In Him: Sealed For An Inheritance Part 1

Please stand for the reading of God's Word. The Old Testament reading this morning comes from the 25th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy.

I'll begin reading in verse 19. Therefore, when the

Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, and the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven, you shall not forget.

When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, you shall take some of its some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which which you harvest from your land that the

Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the

Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him,

I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the

Lord swore to our fathers to give us. Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the

Lord your God, and you shall make and you shall make response before the

Lord your God. A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous, and the

Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor.

Then we cried to the Lord the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.

And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders, and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

And behold, now I bring the first fruit of the ground which you, O Lord, have given me, and you shall set it down before the

Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the

Lord your God has given to you and to your house and you and the

Levite and the sojourner who is among you. The New Testament reading this morning is in Ephesians 5 verses 1 through 9.

Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice to God.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude humor which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving, for you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is, idolatry, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore do not become partners with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the

Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

Good morning. Open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1, please.

What a delight to have all the ordinances of Christ on display before us, to see baptism, to enjoy the

Lord's Supper, to have the word proclaimed. It is, it's amazing to see how the kingdom of Jesus goes forth in a way that is just so ordinary.

You know, we just see these ordinary things happening, but overall as we see the kingdom of Jesus proceeding forth in all of history in this way, our

God is very powerful. He changes lives and he establishes his kingdom and no man can stop it.

And it's such a blessing to see it on display, so I just encourage you to look to see what happened and marvel at the grace of Jesus and proclaim his excellencies.

Let that be our desire as we see the ordinary means of grace play itself out. I'm also encouraged by our

VBS that we had this week. It is quite the week and there's many of you that do a lot of work.

And you know who you are and it's a blessed work, it really is. And I know there might be a lot of tired eyes, but I hope you see what's going on beyond it.

Just like when I talk about baptism, there's something beautiful going on. That if we're not careful, we don't see the larger picture of what it means to bring the children together for those days and proclaim the word to them.

And sometimes if you're a teacher, it doesn't seem like it's stuck at all, but nevertheless, the word was faithfully proclaimed and we need to celebrate that.

And so I thank every one of you who have put so much time and effort into that and I hope that you're not feeling too wore out and that you're ready to go today to worship

God because he's worthy. And that we would be encouraged in that. We are in Ephesians 1 on this

Lord's Day. I'll begin reading in verse 3 and end with this section.

Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will.

To the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood that is the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.

Which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and all insight making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time.

To unite all things in Christ, things in heaven, and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

In him you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and you believed in him you were sealed with the promised

Holy Spirit. He is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

Oh God in heaven, what a magnificent thing before us to look at the all spiritual blessings that are found in Jesus.

Lord our hearts, my heart can be so lazy, can be so distracted, can be so distracted with the many physical things that are about me that I can forget that it's all for the sake of Jesus.

It's all for the sake of knowing him. This whole life is vanity if it's not spent glorifying our risen

Savior for his salvation that he has brought to his people. Lord I confess

I oftentimes am so distracted through the week. I'm so thankful for the means of grace that you give to your people to remind us of the faith that we must have in this

Savior that you have offered in love. You give us your word. You give us listening ears by your working of your spirit.

You give us the Lord's table. You give us baptism. You give us all these things for our good to remind us of these spiritual blessings that so often we can lose focus of.

God you are good to your people. So let us celebrate your goodness now. Let us hear you and let us obey you not by our own power but by the power that Jesus has provided and the many spiritual blessings that have come down upon his chosen people.

Be glorified in us Lord as you are rightfully deserving of and as it is our life to do so.

Thank you in Jesus name. Amen. So we are building off of this foundational sentence that Paul has laid out for us in verse 3 and that is that statement of blessed be

God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessings in the heavenly places and then it is his great passion and desire to then lay out what these spiritual blessings are for us so we can grab hold of them and like he said bless the

Father for them or praise the Father for them. Indeed if we do not know these things we do not know how to worship

God. We are to meditate upon these blessings and return them to the Father with our spiritual blessings, with our thanksgiving, with our worship and we have seen these laid out so far verses 3 or 4 through 10 of we have been chosen those who are believers in Jesus you have been chosen for adoption and that is through redemption.

