verse 11 will be our verse for today in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace and according to His good pleasure which He had purposed in the beginning, which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him, in whom we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ.

My oh my, this is just a wonderful verse. Absolutely wonderful verse. Verse 11 will be our text. Read verse 11 again. We have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. What a verse. What a verse.

He's told us the Holy Spirit We've been redeemed by the blood of Christ adopted in Christ. We have all spiritual blessings in Christ We're chosen in him before the foundation of the world and then look at this Well, now we know we find out we have obtained an inheritance a Lot a lot in The Greek a lot we obtained a lot being predestined according to the purpose of Him, all things after the counsel of His own will.

That's the God of the Bible right there. He does whatever He wants according to His will and purpose. Everything that happens is according to His will and purpose. What we would call good and what we call bad, it's all according to His purpose and plan. It's amazing what peace that can give us, right, through this world. And remember, he's writing to the Ephesians.

They're being persecuted for being Christians now, for turning from idols to serve the living and true God. And they're being persecuted for that. And the words, in whom, take us back to verse 10. So there's a connection there. So let's read 10 and 11 together. 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. In whom, there it goes, there's the connection, right? Back to verse 10.

We have obtained an inheritance. So we've obtained an inheritance in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And by his precious, precious blood, right? Calvary's cross and then we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God we give him faith to believe on Christ it's absolutely amazing but look at that right now whoever the born-again blood-washed people of God we have an inheritance right now and you know we can't mess it up you know sometimes people There could be family disputes, right? And some people get written out of their parents' will or out of their family's will, right? God will never write us out of this inheritance. It's been purchased by His blood, the blood of His Son. Ratified by His Son.

Isn't that beautiful? And notice the verbiage. In whom we have obtained. We've obtained this. How? Through Christ. through Christ and Him alone. It's beautiful. My! And look at that. We have obtained an inheritance. We know that it's in Christ alone, isn't it? It's nowhere else. It's not by anything we do or say. And beloved of God, it's Christ who's redeemed us by His blood. It's God Himself who's the Creator of all things. The One by whom all things consist has redeemed us. from all our sins. How? By the shedding of his blood.

And think of this, the law of God is totally fulfilled. There's not a jot of the law that's against us anymore. Now, in our natural state, it'd have a rightful claim on us, wouldn't it? That's why the scripture says, it is so beautiful, who can condemn us? It's God that justifies us. Now our hearts will condemn ourselves, right? We still mourn over our sins, but beloved, we're forgiven. We're totally cleansed from all our sins. And we have attained this inheritance.

And part of this inheritance is that the law is fulfilled, the justice of God is satisfied by the perfect finished work of Christ. It's wonderful. Jesus Christ died in our room and place. He died in the room and place of sinners. The question is, are you a sinner? Are you really a sinner? And the God's people say, yeah, I'm a sinner, but I'm saved by grace.

Praise his mighty name. It's wonderful. And marvel, beloved God, that Christ has enlightened us to the mystery. Remember, look back in verse 9, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he had purposed in himself. And the mystery of his will is the gospel, that God himself would save sinners. And that's been revealed to us. We didn't know that before we were saved. We didn't know anything about that. And now he's revealed it to us. And we marvel. that God saved a sinner such as me. It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. And again, the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of redemption by God himself.

No other stuff in religion, in man-made religion, would ever have their God die for them. Their gods were always angry at them. for not offering the proper sacrifice, and they were never satisfied. Our God is satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ because it's God the Son who's given his life for us. It's the God the Son who became a man and died in our room and place.

And that's the only reason in whom we have obtained an inheritance, that's Christ. It's only because of what he's done. And this is Jew and Gentile, beloved, who are saved. This is Jew and Gentile. It's absolutely incredible. And in Christ, we see both the wisdom and power of God in redemption as he reveals when he pleases the gospel to whom he pleases.

