giving thanks unto the Father.
Now, it's always right to give thanks unto the Father. Every
good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, with
whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. If you have
something to be thankful for, there's one who ultimately must
receive the thanks. We're thankful for second causes,
those whom the Lord uses to be a blessing to us. We're thankful
for them. We're thankful ultimately to God, aren't we? The Father.
We're thankful to the Father. But note the specific cause for
thanks here in this text. It's important that we see that.
It's not just the Father without elaboration that He's thanking
here, but the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers.
of the inheritance of the saints. That's the Father specifically
here that we're thankful to. And notice it comes directly
following verses 10 and 11. Look at verse 10. That you might
walk worthy of the Lord. Yeah, that's what it said. That
you might walk worthy of the Lord. Is that a sobering thought to
you? Unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work. The Lord Jesus said, Every tree
that beareth not fruit, my heavenly Father will pluck it up by the
roots. Being fruitful in every good
work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Are you increasing in the knowledge
of God? strengthened with all might according
to his glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering and
joyfulness." Here are some attributes, some fruit of the Spirit that
we're to bear. He said, be fruitful. Here's
some of that fruit, patience. That word is endurance, steadfastness. Do you exhibit that in the work
and worship of Christ? Steadfastness. So you see how appropriate it
is there in verse 12 to say, giving thanks. Walking worthy
of the Lord. If you're able to do that, you're
going to have to give thanks unto the Father. Because you're
not going to do that on your own without His blessing and
grace. He's saying walk worthy. Walk
appropriately. Walk in the paths of knowledge.
Walk steadfastly. With patience there, as I said,
steadfastness and endurance. But don't forget who it is that
makes you all of these things. As you're doing that, give thanks
to Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light
and who sustains you every moment. Who, if He were to let you go
for a split second, you'd fall back in the ditch. You'd be like the dog returning
to his vomit. Scripture talks about the pig,
the hog that wallows in the mire. That's what we are by nature.
But new creatures in Christ thank God for it. Don't walk worthy
bragging on yourself. Walk worthy thanking the Father
for what He's done, for the work of grace that's wrought in your
heart that causes you to be steadfast and forgiving and all of the
things that we ought to be in Christ. Don't ever think for
a second that when you walk in any sense of the word worthy,
that you do so in your own strength and goodness. That's what Paul
is saying. Thanking the Father all the way.
Praising Him for it. Our walk as believers is by the
ordination of God, first of all, and secondly, It's by the power
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son. It's by the ordination of
God the Father, by the power of God the Son. The Scriptures
are clear on that. Ephesians 2.10. We're His workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. By the ordaining power. of God, you will walk in good
works. You will walk worthy of his calling.
And then in John 15, 5, the Lord Jesus Christ, not only by God
the Father's ordaining grace, but in the power of Christ. John
15, 5, the Lord Jesus said, I'm the vine and you're the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. You're going to bring
forth fruit because you're in Him, you see. And in case that
wasn't clear, in case the analogy, something got lost there and
you didn't get it, He makes this plain statement, for without
Me, you can do nothing. Is that clear enough? I even
got that. So I know you did. The inheritance. He's made us, forgiving thanks
unto the Father who hath made us meet. To be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints. Now think about this word inheritance. How important it is and how blessed
a word it is. You remember the language of
the rich young ruler in Luke chapter 18? We won't be able
to take the time to read a lot of the language there. So I'll
ask you to jot this down and go look at it if you're not familiar
with it. But I'll try to be as thorough as I can here. In Luke
18, a rich young ruler came to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he
asked this question. It says in verse 18, a certain
ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? Now, we just read that Christ,
God the Father, made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. And this man comes and says,
