Colossians 1:12

Colossians chapter 1, verses 9 to 12, our focus is on verse 12. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and the desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge. knowledge of God. Strengthen with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet, deep partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. May God bless to us His sacred and holy word this morning. In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s progress, Mr. Christian diligently follows the narrow road because he wants to get to the celestial city. That’s his goal. That’s what he’s focused upon. And he endures all kinds of trials and hardships along the way, but he pushes through them all because of what’s at the end, the celestial city. It’s not an easy road to take, for it has the slav to spawn and has the hill of difficulty, has lions in the way, the valley of humiliation, the valley of the shadow of death, the giants of pagan and pope, vanity fair he has to deal with, Luker Hill, the giant of despair, the enchanted ground, the hill of error, the river of death. his face all these things and more. But Mr. Christian knows, at the end of the road, there is the celestial city. How does he know that? Well, when he was with the shepherds, he looked through their spyglass, and he could see it far off in a distance. That’s where he was headed. That’s where he was going. And so he’s motivated to persevere regardless of the hardships. Because he always has his eternal destiny in view as he goes through this life. My friends, this is what is laid out for us here, the same kind of idea in our text. In the second part of this chapter, Paul provides a short summation of the doctrine associated with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You are saved by the life and death of Christ alone. He has procured salvation. You don’t need any Jewish ceremonies. You don’t need any other means proclaimed by the false teachers. All you need is Christ. Paul begins speaking of your heavenly inheritance here in this passage before us. And God, the Father’s work to enable you to become a partaker of this inheritance. So we want to speak about this inheritance this morning that we have. Let me begin by saying this. You are a partaker of the inheritance of the saints. You have an inheritance in heaven. For the scripture says in 1.4, to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you. Like an earthenance, earthly inheritance, it is given to you by your father. In this case, it’s given to you by your heavenly father, because you were an heir of God, as the scripture relates. This inheritance involves all the substantial blessings that you possess that are beyond this life. You have a home prepared for you in heaven, a place prepared, as John 14 indicates. You have communion with God forever. so shall we ever be with the Lord. You have fellowship with the elect, with just men made perfect. You have a new resurrected body awaits you, like Christ’s glorious body. You have a new heaven and a new earth that is coming. Wherein is righteousness. And of course there are eternal rewards because there is a crown of righteousness ahead. As Jesus once put it, Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, Matthew 2534. Now, he says it’s an inheritance in light. What does he mean by that? Well, that describes the nature of this heavenly inheritance. It is where God dwells. He dwells in unapproachable or inaccessible light, that which mortal creatures cannot approach. The Bible declares that God is light in 1.5. His appearance is more glorious than man can imagine. You remember when Christ appeared on the Damascus Road, the Bible says that his clothing or his appearance was brighter, if you would, than the noonday sun. And so it was so bright, you could look at it. It blinded Paul for three days, what he did see. Of the New Jerusalem, it’s recorded in the book of Revelation, and the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it. For the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamb is the light thereof. Revelation 21, 23. In God’s presence, of course, is endless joy and eternal happiness. in short, the inheritance includes all the wonderful things that we associate with heaven. It’s a heavenly inheritance. So glorious is what lies ahead for the child of God that Paul himself declares that he has a desire to depart and be with Christ, and that for him to die, he’s gain. That is the glory of this inheritance that awaits us. It is such that it makes all the mysteries of this life appear small in comparison to the glory that shall be revealed in us, as Paul tells us. One of the old Puritan writers put it like this, who chides a servant for taking away the first course at the feast when the second consists of far greater delicacies? Who then can feel regret that this present world is passing away when he sees an eternal world of joy is coming. The first course is grace, but the second is glory, and that’s much better, as fruit is better than the blossom. So while we’re here on earth, we’re to look forward to the heavenly inheritance that awaits us. So you have an inheritance in heaven. Now, you should realize this inheritance is only for the saints. It says here, it’s the inheritance of the saints. Matthew Henry, as he quaintly put it, those who are not saints on earth will never be saints in heaven. Have you been separated from the world around