And in whose time does that happen? Brother Charlie, you learned God's time in this weekend, right? It has to happen in his time. How many times have we planned things and God disposes and it's not what we planned? It's in his time. It's in his time. It's wonderful. It's absolutely amazing.

And that's a lesson for us, isn't it? That's a lesson for us just to rest in the sovereignty of God. For telling me that, Charlie, because that's totally on my heart now about how we make these plans and the Lord just goes, oh, But it always turns out for the good, doesn't it? It always turns out for the good. It's amazing. So in his time, he reveals the gospel. And think of this. There will be a time when all the elect angels and all the elect men and women will be gathered together. This world will be no more. There'll be a new heaven and a new earth. And we'll all be gathered together. And you know what? We'll be in unity.

This book, actually, as I'm looking through this book more and more, this book is about unity. There's a lot of things about having unity with one another and how we're one in Christ. And remember, Paul's writing to both Jews and Gentiles. It's a Gentile church, but there's Jews there, too.

And it's wonderful. And think of this, Christ has enriched us, God the Father has enriched us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. We see that up in verse three. All spiritual blessings. He's enriched us with those in Christ. We never had them. And now we have them. Every believer has them. That's why I bought them Promises of God books. All those promises are ours in Christ. And like Spurgeon said, take them and pray them back to God. Pray them back to God, beloved. Because they're ours in Christ. Mine. And we've obtained a glorious inheritance. Listen to this in Romans chapter 8, verses 16 and 17.

The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Are the spirit inside us now? That we never had before Right witnesses that we're the children of God and if children then heirs That means an inheritance, right? In Christ isn't wonderful and then then heirs Heirs of God and join heirs with Christ and so be we suffer with him that we may also may be also glorified today as Romans 8, 16, and 17.

Let's read verse 11 again with that in mind. In whom we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. This is wonderful. We see here before us a setting forth of the great being great themes actually of community, harmony and peace. How do those all come about? How do those come about?

Only in Christ. There's no other way. We would not be united except being in Christ. And if someone's not united in Christ and they come, they're gonna feel uncomfortable. That's not a bad thing, is it? I felt uncomfortable the first time I heard the gospel, did you? Oh my, it shook my world up. But that's the power of God on the salvation. And he shows us Christ. And all through this letter, these three themes, unity, harmony, and peace, are all in here. All in this. We're going to see as we go through this book.

And let us ponder this wonderful truth that in the church there's no nationalistic boasting from Jews and no philosophical snobbery from the Greeks. The Jews used to think they were very exclusive. God chooses out of Jews and Gentiles a people to purchase by His blood. God used the foolishness of preaching to save some.

Now, I'll tell you what. Do you need ears to hear it? Not everybody's got ears to hear it. God reveals Himself to us. And how does He do it? Someone asked me, they were telling me about a dream they had a couple weeks ago. What did you think? And I said, I think you just had a dream. You don't think God was speaking to me through that? I said, you had a dream, man. Maybe you ate too much pizza the night before and you had a pizza nightmare or something.

I don't know, but I just told him, I said, God speaks to us through his word. That's how he speaks to us, through his word, beloved. He's the preacher of the gospel. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Isn't that wonderful? How? By the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Working and moving and drawing us to Christ. It's wonderful. Making the unwilling willing. Come on. Let us ponder this wonderful truth.

Again, there's no nationalistic boasting in the church. We're one in Christ, that's who we're in. We're one in Christ. I'm a Canadian, you guys are Americans, but we're one in Christ, aren't we? We have brothers and sisters in Africa, and Russia, and China, and Singapore, and Thailand, and all these, Vietnam, and all these different places. And we're one in Christ. Out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, beloved. God has a people. It's wonderful We're one in Christ And notice the words here in verse 11 in whom that being Christ also we have obtained It's ours right now while we're on this earth This inheritance is ours right now. We don't get it when we get to heaven.