what can I do? What must I do to get my portion in that inheritance? That's the same word right there
used. What shall I do to have my part
in the inheritance of the sons of God? Now what he's saying
is this. How can I be meet to be partaker
of the inheritance of the saints? Is that what he asked? Have you ever wondered why Christ
answered him the way he did? He said, you know the law, thou
shalt, thou shalt not. Have you ever wondered why he
did that? Why he didn't say, believe on me, come to me and
I'll give you rent. Why didn't he say that? He confronts
him with the law. Do you know why he did that? Because that young man was not
an heir of eternal life. That's the only answer there
is. There are two ways to have eternal life, and only one that's
worth talking about. But there are two ways to have
eternal life. Inherit it by birthright, or
earn it. Earn it. Now you're not going
to have it any other way but those two. It's going to be given
to you as an inheritance, as a son of God, freely. with no obligation, no requirement,
no conditions, or you're going to have to earn it. And not being
an heir of eternal life. That man said, what must I do
to inherit? Keep the law. Keep the law. You're going to have to be perfect
now. If you're going to dwell with God forever, you're going
to have to be as holy as He is. Christ said, keep the law. Now
in Luke 19, right after that account of the rich young ruler
in Luke 18, we have the record of the Lord meeting and dealing
with a man named Zacchaeus. And we find out two things about
Zacchaeus. He's a tax collector, and he's
a rich man. And then later in the chapter,
we find out a third thing about him. Christ said, you're a son
of Abraham. You're a son of Abraham. An heir of God, included in the
promised seed of God. Galatians 3.16, it says, Now
to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. What was the
promise to Abraham? Thy seed. Many nations. I'll make of thee a great people
of many nations, a great nation, like the sands of the sea, like
the stars of the heavens. But in Galatians Paul said, He
saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed. To Abraham and to his seed was
the promise made. And that seed, Paul said in Galatians
3, is Christ. Christ. So being a son, Zacchaeus
was not confronted with the law, as this rich young ruler was,
as a way of earning the inheritance. He had the inheritance by promise,
by promise as a son of Abraham in that promised seed, Christ. Christ and all who are in Christ,
all who have faith in Christ, Paul said in Romans, all who
have the same faith as Abraham, they're the seed of Abraham.
And so this rich young ruler, He came. He was a Jew. When Christ
said to Zacchaeus, you're a son of Abraham, he wasn't just saying
you're a Jew. The rich young ruler was a Jew.
He was a ruler of the Jews. He had in his own estimation
kept the law from his youth up. No Gentile would have even begun
to be able to say that. They were strangers to the law
of God, to the commonwealth of Israel. He called Christ Rabbi. He was a Jew, but he was only
a Jew outwardly, and not inwardly. Not a spiritual Jew. Not a spiritual
Son of God. Well, what do you mean, Chris?
Romans 2.28. Turn there if you'd like to.
Romans 2.28. The Apostle Paul, in speaking
of spiritual Israel, in speaking of God's people, in speaking
of this promised seed, and those to whom the promise was made
in that seed, in Christ, He says in verse 28 of Romans 2, for
he is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Not like he's talking
about in the context here. You may be a Jew by natural heritage,
but he's not a Jew which is one outwardly. Not in the sense of
what he's talking about there in Romans 2, of being included
in that promise that was made to Abraham and his seed. Neither
is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he
is a Jew which is one on the inside. which is made a son of
God by God Himself, which is born, not of the will of man
or the will of the flesh, but of God. He is a Jew which is
one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but
of God." Galatians 3.7 Know ye therefore that they which are
of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." The Lord Jesus Christ
came to Zacchaeus and found him up in that tree and said, Zacchaeus,
come down. I'm going to come abide with
you today. Salvation has come to your house.
Why? Because you're a son of Abraham. You see what Paul is
saying and how that identifies Zacchaeus as an inheritor. as one that freely, as a son, takes part in the inheritance
of God Almighty. Not because Zacchaeus was a Jew.
There was a throng of Jews there that day. He had to climb up
into a tree so he could see over all the Jews. But because he
was a son of Abraham in the spiritual sense, like Paul talked about.