you? Is God working holiness in your life? If not, then Christ is going to declare, I never knew you. You will certainly be barred from this eternal inheritance. Regardless of maybe your religious affiliation or maybe the good deeds you think you’ve done in this life. Do you live soberly, righteousness, and godly in this world? Do you walk worthy of the Lord as we read in verse 10, being fruitful in every good work? You see, these are the people who are going to have the inheritance that Paul speaks of here in our text. And you notice, it is a inheritance. that’s certainly reserved for them. If you remain an unbeliever, Christ has no place for you in heaven. There’s no room for you. You have no welcome mat for you with regard to heaven. Now, most people believe that everyone’s going to go to heaven, except for the most notoriously wicked people. You have to be almost a Hitler to not make it to heaven. But our text dispels such foolishness. It tells us it is for the saints. Straight is the gate. Narrow is the way which leads unto eternal life and few there be that find it. Years ago, there was an old minister that related this incident that took place in his life. For many years, he preached at a small village in Ivernus, Shire, Highlands, in Orleans, Scotland. he said it was his custom on dismissing the people at his small chapel that he would then go to the Baptist church in the same village where he would get communion. Evidently, they had communion every week. So he would, as soon as he dismissed his services, he would quickly rush over to the other church and get in there and have services. Because they had a habit of shutting the gates and locking the door, they had communion service so that they would not be disturbed. However, on one occasion, the pastor preached a little beyond his normal time. And so when he finished, he had to really rush over to the Baptist church, the dead there in time for communion. As he drew near, he noticed the doorkeeper had retired from the outside gate, having already shut it. And as he called out to the gatekeeper to wait and rushed forward, it, it seems that his cry was not heard. But the gatekeeper went into the church door and closed it and he heard the door locking and it was it was he was locked out. Now the man walked around the church. He says, I looked up at all the windows. He said, I could gain no admittance. He said, I could hear them singing inside. And he thought how happy God’s people must be on the inside there worshiping the Lord and I’m shut out. He said, this made a deep impression on him as he thought about the eternal state. He thought about the day of judgment. And he thought about those who were unbelievers and they are shut out. And yet, they can imagine the joy, the happiness, the worship that’s taking place in heaven as the perhaps the rich man looking at Lazarus being comforted and enjoying the blessings of heaven. While he is tormented in hell, how vital then to make sure you’re one of the saints that you’re going to enjoy the inheritance that’s spoken off here in this text. You should realize this inheritance is only for the saints. Now, you’re indebted to God’s grace alone for this inheritance. It’s interesting that this inheritance is an inheritance by lot. As great a blessing that heaven is, we have to really, realize it is granted to those who are lost and undeserving sinners. Like the notorious thief on the cross, you remember, who in dying on the cross came to believe on Christ. And yet, despite the fact that he never had an opportunity, let’s say, to mount up a huge amount of good deeds outside of testifying of of Christ while he was on the cross is the only thing really that we see him doing. Jesus says today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. Certainly it was unworthy to be there. We’re all unworthy to be there. Now it’s called an inheritance, but this word inheritance can be translated a lot. It’s an inheritance that is by lot. It’s an allusion to Israel’s inheritance in the land of Canaan. you remember when they went into the land of canaan you read the book of joshua they went in and when they had conquered the major military armies there then they divided the land up and they went in and they basically cleared out the disposably they were supposed to clear out all the canaanites that were still living there how did they divide up the land they did it by lot and they pulled the lots and judah would get this lot and ephraim would get this lot and this portion of land was allotted to this person and so forth. Paul here, and speaking of the inheritance here of the saints, it is divided as God sees fit here spiritually. The heavenly inheritance is literally called the lot of the saints. Now, the scripture says the lot is cast in the lap, but the whole disposing of is of the Lord. And so there was never any reason for both. of you gaining this heavenly inheritance, it was sovereignly given to you by God, by lot, if you would. So you are a partaker of the inheritance of the saints. Now, secondly, you are made fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saint. Your fitness for heaven is not of yourselves. Every man in his natural state is unfit, and by that I mean he’s unmeat is the text sense. are unsuitable for heaven. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither doth corruption inherit in corruption. First Corinthians 1550. Now we know we come into this world a state of corruption, fallen in Adam with a depraved nature. The imagination of man’s heart, scripture says, is evil from his youth. Indeed, the wicked go astray as soon as they are born, we’re told. So how is it that you, who are tainted by sin and corruption, can enter into a place where holiness and righteousness prevails and reigns? Aren’t heaven’s doors barred to anything in a corrupt state? Listen to me from the Book of Revelation 2127. There shall, in no wise, enter into it, the city of God. Anything that defauleth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lot. Nothing corrupt can enter into heaven. So what can you do to remove the defalment of sin, which clings to you, which bars you from heaven? For though you wash with night tree and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, said the Lord God, how can you say I’m not polluted? Jeremiah chapter 2 man is incapable of making himself spiritually clean. You can’t make yourself fit for heaven. It’s beyond your means. It’s beyond your capability of doing that. And that’s what God is saying in Jeremiah 2. You can get as much soap as you want. You can get as much cleaning agent as you want. You’re still not going to get this in off of you. That’s not going to work. read our text carefully. Your fitness for heavenly inheritance comes from God, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet, fit, to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints. Being made ready for heaven is God’s work. Is it not? So you’re made fit for heaven by God. How does he make you fit for heaven? First, by the regeneration of your soul. Accept a man be born, again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, John 3.3. A divine operation is necessary. You must be changed. You must be made into a new creature. God must renew you by his spirit. Breathe into you the new life of grace by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. The spirit must take away your heart of flesh or heart of stone and give you. you a heart aflush. There has to be a renewal of your mind and your will so you are compliant with the things of the Lord. You’re given an internal washing so the defilement of your heart is washed away. Now suppose you have a bad tree that always produces bad fruit. Now you could take a stick, you could take a pole and you could go out and you could painstakingly knock all the fruit off that tree. Get all the fruit off of it. And then no one would know, you know, I got all the bad fruit off. No one would taste the fruit and realize it’s a bad tree. If you work hard enough, you could do that. And for a time, you might hide the fact that it’s a bad tree. But if the roots are still intact, it’s going to produce more fruit. And eventually, people are going to say, that’s a bad tree. Right? Now, this is the folly of some people because they earnestly and diligently go around the outside of their life and knock off the bad fruit. Get rid of bad habits and this and that and the other. But the problem is the root of the matter isn’t changed until the heart is changed, till the inner person is changed, you’re always going to produce bad fruit. Bad trees produce bad fruit. You need a good heart that produces good fruit. And that only God can give you regeneration by the spirit of God to that you’ve made a new creature. That all those old things are passed away, all things become new to you now. The second way that you find God working in this regard and making you fit is by your acceptance by God. If you look at Ephesians chapter 1 and verses 4 to 6, Scripture says this. according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. You are made fit for heaven because He has made you accept. accepted in Christ, who is the beloved Son of God. God having chosen you in Christ, cast his favor upon you, settled His grace and delight upon you. And looking upon you in Christ, he made you dear, precious, and delightful to him, adopted you as sons into His God. family. He accepts you based upon the person and the work of Christ. And we’ll be looking at verse 14 of Colossians 1. We talk about how Christ has redeemed us. There’s nothing special in you that’s deserving of mercy. God simply cast his favor and grace upon you according to the good pleasure of His will, the scripture says. And having, accepted you in Christ. He’s adopted you into his family. He has conferred sonship on you. You belong to him. You bear his name. You’re entitled now to be an inheritor of God. And therefore, an heir of God, and therefore the inheritance is yours. There was a new mother who stayed with her parents several days after the birth of her first child. One afternoon, she remarked to her mother, that it was surprising that the baby had dark hair since both her husband and she had fair hair. How’s that possible that this baby has dark hair? The new grandmother said, well, your daddy had black hair. But the daughter said, but mama, that doesn’t matter because you adopted me. With an embarrassing smile, the mother said to the most wonderful thing her daughter ever heard. I always forget. In other words, you’re so much like a daughter to me as if I gave birth to you. That’s what she said. Now, all Christians are adopted children of God, and they are accepted by God as sons. Listen to how Jesus Christ, who is the real son of God, puts it in his high priestly prayer, and thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now, that