We looked this morning concerning
hearing and trusting. Hearing and trusting. I love
those simple means to so glorious a gospel and glorious salvation
and deliverance. Hearing and trusting. And tonight
we're going to look at verse 13 and verse 14, some things
concerning that. And let's read it together. In
whom, in Christ, you also trusted, After that ye heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of His glory. You may not have noticed
that in this chapter, I don't know of another book that the
Apostle does this in, but we have salvation here in four stages. You can see that, we studied
that in verses 3 and verse 4. Election, that's the first stage. I was reading the comments of
a man the other day and he began at regeneration. And that's alright
if you want to begin there, but really the first stage of a person's
salvation goes back in eternity, doesn't it? You know, it's God's
election, and I'm afraid a lot of people don't want to begin
there because they don't want to give God the glory. But that's
the first stage of a person's salvation. Paul says it. He's
chosen us. Chosen us to what? To salvation.
And then we have the second stage, of course, that's redemption.
There in verse 7, "...in whom we have redemption." That was
accomplished at the cross before you and I were born. And then
we have regeneration. That's what Paul deals with here
in verse 13, and he's implied it before here in verse 9, where
the Lord opened our hearts to know His will. Washing, he says,
of regeneration. Renewing of the Holy Spirit in
Titus chapter 3. And then, of course, the last
step is here in verse 14. which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession." So there's those
four steps. Election, redemption, regeneration, and glorification. And he does it here in this chapter,
and it's did in other places, but you can see the Godhead. You can see the Trinity. Each
person of the Trinity has their part in salvation. Whose election
attributed to? It's attributed to the Father.
And the Lord Jesus even attributed to Him because He said, All that
he hath given to me shall come to me. I have sheep, He said,
and my Father gave them to me. And this is the Son's work, redemption. That's attributed to Him. And
then, of course, the Holy Spirit and regeneration and teaching.
I will send Him and He shall teach you. And then when we come
to glorification, you find this all through Paul's epistles that
all three persons of the Godhead are said to be involved in the
resurrection. Sometimes it's attributed to
God, He that raised up the Lord Jesus shall also raise up you
by Christ. Sometimes it's attributed to
the Lord Jesus that He shall change our bow bodies and fashion
it, and sometimes it's attributed to the Holy Spirit. Now, three
things, and you're going to need your Bible. If you don't have
your Bible handy, then get it handy. I'm not going to quote
these Scriptures. I'm going to take a few minutes
and turn to these Scriptures, and if you mark in your Bible,
you mark some of these places. I want to see three things concerning
the Holy Spirit here in verses 13 and verse 14. First of all,
he's called the Holy Spirit of promise. He's mentioned by name.
The Holy Spirit of promise. And secondly, his work is mentioned. His office. He's said to be the
sealer. After that you believe he was
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And then thirdly, he
himself is called the earnest of our inheritance. There in
verse 14. Who is the earnest of our inheritance. And I think Paul here hints at
the nature of that inheritance. Now first of all, let's look
at this, the spirit of promise. Now you take your Bible and look
back in the third chapter of Galatians, just back to your
left. Start there. We trace this back, the promise,
he calls it the spirit of promise, because everywhere in the Old
Testament and the New Testament, The Spirit is promised. God promised
him to Abraham that there was coming a day that he would come
and indwell the believers. Look what he says in verse 13.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
every one that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing promised to
Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus that we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. God
promised Abraham. We never read it, but it was
in the promises that God made to Abraham that he would indeed
send the Spirit. Now look over in John chapter
14. The Lord Jesus made reference here in these passages so often
to this spirit of promise. And here's how He said it. Look
in chapter 14 of John, and look first of all here in verse 15. If you love Me, keep My commandments,
and I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter
that He may abide with you forever. Now look down in verse 25. These
things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you, but
the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things
to remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." So he's saying
here that the Comforter is coming. I'm going to send to my Father,
and I'm going to pray the Father, and He's going to send you another
Comforter, the Holy Ghost. Look over in chapter 15 and verse
26. But when the comforters come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify
of me." So see, he keeps mentioning that. He's the Spirit of promise. Now look over, if you will, in
Acts chapter 1, where the Lord was ready to ascend back into
heaven. And here's what He tells them to do, and He tells them
the reason for doing it. Acts chapter 1, and look here
in verse 4. and being assembled together
with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father, which said he, Ye have
heard of me." So he's the spirit of promise. He kept promising
and he kept telling the apostles to wait. Don't you attempt to
do anything. You tarry here until I send the
promise of the Holy Spirit. Now look over in chapter 2 and
look here beginning in verse 1. And when the day of Pentecost
was fully come, They were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing
mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire,
and it set upon each of them. And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as
the Spirit gave them utterance." Look down in verse 16. You remember
here when This happened. This was the fulfillment of the
promise. The Lord promised it to Abraham that it was coming.