And Christ gives this as the sole reason that salvation had
come to his house. He said, Salvation has come to
this house inasmuch as you are a son of Abraham. Now, what is the inheritance
of the saints? David said in Psalm 16.5, The
Lord is my portion. He is the portion of mine inheritance
and of my cup. Lamentations 3.24, Jeremiah said,
The Lord is my portion. What do you say? The Lord is
my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him. He is my
expectation and my hope. What are you looking forward
to? The Lord is my portion. That makes a gold-plated mansion
seem kind of droll, doesn't it? When you think about that. God
is my inheritance. Everything that he is. And everything
that He has, if we can even think about that, it's yours, all said. Because we are Christ's, all
things are ours. And it's not, as I've said to
you before, don't think of it as with Christ we get all these
things. When you have Christ, you have
all things. He is all things. Christ is all,
and He's my inheritance. And notice that it's the inheritance
of the saints. Now, how do you become an heir?
It's by birth. By birth. By being my family,
my children will inherit whatever it is that I have. How did they do that? They just
happened to be born. of my family." How do you become a saint? The
word means sanctified, set apart by God for God. Christ is made
unto us sanctification. We are saints in, by, and through
Christ. You don't have much to do with
that, do you? Set apart by God, for God, born sons of God, and
inheritors of God by birth. So what do we
have to do with that? Nothing. It's by free, sovereign
grace that He has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. If children... Paul said in Romans,
if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. How did you become children of
God? Born. Not of the will of man. Not of
the will of the flesh. But born of God. When Christ
said to Nicodemus, you must be born again, the word again there,
the word literally means you must be born from above by the
will of God. made children of God. Beloved,
it does not yet appear what we shall be. Right now, we're the
sons of God." Is that what Paul said? The sons of God, by His will,
by His doing, by His free and sovereign grace. Now, let me
ask you this. If an inheritance is the right
of birth of sons, And sainthood is the prerogative of God performed
upon us in Christ. Christ has made our sanctification.
Then what does being meat have to do with it? Did you notice
the language there? If you become a son just by being
born by the will of God, and you become a saint by the will
and calling of God, then what does it have to do with being
meat? He said we're made meat to be partakers of the inheritance.
The word meat there means to make sufficient, to render fit
in Christ. I told you there are two ways
to inherit eternal life, to inherit God. By birth and by earning it, by
right, Deserving it by being righteous by being holy by keeping
his law By being true to that first covenant thou shalt and
thou shalt not he said this do and live If you're perfect, you'll
live You'll have eternal life In Christ, we're both We're sons And we're holy We're meat we're
made meat you see that Heirs, born sons of God, and worthy
to be partakers. In the same sense that that rich
young ruler was inquiring about. What do I got to do to earn my
right to this inheritance? We do have that right. We're
made meat. We obtain eternal life both ways.
We inherit it and we're worthy in Christ of it. Christ did indeed. As that rich young ruler boasted,
he said, I've kept all these from my youth up. He was a liar. But my Lord Jesus Christ did
keep all these from his youth up. And he did it as my representative. You see that? In Christ, when
confronted with the law, It has no claim against me. I've kept
all these from my youth up. How can you say that? My representative,
my substitute, did always those things which pleased the Father.
You see that? He did always, as my representative,
as my substitute, as my mediator, did always those things that
pleased the Father. The Father said, the Father Himself
spoke in a voice from heaven and said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. And because I am found in Him
by grace through faith, when I come before that great white
throne, a white throne, a righteous,
spotless, holy throne, Do you know what God's going to say
to those who are in His Son? Well done, thou good and faithful. What's your response to that
going to be? I can answer that. You're going to say, worthy is
the Lamb that was slain. Worthy is the Lamb. Well done,
thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord." Come and claim the inheritance
of the saints in light. Listen to the language of Matthew
25, 34. The Lord Jesus Christ speaks of that day, and He said
this, We know who that is. He's going
to say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Do you know anything better than
that? Come inherit the kingdom blessed of the Father as sons
inherit, as your birthright inherit, and well done, thou good and
faithful servant. By adoption as sons, the birthright
is ours. And by the righteousness of Christ
Jesus, my representative, what must I do to inherit eternal
life? It's done for me. It's done. Made meat. Do you see that? Made fit, rendered
fit to be a partaker. That rich young ruler wasn't
fit because he had no love for Christ, no faith in Christ, had
no use for Christ. His things were more important
to him. But when Christ makes a new creature
of you, and you're found in Him righteous,
spotless, My faith is not righteousness. My faith is not much worth talking
about except to say that all of it is in Christ by His grace.