If you remember we have been chosen before time began so that you would be adopted out of Satan's family into the family the blessed family of the

Lord and that is only through the work of redemption that Jesus has done by purchasing a people for himself.

We have been chosen for adoption through redemption and now with a line going down in your brain from adoption now we get to see that we have an inheritance as sons and daughters redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

We have an inheritance that is sealed and to be honest with you I think we're going to take a couple weeks doing this and there's an acronym here, and I don't know if it's a good one but here it is to remind you of these spiritual blessings that he kind of like just blurts out in one sentence and it can be helpful to turn it into an acronym.

It's CARIS. It's C -A -R -I -S called for adoption through redemption inheritance sealed.

This is what Jesus has provided for us and we focus now on our inheritance at being sealed.

If you found out today that you had an inheritance of seven million dollars that you would receive in part each year for six years, then the final large sum on the seventh year it would affect you for good or for bad your life would change.

Such a large inheritance it would change your life and here we come across now as those who have been adopted into the family of the

Lord, we see that we have laid up for us an inheritance, a spiritual inheritance in the heavenlies that we will acquire full possession in eternity that we get to taste of now each day.

And this is an inheritance that far outweighs seven million dollars. It is the spiritual blessings that we have in Jesus culminating in foreverness without sin that we could do in joy.

And for those who have not been redeemed by the blood who are still in the family of Satan, that is a yawn fest.

But for those who have been redeemed, for those who have been brought out of the deception, when we hear that we have an inheritance waiting up for us, this changes our lives.

Not just something that we will get in eternity, but instead the largest, the beauty of God kind of flows forth in our daily life that changes everything about us.

It must because of how large the inheritance we have in the Lord. For those who are of the church who have been redeemed, the what

Paul says in Romans, oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, we join in that choir with Paul and we say, oh we've been awakened to see the riches of our

God. To be like Him, to be near Him, to be close to Him. Not only is our God of Himself beautiful in all

His ways, but He gives us blessings coming forth from His beauty and those who have had the wool taken out to see it, we say, oh

I want that. I want the inheritance. I want Him and what He has laid up for me.

We are the ones who have found the pearl of great price and we have gladly given up everything for it and we await patiently that final inheritance as we taste of it today and it changes our lives.

You know that someone has an inheritance of God in total and eternity by the way they live their lives today in light of that understanding.

It can't help because of the largeness of who God is and being with Him. It can't help but change your life today.

And this is what we're going to look at. This is what I think Paul is highlighting. He's going to talk more about the inheritance later on in this chapter, but the things he says are things that in light of this inheritance, it has a way of changing the way people act which brings this spiritual blessing more in our own lives.

So this is what we'll look at for the next few minutes. We'll see that we have a taste of what we have waiting for us in eternity today.

We have been filled so much with what the inheritance is waiting and we get a taste of it even in each day and what does that taste look like in the lives of the saints?

And I think this is what he's getting at here. The first one and what we'll focus on is it brings unity.

The taste of our inheritance in eternity brings unity today to us.

This is exactly what's been happening in the church for 2 ,000 years. If you remember this idea of the inheritance waiting for us and the taste of it brings unity today, we kind of left off there in verse 10.

Look at what verse 10 says. It says, verse 9, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

So you see that inheritance, that final inheritance is that all things would be united under the head of our dear

Lord Jesus Christ. And so it only makes sense that if we're going to get a taste of it today, there would be a unity happening in us today.

And that's exactly what I think Paul kind of lays out in verses 11, 12, and 13.

What do I mean by that? Well, look what he says. He says, in him, in verse 11, we have obtained an inheritance.

And that doesn't seem like anything different because he's been saying we, you know, he chose us and he's been talking about in this way of we and us.