is a statement. think about it for a moment. That God the Father loves us as he loves Christ. It’s as if we weren’t adopted at all. As if we were real sons of the Father, so to speak. What else could you ask for with regard to acceptance with God than to be loved as Christ is loved? So you were made fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints. Thirdly, you should give God thanks for making you fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saint. He begins this verse by saying, giving thanks unto the Father. And then he tells you why you should give thanks under the Father. We’ve already looked at the why. Now let’s get back to the main thrust of this. And that is, you should be giving thanks to the Father. God, the Father. Father is the primary cause of your salvation. You predestimated you to eternal life, as we already read in Ephesians 1.4. Your election, therefore, is something for which you should be giving eternal thanks to God. Because without your election, under holiness, unto adoption of sons, you would not have the inheritance that you have. You would still be excluded. As the scripture says in Matthew 2534, come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world. The eternal kingdom was not just recently prepared as if God was, well, let me see who gets saved and then I’ll prepare it. It’s already prepared for the people of the Lord. Every step of your life and your salvation has been carefully predestinated by God to accomplish the end that you are at the celestial city, the inheritance for the saints. So he predestinated you to eternal life. He drew you to himself by his effectual calling. Jesus said, no man can come to me except the Father which have sent me draw him. John 644. Now, man’s hope and his only hope lies outside of himself. He needs divine. help. Now, this word drawing is much stronger than the word invitation. It’s not that God gives you an invitation to come to Christ. No, he draws you to Christ. There’s no ifs, ands, ands, or buts about this. There’s no question about it. It’s not, well, maybe you’ll come, and maybe you won’t. It’s not, well, I got an invitation, but I decided not to go. The drawing here is a very powerful, statement. It means the putting forth of power and obligating the object seized to respond. The word impel would be a good word. This is sovereign grace in action. God draws you by a special, secret, irresistible power of his spirit to bring you to Christ. You’re made willing in the of his power, as the scripture says. Now, it is true. This work is done by the Spirit of God, and yet the Spirit is carrying out the will of the Father and his electing purpose. So God, the Father, is the primary cause of your salvation. Now, that being the case, have you thanked the Father for your salvation? Sadly, a man is so full of pride and arrogance that he thinks he has a part in his own salvation. It is commonly taught that God’s election is merely God foreseeing what you are going to do and that sort of reacting in response to it. I asked you, if this is true, then why do you need to thank God the Father? if you’re the one that made the decision, if you’re the one that made the decision, if you’re one who is bright enough to see that you needed to come to Christ, congratulate yourself. Is that what the text says? The Bible teaches you that God makes you fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in life. In life. Your faith in Christ is a direct result of God the Father’s election. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed. If God’s, didn’t irresistibly draw you, you would never come to faith in Christ. If the unsaved today would only believe what God says in his word and see man in his lost in hopeless condition, he would see the need of a Savior. If you cannot come to Christ except the Father draws you, then your responsibility is to beg the Father to draw you. If professing Christians would take God’s word seriously. They would acknowledge what a debt they owe to sovereign grace. And my friends, you’re never going to be as thankful as you ought to be for your salvation until you see how desperate you were and how much you owe God for the salvation of your soul. Right theology leads to a heart that’s full of Thanksgiving, bursting forth in praise to God the father. If your theology is wrong on this, how can you give God the thanks and praise he deserves and rightly deserves in this matter? I’ll let you think about that for a moment because I think that’s an important matter. So why does Mr. Christian in Pilgrim’s progress diligently fall in the narrow road? Because he knows where it ends up. He knows it’s going to the celestial city. It goes through all the hardship. That’s where he’s headed. That’s where he wants to go. This is always true for the Christian. Our text speaks of the heavenly inheritance that we have. It’s God’s work to make us fit for that inheritance, to be a partaker of it. As you think of all that God has done, to procure your salvation, and I might say even preserve it, as you go through this life as well, how important it is for us to express our things. thanks to him for what he’s done. For he is the one who has originated all that matters to us with regard to this is Lestrel City and the promise of eternal life and forgiveness of sins and eternal joy. It’s all in his hands. He’s done it all. Let us be a thankful people.