That's the kind of faith He gives. That's nothing for me to boast
of. That's just the kind of faith He gives. It just has one object,
and that's Christ. But my faith is not my righteousness.
It's by the means of faith that God connects us to Christ, puts
us in Christ, brings us to Christ. And He is my righteousness. You
see that? Not my faith, not my walk, not
the good works that He ordains us to. Nothing that I do is worth
talking about. But Christ is my righteousness.
And in Him, I am made meat to be a partaker. Verse 13, "...who hath delivered
us." Delivered us. The title of the message tonight
is, delivered, translated, and redeemed. All by the grace of God. And
here's another where He delivered us from the power of darkness
and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. Though we are sons of God and
heirs of eternal life, and in that promised seat from eternity
That inheritance has been mine from eternity. Yet I was born
into this world in a state of darkness. Darkness. And that's
true in two senses. He has delivered us now, and
that means to draw to oneself, to rescue. He rescued me. From what? From the power of
darkness. Satan's power. Acts 26, 18, Paul
said that Christ told him, I'm going to send you to the Gentiles.
Why, Paul? To open their eyes and to turn
them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto
God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
them that are sanctified. You see that? Why did God send
you to preach, Paul? He sent me to preach to the Gentiles.
Because through that means, by faith, as I said, that faith
connects us to Christ. That's when we turn to Christ
is when we believe on Him, when we see Him, who He is. And I'll
turn from darkness to Him who is the light. He delivered me
from the power of Satan unto God. And by those means, by the
preaching and by God-given faith, that preaching being mixed with
faith, we receive the forgiveness of
sins, because faith is in Christ alone. And by grace through faith
we are found in Him, not having our own righteousness, but the
righteousness of God in Christ. And so we willingly serve Satan
until Christ draws us to Himself. No man can come unto Me, He said,
except the Father which hath sent Me draw him. And He said
this, If I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto myself. I'll
draw all manner of men from every nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue.
Just lift Him up. Just lift Him up. Now, secondly,
we're delivered from the darkness of ignorance and unbelief. 2
Corinthians 4, 6, For God who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness hath shined in our hearts. Why did He do that?
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. I'm born
in darkness. I don't know anything. I think
I can hide from God behind a fig leaf. I don't know who God is. I don't know Him or His Son.
I'm without God and without hope in this world. But He gave the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. It is written, they shall all
be taught of God. I'm delivered from the darkness
of ignorance and unbelief. This is life eternal that they
might know you. And by His grace, by that light
that He gives to see the truth, to know the truth, to believe
the truth, to believe Him who is truth, He translates us from
darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son." God the Father
saved us from darkness and He translated. That word translated
means transferred us from one place to another, from darkness
to light, from the kingdom of Satan and self and sin to the
kingdom of His Son. He moved us. He transferred us. And this kingdom of His Son,
it's not talking about heaven, Though certainly heaven has everything
to do with his kingdom. But we have, he said, you have,
he hath translated you. You who are still living in this
world, you're translated into his kingdom already. You're citizens
of the kingdom of Christ right now. Do we live that way? Those who died in faith, it says,
they lived that way. They lived looking for a city.
They were citizens of this earth, in a sense, and we are. We're
citizens, in a sense, of this world. But Hebrews 13, 14, here
we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. We're citizens of another kingdom
that this world has no authority in, no say in, no influence over,
none whatsoever. And being citizens of his kingdom,
makes us good citizens of this world. Is that right? We're taught by God to obey them
that have the rule over us. That all authority is of God
and to honor it as such. Those who are in positions of
authority and to provide all things honest in the sight of
all men. But we're not citizens of this
world in a spiritual sense. This world is crucified unto
me and I unto this world. I've got no use for their God,
and they've got no use for me." Paul said. Their gospel, what
they call a gospel, got no use for it. They're dead to me. In
a spiritual sense, this world is dead, dead to the believer. In John 18, 36, listen to what
Christ said concerning the kingdom now. We talked about the kingdom
of God recently, but I wanted to see a couple of different
things than what we looked at the other night. Jesus answered
in John 18, 36, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom
were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should
not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from
hence. Think about that for a second.