But I think the subject has changed a little bit here. He says, in him, we have obtained an inheritance.

And then look at verse 12, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be the praise of his glory.

And then look at verse 13, in him you also. So there seems to be something that Paul is doing here.

This we now has changed to those who have first hope in God. And then through that now, you also, he says to the

Ephesians, have also believed. And so there seems to be kind of a change what he's focusing here on.

And I think really what he's looking at is the Jews were the first to come to believe upon Jesus.

And then through their belief upon Jesus, then the Gentiles were, came into the inheritance.

So the inheritance began with the belief in Jews. It changed, we'll get to it, it changed their lives.

It changed their worship. It changed everything about them. And then the Gentiles through that taste that they received were then brought in.

They couldn't help as they saw the worship of the believing Jews to be brought in themselves because it was enticing to the elect

Gentiles. And so what I think Paul is highlighting is that this, this inheritance involves not just Jews, but also

Jews and Gentiles. And it brought a unity that we'll talk about the significance in a moment.

The taste of that final unity inheritance under Jesus comes in taste form today as we see unity between two very different types of people.

As we see kind of the Jewish language here of the Old Testament, I don't know if it's right to say it that way, but we see

Old Testament language here in verse 11. He says, in him we have obtained an inheritance. And that word, that Greek word inheritance behind inheritance there, is not the same as verse 14 as we see who is the guarantee of our inheritance.

The Greek word of the inheritance of verse 11 has to do with like a choosing of lots, a giving of possession by lots.

And what really what your mind should go to as you're considering this is how the Israelites in the

Old Testament were brought out of Egypt and then they were inherited the land, the promised land, of what they would then conquest of Canaan.

And so I think the language behind it is pointing to this inheritance that the

Israelites gained when they were freed from enslavement to Egypt. I'll try to make sure we connect this all under this theme that I'm pulling out.

But go to Joshua as we see that language. Go to Joshua. So in Joshua, chapter 13, what we have here is that Joshua, of course, was the great conqueror, the general, right?

The one who conquered the promised land after the Israelites had left Egypt. Now Joshua conquered the land so that they would inherit this land, that God promised

Abraham and his descendants, I will give you a land. And we see here that Joshua is then fulfilling that promise by conquering this land.

And then if you look in your Bibles from chapter 13, talk about that conquering, all the way to chapter 19, it's all about the divvying up or the giving of that land as an inheritance to the 12 tribes of Israel.

We see this in the start of every heading. If you have the ESV Bible, they give you these headings, these helpful headings.

And at each start of them, you see, like in verse 8 of chapter 13, with the other half tribe of Manasseh, the

Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance. And we see that this is all the inheritance given on the east of Jordan.

And in chapter 14, we see all the inheritance given on the west of Jordan. Chapter 14, verse 1, these are the inheritances that the people of Israel received in the land of Canaan.

And we see it goes so on and so forth. It goes all the way for chapters of all these, the land given to the 12 tribes of Israel as an inheritance, as a possession to be given.

And this is really, it's by lot, so to speak, given to these tribes to inherit this land, to have this land.

And I think Paul has this in the back of his mind as he writes in chapter 1 of Ephesians, verse 11, in him, we have obtained an inheritance.

We have obtained an inheritance. What made it an inheritance in the

Old Testament with the given of the land is they were, the Israelites were redeemed from the enslavement to Egypt and brought into the inheritance of the promised land.

Now, if you, I know it's been weeks, so I understand. But what have we been talking about the last few weeks?

We've been talking about enslavement through redemption, haven't we? And what we're looking at is what happened to Israel was a shadow of the substance that happens to us spiritually.

Again, notice Paul says all spiritual blessing, all the things that happened in the Old Testament was a shadow or physical things that were pointed to a greater reality that would happen in the future.

And so we see that what made this, what Israel, they received an inheritance in the promised land because they were redeemed from enslavement to Egypt.

And they were brought into the inheritance of the promised land, where it must be free from the influence of sin and God would dwell with them there.