Christ promised His disciples it was coming. And here in Acts
chapter 2, He came. The Spirit of promises came.
And as these apostles began to preach in other tongues, some
of these people said, these fellows are drunk. What's going on? And
Peter explains it to them. Look in verse 15. These are not
drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is but nine o'clock in the
morning, but this is that which was spoken by Joel the prophet,
and it shall come to pass in the last day, saith the Lord,
I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see
visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." So here was the
Spirit of promise, and He finally came. But look over here in verse
36 of the same chapter. In verse 36 of chapter 2, Therefore
let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made
that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
And when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts,
and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and
brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent,
and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ,
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. Now forget about the tongues
and the baptism and just concentrate on this. Ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost. This was the promise of the Father
that there was coming a day that He would come down from heaven
in a mighty way and He would come and indwell believers. And Peter calls Him the gift.
But look here. It wasn't just for their days.
It didn't end with these apostles. Look in verse 39. For the promise
is unto you, the promise of what? The promise of the Holy Spirit.
He's called the Spirit of promise. And Peter says it's unto you,
and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as
many as the Lord our God shall call. So this is the Spirit of
Christ, the Spirit of God, and you know something, brothers
and sisters, He's as much for us today as He was for them back
in that day. Look in another place. Look in
Acts chapter 10. Here's a good example of what
I'm saying. It didn't end. He didn't quit
coming to the hearts of men thereupon the day of Pentecost. Peter went
to him and preached to Cornelius and his household. And what we
begin to see about the Spirit of promise is that I have no
idea, Larry could probably tell us much more about this than
I could, why Peter commanded the Jews to be baptized in water
and then receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. But it changed
drastically when Peter went down and preached to the Gentiles.
They weren't baptized before they received the Holy Spirit.
Peter was down preaching to them in Acts chapter 10 and look at
it. In verse 42, God is preaching about the death and resurrection
of Christ. And he said in verse 42, God
commanded us to preach unto the people and testify that it was
Christ which was ordained of God to be the judge of the quick
and the dead. To him gave all the prophets witness that through
his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remissions
of sins. While Peter yet spake these words,
the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they
of the circumcision which believed were astonished as many as came
with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out
the gift of the Holy Ghost. While they were there hearing,
Peter preached to them, and the Holy Ghost fell on them. He came
to their heart. And then Peter in verse 48 said,
And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, and
they prayed him to tarry for certain days. So they received
the Holy Spirit before they were baptized. But then go on in chapter
11 of Acts, and look at this. Peter tells us who the Holy Spirit
is given to. Look in Acts chapter 11 and verse
15. Here is where Peter was explaining
to the Jewish brethren about his preaching to Cornelius. And
as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at
the beginning. Then remembered I the word of
the Lord, how he said, John indeed baptized with water, But ye shall
be baptized with the Holy Ghost. For as much then as God gave
them the like gift as he did unto us, look at this, who believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He eliminates water baptism. When he told the Jews that they
had received the Holy Spirit, he required them to be baptized.
But here, look how he narrows it down. He defines it much more
closer. Here he says the Holy Spirit
came upon those who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, go back over to my text.