It's already ours Now we're see it in a greater light when we get to heaven right because the the veil of it We won't see through a glass darkly anymore We see him face to face our Savior But we have it look at that in whom we have Obtained an inheritance So Paul's reassuring the Ephesian saints that no matter what you go through, no matter what persecution, no matter what comes your way, you've already obtained this inheritance.

And we can't mess it up. Now that doesn't give us a license to go crazy, and none of us would. But look at that, we've already obtained it as believers. Because it's a gift of God, right? It's not something we can earn. It's not something we can merit. It's given freely to us by God's sovereign grace. It's wonderful.

And think of this, the apostle Paul at one time boasted that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, remember? He boasted, he said, the law blameless in his mind before he was saved. And he says, I count all things but loss for the excellency of Christ. He's obtained an inheritance that's greater than anything he ever had before.

And that's Jesus Christ, our Lord. Remember in Genesis 14, the first verse that the Lord says to Abraham, Exodus, the Lord says to Abraham, I'm your exceeding reward. It's me. Oh, that's wonderful. Christ is our reward. There's no greater reward than Christ. And this is for all born-again, blood-washed believers, whether our faith is strong or whether our faith is just weak.

Right? I was watching a guy yesterday, and this guy talks about his faith, and he said, well, I felt like I was strong in my faith until this happened, and he just got taken right down to the woodshed. And he realized, I can't do nothing without Christ. I can't do nothing without him. And that's why we rejoice when we see these wonderful truths brought forth, that this inheritance we have in Christ, it can't be spoiled. It's already reserved for us, Peter says, in heaven, where moths and corruption can't get to it.

You know, I bought some stuff from Oregon. It's still sitting in boxes, and I looked at some of it in the garage. It ain't worth nothing. It's just junk now. Because the moisture got at it and, you know, bent some of the books and all that. And I'm like, well, those aren't good no more. It got corrupted, didn't it? But our inheritance will never be corrupted, beloved. Not by anything.

So the Apostle Paul, he boasted that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, and now he boasts in Christ. And he says, I'm sent to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. He didn't boast in himself anymore. See, when he said, I'm the Hebrew of Hebrews, he was boasting in himself. And when he used that example, he was saying to them, he was battling with them in Galatians, and he said, look, if anyone could count himself worthy, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. And I realized that all that was nothing. That's what he was doing. He was showing that all that religious work that he did, gain no merit and favor with God.

And again, in whom we have obtained an inheritance? In Christ. God is only pleased with us in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? And he put us there. That's what's amazing. He put us in Christ. Amazing. God's grace is just incredible. And we look to our inheritance in Christ as Christians, and it's in that that we can have unity and peace with our brethren. You know the best way to look at each other? Under the blood of Christ. You won't see no faults with your brothers and sisters if you look at each other in Christ, under the blood. That's how I look at you guys. You're sinners under the blood, just like me. Isn't that wonderful? I remember talking to one guy, and he goes, he goes, what do I have to say about someone else's sin? The Lord saved me from all my sin. Isn't that true? Oh my, it'll humble you fast, won't it? Oh my. It's wonderful.

And the world doesn't understand this inheritance, of course. We didn't. Before I saved, I had no clue. I had no clue about this stuff. I'll be honest with you. I had no clue. Didn't even enter my mind. I had a Bible on my father's dresser that just collected dust for the 24 years I lived with him. Just collected dust. I never cracked that thing except for looking at the pictures that were stored inside them. Never read the words, just, oh, yeah, mom and dad's got some old pictures in here, let's check them out. That was it.

Isn't that awful? No clue about this wonderful inheritance. And then God reveals it to us, doesn't he? It's amazing. So the world doesn't know about this inheritance and doesn't understand our desire to serve Christ. It just can't fathom it. Well, there's so many other things to do. No, we want to serve Christ, right? We want to serve Christ. My, it's wonderful. And this unity that we have in Christ will only be realized by God revealing to us the perfect sin atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ, which he does, doesn't he? By His grace and His mercy, He reveals that to us. And we're never the same, as I say all the time. We're never the same. We can't go back to the world, and we can't quit. Because God keeps us.