You gotta understand that's what made it an inheritance. That's what made it so good is that they went from enslavement to Egypt and they would go to the promised land where what?

Sin would not dwell there. Where God would be there. So they would go from that, from Egypt to be able to be with God in the promised land.

That was their inheritance. Does that sound familiar to what we're talking about with our inheritance? We are redeemed or brought from our enslavement to Satan and we're brought into the inheritance of the eternal kingdom where God is there, where sin does not dwell, and we enjoy him forever.

And that is beautiful to us. So we see that it's done in shadow form here with the

Israelites in the Old Testament, that they were redeemed of the enslavement to Egypt and brought into their inheritance where sin was not to be.

That's why if you see before they received that inheritance as they were looking to possess the land, you remember they received the

Ten Commandments, they received the law of God, the sin was not to be there. You're not to be like the people of the land.

You are to be different. You're to be righteous and enjoy that righteousness. And so that's why in the Ten Commandments it's prefaced with,

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. I'm about to bring you into inheritance and you better obey me and be sinless because I'll be there and they'll be blessed because of that.

Now what's the problem? What's the problem with that? Well, there's two problems. The promise of the

Old Testament was a shadow, not that that's a promise of it or a problem of itself, but it was pointing to something greater, right?

We're not interested in physical land, are we? I hope not. I hope that you've been so awakened to what

Jesus provides in his spiritual kingdom that you're not interested in any physical possession because that's just not as good.

You're not interested in the physical blessing as you are in the spiritual blessing that Jesus provides through the forgiveness of sins.

And so the Old Testament promise was of a carnal or physical promise. You will get, you inherit this physical land.

But that wasn't meant to be forever because there was something greater that God had in store that that would point to and that is

Jesus and what he provides. That's the first problem is that it wasn't meant to be forever. And the second issue here as we look at the

Israelites and the inheritance that they have is that they did not have the ability of themselves to keep it.

They were to be righteous because that is what makes it so good because sin is not there and God is.

But the problem is that Israel had a real problem with keeping the law to keep it sinless.

That's why whenever they fell into a habitual sin, God says you're acting just like the guys before you.

In fact, you're acting worse. There's no inheritance whenever righteousness isn't dwelling here because of your sin.

So although they were given the law, they were proven to be those who could not keep the law.

And I hope you know that this is a picture all pointing to us. We cannot keep the law.

The inheritance is that we would have righteousness perfectly. But we cannot keep the law.

We cannot enjoy the inheritance that God has given to us of ourselves.

So this is what the Old Testament is pointing to. And so this was to draw the

Israelites' mind to Jesus. This was to put a taste in their mouth.

This inability. And this, there needs to be a betterness to this. Not just a temporary land, but a forever land where righteousness dwells.

That's not based off of my ability to keep the laws in order to make righteousness dwell.

There's, it's meant to make them really, really thirsty for Jesus. It's like God that forced them to run like 10 ,000 miles so that Jesus would be their water.

Which is why Jesus came saying, drink of me. This all was meant to draw the

Israelites to the Messiah who would give them better promises, forever inheritance, and the ability to keep the forever inheritance.

Go to Hebrews. Please, go to Hebrews. I know we haven't been in here in a while.

We haven't had like a good teacher teaching through this, you know, so. This is exactly one of the, well, the main point of the writer to the

Hebrews. In our, in our own time, Tim and I like to have all sorts of debates like, did the

Apostle Paul write the letter to the Hebrews? All that kind of fun stuff. We'll never know.

Not now, at least. But in chapter 8, verse 6, look at what the writer to the

Hebrews says. He says, but as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

So again, there's that Jesus. There's this, it's supposed to drive them, right? This, this land is good, right?

It's good that we have this, but it's supposed to drive them to a greater promise and someone who could give them the greater promise, not the

Moses of the old covenant, but the Jesus of the new, right? Look at 11, 16, the same kind of principle.