I just want you to see the spirit of promise. He's called the spirit
of promise. But that's not only just for
their days, brothers and sisters. He not only was called the Spirit
of Promise because He came in Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter
10, but He's still the Spirit of Promise today. And just as
God promised Him then to those who believed, He's promised now
to those who believe. The promise of the Holy Spirit
comes to those who believe in Christ. Now, secondly, His office,
His work. And we're told here in the last
part of verse 13, that his work, his office, is to seal the believer. After that you believed, you
were sealed with that Holy Spirit, I promise. Now, there's just
four things I want to say about this. The Scripture has a lot
to say about sealing, but there's just four main things that I
want you to see concerning the sealing of the Holy Spirit. It
has four meanings in the Scripture. First of all, to seal showed
ownership. That's what it means. Ownership.
It shows ownership. In 2 Timothy 2.19, here's what
the Scripture says. The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, this seal, The Lord knoweth them that
are His. So sealing means ownership. It
shows ownership. We're God's by electing love.
We're Christ's by redemption. He bought us. We're not our own. We're bought with a price. We're
His, and when the Holy Spirit comes into us, we're called the
temple of the Lord. So you and I belong to God. We belong to the triune God by
creation, by election, by redemption, by possession. So when He seals
us, He simply means, You're mine. I own you. You're mine. That's
what first thing this word sealing means. He comes to seal His own. And if we're His, If we're His,
then He seals us. Secondly, it means security. This word in this case of security,
it has this meaning. It means to effectually shut,
to confine, or secure. It's security. When we want something
secure, we seal it. You remember when the Lord Jesus
was put in the tomb? And the Pharisees went to Pilate
and they said, ìWeíre afraid his disciples are going to steal
him away, and then theyíre going to start a rumor that heís raised
from the dead.î And Pilate said, ìYou have a watch. Go make it
as sure as you can.î And the Scripture says they went and
sealed that tomb. They rolled a stone upon it and
they sealed it and made it sure. Well, it wasnít sure, was it?
But that's the meaning of this word, seal. When the Irish, was
it the Irish that put Daniel in the lion's den? And the scripture
says that he sealed it. He sealed it. That means nobody
could get past that seal. He secured Daniel in that lion's
den. That's the one thing that means
secure. So when the Spirit comes and seals us, that secures us. If you want to keep something
secure, if you want to keep your beans or your corn, you can it. And you put that seal on it,
and it seals that in there. It preserves it. That's what
this word means, to preserve or to keep safe. And thirdly,
along the same lines as this, whatever this seal pertains to
cannot be altered or changed or made void. Now, I want you
to turn over to Esther. If you'll go to the book of Job,
the very next book to your left is the book of Esther. Find Psalms
and then Job, and then you go over to your left and you find
the book of Esther. This seal has another meaning.
Whatever is sealed with this seal, it can't be altered or
changed or made void. Now look at this, in Esther chapter
8 and verse 8, you remember the context. The enemies of the Jews
was going to come against them and kill them. And Ahaziz the
king told them to write letters in his name that they could fight
and defend themselves. And they did that. But here is
what is said in Esther chapter 8 and verse 8. Here is the meaning
of this word, to seal. Ahaziz said unto these Jews,
Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, as you please,
in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring." Now
what does that mean when he sealed that letter? For the writing
which is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's
ring may no man reverse. So you see there the meaning
of the sealing of the Holy Spirit when he seals that individual. That individual is safe. Whatever
he seals cannot be altered, it cannot be changed, it cannot
be reversed, because that's the King's Word. That's the King's
seal. That's why the Apostle went on
to say here in Ephesians 4 and 30, that you're sealed until
the day of redemption. No man can reverse that. That's
the Word of the King, the seal of the King. I shall give you
another comforter, and he shall abide with you for how long?
Forever. That's the word of the king,
and it has the seal of the king on it. Fourthly, the seal means
something is authentic. It's to authenticate. It means
it's real. When you go to the notary public,
for instance, and you've got a document signed, And it has
to be authentic. He puts that seal on it. If you
sign it, and you go to hand it in, and you go to use it for
some legal cause, and it don't have that stamp on it, that seal,
it's no good. But when that man, that notary
takes that seal and puts it on there, that shows it's authentic.