Isn't that amazing? It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. It was funny the other day, we were at the funeral home. And Annie, she's so sweet, she comes up to me and she goes, Brother Wayne. I said, what? She says, you got one of them footprints things on the wall here. And I said, well, are they talking about two footprints and two sets of footprints? She goes, yeah. And she goes, I ain't right, is it? No, Christ carries us our whole life, doesn't he? Doesn't he? He carries us our whole life, beloved. He's always carried us. He's always been with us. And he promises that no matter what we go through in this world, he'll always be with us. Oh, that's wonderful.

You know what, Job? I'm going to preach on this this morning. Job said, I know my Redeemer liveth. Isn't that beautiful? I know. How does he know? By the grace of God. Oh, my. He knows. We know about this inheritance, don't we? By the grace of God. There's no other way for us to know about it. And we're reconciled. Think of this, too. We fell in Adam, and we're reconciled by the perfect sin atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. He has fully reconciled us to God.

That's why we have this inheritance. It's already been purchased. And it was purchased by the precious blood of Christ. And it's a sure inheritance. It's a sure inheritance because it's in Christ. Like I said, family members can write people out of their wills and stuff, right? Christ will never write his people out. Isn't that wonderful? I'll tell you what, give us cause to rejoice, won't it? My.

And we have peace with God through the Prince of Peace. We have peace with God through the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And that's what we're gonna see in the main message, is Job, when he said, I know my Redeemer liveth, he's proclaiming Christ. Because who is Christ? He's the Messiah. He's the Messiah, beloved.

It's wonderful. And again, the world doesn't know this. It looks at us and thinks we're crazy. Thinks we're crazy. You take time on Sunday to come to church? Yeah. Well, why? Because I come to worship my King. I come to worship my King. And marvel that we who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ are in Christ. That's where this inheritance comes from being in Christ. Outside of Christ, there's no inheritance, is there? There's no redemption. There's no salvation. There's no forgiveness of sins.

But in Christ, oh, we have the forgiveness of all our sins. We have a redemption. Our souls have been purchased by the blood of Christ. And now we have this inheritance because of Christ and his perfect work. And the only way, and I see that in our church, it's wonderful, that we have unity is in Christ. We have wonderful harmony and wonderful unity in Christ here. Because he's the core, he's the center, isn't he? This is his church. And the church being the people, are his by purchase. And his by choice.

Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely wonderful. So we're in Christ. And all the blessings, of God are included in this wonderful inheritance. And all the redeemed of the Lord share in this inheritance. And you know why it can never be drained? It's overflowing. It comes from the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ. And we enter into this inheritance in Christ through God's will and purpose. through God's will and purpose.

Look at verse 11 again that we're reading. Look at this. How do we know that? Well, look at this. In whom we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to what? The purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. We have this inheritance according to the will and purpose of God. This is amazing. We enter into this inheritance in Christ through God's will and through God's purpose.

Which, when's it being planned from, beloved? Someone tell me. When was this planned and purposed? Someone tell me. Amen. In eternity. In eternity. Oh my. Before we ever were. My, oh my. In Holy Spirit, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit from eternity, purpose that there would be a people saved by the blood of Christ. And praise God. Aren't you humbled at word of that number, beloved? Oh my. In unity, as I brought forth in Philippians, unity comes through what? Humility.

And God's people are made humble by God, aren't we? He humbles us. And it's not like a father beating, God is no longer, I want us to really think about this. God is no longer angry with us. When he chastises us, he chastises us in his everlasting love. Ain't that wonderful? My dad used to, he used to give me the strap all the time. And he always used to say, this is going to hurt me more than you. And I said, no, it's not. But it was hard for him to do that. It was hard for him. And he didn't chastise me in love. Sometimes he chastised me in anger. But God never chastises his people in anger.