But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their

God, for he has prepared for them a city. This isn't Jerusalem, but it is the new Jerusalem. This isn't the temporary

Jerusalem of the earth, but it's the heavenly Jerusalem, the one in which righteousness dwells perfectly, and no one could take that away, and we'll be there forever, enjoying unity with our

God that can never be taken away. Better promises that Jesus provides. And not only that, but also the ability to keep the inheritance.

Look at chapter 10. Jesus provides that as well. Chapter 10 of Hebrews, verse 12.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemy should be made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering of himself, he has perfected for all times those who are being sanctified. And the

Holy Spirit also bears witness to us for after saying, this is the covenant I'll make with them. After those days, declares the

Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts, and I'll write them on their minds.

Then he adds, I'll remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. So the point here is that Jesus is the forgiver of sins.

And not only that, but he places the law, the righteousness of God, on our hearts to where we do it because we desire to do it.

Where the Israelites didn't have such a promise, that's why they fell into sin over and over and over again. And if it wasn't for Jesus Christ doing what he did, beloved, we'd be just as bad off.

But again, all of this, the old covenant, was useful in that it caused the

Jews to say, again, there must be something better waiting for us. This must be pointing to something greater.

And it also meant for them to say, and we need someone to help us so we can grab hold of this greater because of our sin, we can't do it.

So the old covenant was a blessing for the Jews as it gave the elect Jews a taste for Messiah.

God was preparing for himself the elect Jews to be prepared to have a thirst for Messiah.

That's exactly what's going on throughout the old covenant. And so look at verse 12 of Ephesians 1.

So that we, again, I think he's referring to, I think it's clear he's referring to the

Jews, so that we who were the first to hope, we who were the first to hope in Christ might be the praise to his glory.

The whole point of the old covenant was to make the Jews hope for Christ.

And he's saying that when Christ came and established his covenant, those of us who were to believe in Jews, we believed, and it was to the praise of his glory.

So notice the hope of the inheritance that Jesus has brought in Christ gave them praise to his glory today.

Again, notice the hope that they received the full inheritance of Jesus Christ in eternity. They have now known that Jesus has came, they believed upon him, and it gave them praise to his glory, and I would add today.

Romans 5 -2 says, through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

At one time we have fallen short of the glory of God, but in Jesus we've rejoiced in the hope of the glory of God, and that rejoicing looks like something particular in our day, in their day, in their own day.

Look at how this plays itself out in Acts, as really the Acts at the very beginning is all about the actions of this new

Jerusalem or Jewish church. And we see that these believing Jews who have hoped first in Christ, they responded in this hope of this inheritance in a particular way in their own lives that then brought in the

Gentiles. Look at Acts 2, verse 42.

The first preaching, the first receiving of the word of Christ, right? And these are all Jews coming in as the

Jewish believers, those who have first hoped in Christ. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

And all came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising

God and having favor with the people. And the Lord added to the number day by day those who were being saved.

What's sad is many people look at the particulars of what they're doing and they'll say, that's what we got to do, right?

Those particulars. We need to be every day gathering together. We need to be doing that. And maybe we do, maybe we don't. But the point is, is that what were these first hopefuls in Christ?

How can you summarize their attitude and their behavior right now? I think you can do it by verse 47, those first two words.

They're praising God. They're praising God because the full inheritance has come in Jesus. And they're so amazed by it that they can't help but have an action of worship together.

And I am saying that this, as we saw in Ephesians 1, right, so that in verse 13,

I'm sorry, in 12, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be the praise of his glory, that hoping in the inheritance to come results in the praise of his glory today, which is contagious to people.

The reason why this church flourished is because they were so enamored by the inheritance waiting for them that they were worshipers of God, true worshipers.

They were happy in Jesus. They were so full of joy to worship him. And so we see all these little, these little specific actions that they're doing in light of the fact that they are praising

God. That is the heart of it. Because as they hoped in what was awaiting them, for them, that full inheritance, not the 12 tribes and the land promises, but what

Jesus Christ has offered of perfect righteousness forever and eternity. And they had a taste of it now as they rejoiced or praised

God in that hope. And that, from the Jewish church, it was so, it was so massive.