If you have a deed in your house, or a title of some kind, you
look on it. It's got a stamp that shows that
it's authentic. When the kings used to write
letters, as we read to you there about Ahasuerus, they put their
seal on this letter. And when you got that letter,
the first thing you saw was the king's seal, and that showed
this letter was authentic. Remember Jezebel, when she's
going to do harm to one of God's servants, she got Ahasuerus'
seal, and she wrote letters. And she stamped them with this
seal. And when they got the letters, they said, well, this is from
the King. This is real. This is authentic. That's what
this word, to seal, means. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
this about Himself, that God the Father had sealed Him. Remember
when he told the Jews, ìDonít labor for the meat which perisheth,
but for that meat which endeareth to everlasting life, which the
Son of Man shall give unto you.î And then he said, ìFor him hath
God the Father sealed.î That means Iím authentic. God sent
me, and how many times did God bear witness to Him? This is
my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He is authentic. I have
sealed Him. This is my beloved Son. Hear
ye Him. And the Lord Jesus said, I can
give you this bread, this meat, because God has authenticated
me. I am real. I am genuine. Well,
this is the same meaning that applies to you and I, every believer,
when Paul says here that after you believed, you were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise. Now, what does this mean when
it applies to us? It means that the Holy Spirit
authenticates us. Now, how does He do that? How
does He prove to us that we're real believers? And he's not
talking about He proves to other people now. He seals you after
that you believed ye were sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise.
How does He authenticate us? How does He prove to our hearts
that we're genuine? Well, He does it this way. Ye
have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. But
you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby you cry,
Father, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness
with our spirits that we are children of God. That is the
way He authenticates us. I want to know I am real, and
you want to know you are real. I want to know that Christ is
mine, and I am His. I do not want to be a counterfeit,
and you do not either. So the Spirit, He seals us. He
shows us that we're real. We're God's children, and here's
the way He does that. He bears witness to our spirit
that we're children of God. God has sent Him forth into our
hearts crying, Father, Father. There's different ways that you
and I have assurance. I need more assurance. Everybody
needs more assurance. I'd love to have full assurance.
But we have two ways that we have assurance. First one is
by the Scriptures. When you and I look in the Scriptures,
there's all kinds of promises that we have that you and I can
get assurance from. And we deduct these promises.
For instance, this one. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
that's me. Because I believe. I do believe. I don't believe like I want to,
but I believe. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, here is what the Scripture says. These things am I writing
unto you that believe on His name, that you may know that
you are sons of God, and that you may believe on His name.
And again He said, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ,
and I believe that, don't you? Well, he is born of God. That's
what the Scripture said. So there's one of the ways that
we can have assurance. When we get in trials that Brother
Larry is going to teach in a few weeks about your heaviness through
manifold temptations, and we've lost a degree of our joy, and
we don't feel saved, where do we go for assurance? We can go
to the Word. It gives us assurance. But the
second way that we get assurance Is this, this indwelling Spirit,
the Holy Spirit of promise, to seal us? 1 John 4, verse 13,
Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he dwells in us,
because he hath given us of his Spirit. We have a Spirit that
we never had before. All who believe have the witness
within themselves, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God, listen to
me, and see if this ain't so, He's more than a mere influence. He does influence us. He secretly
influences us. He influences everything. But
He's more than an influence. Paul says here, He's this third
person of the Holy Trinity. He's God Himself dwelling in
the heart. And He's a mighty witness in
our hearts and to our spirits that we do indeed have a saving
interest in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His love. That's what
He witnesses to us. He seals us. This is why it's
called the seal of the Holy Spirit. I tell you, I desire that, don't
you? I desire an undeniable, infallible, witness to my heart
and my spirit. And I'm just Pentecostal enough
to believe that the Holy Spirit can still be felt, not in the
body, but in the mind, in the heart, in our spirit. He can make us know. He's sovereign
enough, He's mighty enough to make us know without doubt that
we have a saving interest in Christ. And I don't know how
He could do that. without us knowing it. I just
don't. I know that we may doubt and
we may have our fears, but I'm just saying that when He does
seal us, we don't have to go looking for evidence. But it's
undeniable when He does it. The Sovereign Spirit, He seals
us. Okay, thirdly and lastly is this, and here in verse 14
in Ephesians 1, He's the Spirit of promise. He's
the sealer. That's His office. And Paul says
here in verse 14 that the Holy Spirit Himself is the earnest
of our inheritance. Now this is the second time in
this chapter that Paul has mentioned this word. He mentions it up
in verse 11, but all he mentions up there is that we have an inheritance
in Christ. But he doesn't tell us what it
is. He doesn't tell us whether it's physical, whether it's something
tangible that we can see. Other places tell us that, and
other places tell us there is that aspect of the inheritance
that is tangible, what I call tangible. That's something you
can see and handle, you can feel it. There will be a new heaven,
there will be a new earth, all that God can create and give
to us. The meat shall inherit the earth.