It's always for our good and for his glory, whatever we go through. And we're learning, aren't we, as we go through this world of woe. And we sometimes are humbled by the things God does in our lives. But that'll bring greater unity within the body, too. It'll bring greater unity. And that humility comes from Christ. comes from God the Holy Spirit for us. And let us marvel that Christians are reconciled now. Now we're reconciled back to God in Christ. That's what this is bringing forth. This inheritance includes the reconciliation of us back to God.

It's amazing. It's absolutely incredible. We have a new relationship with Christ. Now we were always his, but for us, we were dead in trespasses and sins. And now we're made alive. It's wonderful, and this is all by God's power. And you know, Christ is the only way to overcome divisions within the body. He's the only way. Why do we have such unity? Because we agree on Christ. We come together in Christ. In what we preach, what we believe, God's sovereign power over all things. And it's wonderful.

And divisions, think of this, teaching of ethics are not enough to overcome divisions. Teaching of sometimes doctrine is not enough to just overcome divisions. There must be a work of God. Right? Number one, you must be born again, right? Now that's not meaning that all people who are born again are going to get along. We know that. Right? But God will bring us together in unity. He'll bring us together in unity. Either here or in glory. You think Paul and Barnabas have any disagreements anymore? All those disagreements went away once they reached glory. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful.

And we see the words here, in whom we have obtained an inheritance. This phrase means that Christians have been made possessors or inheritors by lot. We have been endowed with an inheritance by lot. It's ours. It's ours through Christ. We didn't have to do anything for it.

And so the apostle is emphasizing that believers have obtained a stake, I like this, I got this from Martyn Lloyd-Jones, that believers have obtained a stake in God's great cosmic plan of restoring harmony to the universe. And this inheritance refers to our future participation in restored harmony of the cosmos, where we will see God, We will be with Christ and enjoy his glory and we will reign with Christ.

Isn't that wonderful? That's beautiful. My, it's an inheritance. Now Peter says it's incorruptible and undefiled that will never fade away. You know, you can get an inheritance and spend it all. Right? It's gone. This inheritance will never fade away. And it's reserved in heaven for each and every believer in Christ. It's amazing. And why can't it be defiled and why can't it fade away? Because it's in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's why. It's wonderful.

And how does God reconcile Jews and Gentiles, one may ask? Well, he does so by bringing them into a new relationship in Christ. You must be born again. And he only can reconcile Jews and Gentiles together, and he does it by his precious blood. Isn't that wonderful? This reconciliation happens because both Jew and Gentile are condemned by the law and shown to be sinners. That's why it's needed.

Both Jews and Gentiles can only be redeemed by the blood of Christ. Both Jews and Gentiles received the same Holy Spirit. Job was born again by the same Spirit we're born again by. Both Jew and Gentile are given the same divine nature, Christ in us, the hope of glory. Both Jew and Gentile become part of Christ's body and are in Christ. Now these are, I'm talking of redeemed Jews and redeemed Gentiles, of course.

So that what makes us Christians is that we're in Christ. It's very simplistic, isn't it? One's either in Christ or out of Christ. That's it. Christianity is about being in a new relationship with Christ. You're born again. And there are certain things that are true of us as Christians because we are in Christ. And let us marvel that we have received this mercy and grace, this inheritance, specific blessings that come to us in and through Christ. So we who are the redeemed of the Lord, we can look forward to this inheritance. It's ours right now, but we can look forward to when it's fully manifest in glory.

And because we can look at that, we therefore can be not as concerned about things going on in the world. Because it's just fleeting things. Now we should know what's going on. I'm not saying that. But we don't have to be overly concerned about them. We just don't have to be.

Because God is restoring, think of this. When you see that stuff going on, think of this, and it doesn't look like it from our side, but God's restoring harmony and unity by bringing Jews and Gentiles together in him. He's still doing that. He's still drawing in lost sinners, isn't he? And when that last sheep is saved, it's all over, beloved. It's all over. Brother Neil, can you close us in prayer?

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