The Lord said if my kingdom was of this world, an earthly kingdom,
then I would tell my disciples to go get their swords. And let's
fight this thing out. Man is fixing to perpetrate the
greatest evil he's ever perpetrated in the history of man by killing
the Son of God. And he said, if my kingdom was
of this world, that wouldn't be allowed to happen. No way. No way. If this kingdom into
which we are translated were an earthly kingdom, then we would
fight the earthly battles against man's sinful actions. like his
disciples would have fought against the sin that they intended to
commit against the Lord Jesus then. We'd picket all the abortion
clinics. We'd get involved in politics
and fight all the earthly causes of righteousness. But his kingdom
is not of this world. That's not the battle we're fighting.
We will the sword of the Spirit by his grace and by his ordination
and by his instruction, by his command. the sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God. We preach not to reform the outward
actions of sinful men, but because by the means of gospel preaching,
God gives sinners a new heart. You see, it's a spiritual battle,
not a physical one, not an outward one. We don't concern ourselves
merely with the cleaning of the outside of the cup. The Pharisees
did a pretty good job of that, at least while everybody was
looking. but with the inside that God alone can cleanse. It's
the preaching of the Word, by the preaching of the Word, spiritual
gospel, that men are made new creatures. And then the outside
comes naturally. Find a man who hates the Lord
Jesus Christ and do everything you want to do to try to get
him to be faithful to his gospel and his worship, and good luck,
because luck is all that's on your side, which there ain't
no such thing as, because you're not going to get him to do it.
But you find a man that loves Christ, and you try to keep him
from worshiping Christ, you won't be able to do it. That's what
I'm talking about, you see. It's not an earthly battle. This
is a spiritual kingdom. And we're made citizens of this
kingdom. How? And at what cost? Look at the
next verse, verse 14. In whom we have redemption through
His blood. There's how. There's at what
price. Redemption is this, literally
a releasing effected by payment of a ransom. And put another way, liberation
procured by the payment of a ransom. That's redemption. We are delivered. He just got through saying we're
delivered. We're translated out of darkness into the kingdom
of His dear Son, and we're delivered freely. We're justified freely, but it
wasn't free. It wasn't free. We come without
money and without price. But we're able to do that because
He paid our way. How do I even begin to talk about
the redemption that we have through His blood? I'll just let the
Scripture speak. For as much as you know, that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold." Those
are the things that we call precious. This world calls precious. Precious
metals. Precious stones. That sounds
like a contradiction, doesn't it? A precious rock. What's precious
about it? Oh, well, it's the hardest rock
there is. Okay. It's real glittery, you know,
and shiny. That's what makes it precious.
Okay. All right. You weren't redeemed with corruptible
things. The believer calls these things
corruptible, not precious. The word corruptible there means
perishing. The most important, valuable
things in this world, the one word that the believer uses to
describe them is perishing. Perishing. You weren't redeemed with those
things from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but you don't want to know what precious is. Find out
what's precious to God. but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." I could try
to tell you tonight how precious that blood is, and I wouldn't even be able to
come close. Paul comes to the subject of
redemption here in that precious blood with which we're redeemed. And then he begins in the remainder
of this chapter to describe that glorious One who accomplished
this. Redemption. And he starts out
this way. He's the image of the invisible
God. How can that which is invisible
have an image? John said in John chapter one,
no man hath seen God at any time. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
Philip, Philip, have I been so long with you and you don't know
who I am? If you've seen me, you've seen God the Father. Our next study will begin right
there. Let's bow in prayer.