And I think that's real. I think that's real. But here
in verse 14, when Paul says the Spirit is the earnest of our
inheritance, he tells us here the nature of it. Earnest. Now, you've got to understand
this word. I'd studied on this word so many
days and looked up everybody I think that had anything at
all to say about it. And it means this. It means a
pledge. It means a deposit or a down
payment or an installment. Now, you and I can relate to
that. But it means more than that. And it has to be distinguished
from a pledge and from a deposit or a down payment or an installment.
And here's the example. Here's what I'm saying. If you
sell me a car, You sell me a car for $1,000.
You've got a car, you sell me for $1,000. And I say, I'll give
you a down payment of $500. But my down payment is not going
to be in money, but it's going to be in furniture. I've got
a room full of furniture worth $500, and I'll give you that
as a down payment. Then I'll pay you the other $500
next month. That's a down payment. We can
call that a deposit or installment, but that's not an earnest. And
here's the difference, and this is what Zonderville and Jones
and some of the others said. If you want $1,000 for your car,
and you say, I've got to have cash, I'm not going to give you
$500 worth of furniture. You want cash. I say, all right
then, what do you want? Give me an earnest. Well, what's
the difference? Here's the difference between
an earnest and a down payment. An earnest is of the same nature
or kind as the whole. See the difference? An earnest
is of the same nature or kind. If you say, I want a thousand
dollars cash. Then I say I'll give you an earnest
of $500, therefore I have to give you $500 in cash. It's of the same nature, the
same kind as the whole. And what the Apostle Paul is
saying here, our inheritance is spiritual. But not only is
he saying, when he uses the Holy Spirit as an earnest, that our
inheritance is spiritual, but what he's really saying is that
the Spirit of God Himself is the inheritance. If He's the
earnest of the inheritance, then our inheritance has to be of
the same nature and kind. And what is the inheritance?
What is the earnest? He's the Spirit. And therefore,
our inheritance must not only be spiritual, but it must be
the Spirit Himself. Now this is amazing to me. It's
absolutely amazing to me. My poor mind or my faith can't
get around these things. And Paul's not denying here the
spiritual aspect of our inheritance. It will be something that you
can see and feel and touch. There's no doubt it's going to
be real. And if you look at this creation that we see now that's
been cursed by sin, and it's still so beautiful, what will
it be when God remakes it? And He is a Creator, and He loves
to create. But Paul is dealing here with
a more glorious aspect of our inheritance. Here we possess
a small portion of the Spirit, just an earnest, a down payment.
What will it be to inherit the fullness? of the Spirit. Listen
to these passages of Scripture. In Psalms 16, verse 5, David
said, The Lord is the portion of my inheritance. What is my
inheritance? David said, It's the Lord. It's
the Lord Himself. Psalm 73, verse 26, God is my
portion forever. Lamentations 3.24, the Lord is
my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. And you remember
when the Lord appeared to Abraham and He said, Abraham, fear not,
I am your shield and your exceeding great reward. For God to reward
a man is one thing. For God to be a man's reward,
that's another thing altogether, ain't it? For a man to inherit
the things of God, that's wonderful enough, but what will it be to
inherit God Himself? And that's what Paul is teaching
us here, the earnest of the Spirit. The saints of God will never
become God. They're children of God here,
and they'll be children of God there. They'll never become gods,
and they'll never become God. But God in Christ will so share
Himself with them, they are in that place in such a way and
in such a fullness that He never could in this lifetime. When it is said that a believer
is an heir of God and joiners with Christ, I can't believe
that this is limited to the things of God. but it includes God Himself. We shall indeed inherit the trial
in God, God in Christ. Our Lord Jesus not only says,
Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you, but He also says this, You've been faithful over a few
things, I'll make you ruler over many. Come thou into the joys
of the Lord. Inherit the joy of the Lord.
Don't we have a foretaste of that now? You're talking this
morning about rejoicing. We have the Spirit in our hearts.
And what is He? When He comes into our hearts,
doesn't He bring joy? Doesn't He bring the love of
God? The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. We have
the peace of Christ. We have this in part now. What
will it be to inherit that? To be filled with the fullness
of God. In Romans chapter 8 verse 22
and verse 23 is an amazing passage of Scripture. And Paul says this,
We know that the whole creation groans and travails together
until now. And not only they, but listen
to this, we ourselves which have the firstfruits of the Spirit. We've grown in ourselves waiting
for the adoption, the redemption of the body. And what he does
there, he connects the firstfruits of the Spirit with the resurrection
of the body. And what he seems to be saying
is, when this body is resurrected and glorified, it will be filled
with the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord. He mentioned
this also here in Ephesians 1 and 14. He links this earnest of
the Spirit with a resurrection there, the redemption of the
body. Those bodies will be glorified and they will be made like unto
the Son of God. They'll be a spiritual body.
And by that, I don't mean we'll be like little caspers, but I
mean by this spiritual, we won't have limitation. The body won't
have the infirmities that it has now. It won't have to eat,
it won't have to drink, it won't have to rest. It won't be limited
as to space. It can leave earth and go to
heaven. Christ did. Walls won't hinder it from going
through. A spiritual body. likened to the Lord Jesus Christ. And David said, I'll be satisfied
when I wake in thy likeness. And why is that? And here's the
wonderful aspect. Don't get anything else out of
this. To me, here's the most wonderful aspect of this inheritance.
We'll be holy. We'll be holy. We shall see Him
as He is, for we shall be like Him. Aren't you tired of sinning? I am so tired of sinning. I am
so sick of sinning. I'm sick of having the sense
of it. I can't preach without feeling it. I can't pray. I can't
sing. I can't enjoy this life without
feeling the sense of this sin. I'm sick of it. I have no idea
what it is to be free from sin. But this inheritance includes
that. This body will be raised and
changed into a body like unto His body. No sin. Holiness. Holiness. Look over here in Revelations,
and I'll close with this. Look in Revelations, chapter
21. Inheritance. This is something,
Brother Larry, that you were talking about this morning, Peter
was telling them to rejoice. One of the reasons also there,
he had just mentioned that inheritance. And the nature of that was maybe
a little bit different than the nature of what Paul is dwelling
on here. But the one aspect of it, it is spiritual. And it will
end in holiness, body, soul, and spirit. In Revelation chapter
21, in verse 8, Verse 7 says, He that overcometh
shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall
be my Son. But the fearful and unbelieving,
and the abominable, and the murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers,
and idolaters, and liars shall have their part in the lake which
burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. There
came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven vows
full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come
hither, and I will show you the bride, the church, the lamb fly. And he carried me away in the
Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city,
the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having
the glory of God. That's what she will inherit. That's what each believer will
inherit. The glory of God. It will be upon her. She'll possess
this glory. Look over in chapter 21 and look
in verse 27. And there shall in no wise enter
into it anything that defileth, Neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life." Nothing is going to enter there but holiness. Look what he says in chapter
22 in verse 11. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. And he that is righteous, let him be righteous
still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. Behold, I come quickly, and my
reward is with me, to give to every man according to his work
shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the
first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments,
that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter
in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and
sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters,
and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. And if I may say, a long way
without. They're on the other side of that gulf that's fixed.
But heaven will be a place of purity and holiness. I long for that, don't you?