It was such a joy, it was such a worship that you just couldn't take away. And what do I mean by that?

Well, it's not very long before the Jewish church gets persecuted. And most times when your hope is not set on such a massive inheritance that's waiting for you, when persecution comes, most of the time you're going to say, all right,

I'm done. That's fine. I'll just stop doing what I'm doing. I'll, I'll behave. But because their inheritance was so large, the praise for God was so massive, when they began to be persecuted after Stephen got stoned, they went forth, but they went forth praising

God and evangelizing and spreading the gospel. Again, from the heart of worshiping

God because of this inheritance. So that even persecution couldn't hold down the church. Instead, they say, okay, we'll leave, but we're going to go praising

God and even endangering us for further persecution. That grand inheritance that Jesus had brought this believing

Jews was worth it. But for the main purpose of my sermon with unity, so much was this inherited so large that changed the way that they behaved is that they even began to do something very disgusting.

They even began to preach this gospel to the, to the Gentiles. You see, whenever they left

Israel, you start running into those kinds of people, the non -Jews.

And if you want to see the most hated, bitter race wars of all time, it is the

Jews and the Gentiles. And this inheritance of the believing Jews were so, was so massive to them that it even crossed party lines.

And they had a great desire to even give this gospel to others so they can join in that same inheritance.

And so my point is, is that the inheritance waited in eternity, changed their worship in today, praising

God, and even changed the way that they were now unified or desired unity with the

Gentiles. Now it took time, it took a council, but nevertheless, that was what was moving forth.

Unity despite the hatred between two sides. And that's exactly what we have in Ephesians 1 .13.

In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised

Holy Spirit. They inherited. And again, the you also is,

I believe, he's talking about the Gentiles. The word came to them by the believing Jews who first hoped in Christ, and they responded and joined in that inheritance with the

Jews and became one. In fact, he talks about this in chapter two and three, the inheritance that has been given to both

Jew and Gentile that has created that unity. And so again, if I may repeat myself, again, the inheritance was so large in their eyes that created genuine worship to them today, which created unity between two people you would never, ever imagine would have unity, that is

Jew and Gentile. And it's an interesting thing to see how just the

Bible is written, because one thing that you're supposed to be amazed by is how sin happens,

Adam and Eve, and then right away the worst thing that ever could happen when it comes to vertical relationships between man and man is done.

Cain murders Abel, right? So you have this sin problem that happens, which is vertically.

Sorry, I got it wrong. Vertically. And then all of a sudden, right away, you see the effects of that when it comes to this horizontal issue.

And it's not just like Cain was kind of squabbling with Abel, you know, kind of called him a bad name. It's like the worst thing in the world.

He got murdered. Am I my brother's keeper? And he murders him, right? The very opposite of being your brother's keeper.

And really what you see building on top of that is that brother and brother should be the most loving with one another.

And even when it comes to all creation, right? Jew and Gentile being brother and brother as, you know, all after Adam, they should be the most loving.

And you see this divide, this divide, this separation. And so as your mind marvels at the effects of sin and the murdering of Cain and Abel, your mind should then marvel at the fact that Jesus Christ brings it all back and says, yes, you are your brother's keeper, and you're going to bring salvation to your brother, which is what

Israel did for the Gentiles. He brings unity. All things are united under him.

And he brings that unity in today's world. And so it shouldn't shock us at all when we see a rejection of the

Lord Jesus Christ over ourselves, over our families, over our communities, that the unity that has happened in culture since the gospel has been more dominant is now just going away.

In our own families, it is completely torn apart. There is no unity in our families anymore, culturally speaking, because the agent, the one who brings such unity between man and man, has been shunned.

And that doesn't mean, I'm not trying to say that there was once a perfect time when America was just perfect, right? But no doubt, no doubt, let's see what happens when the gospel is not as center to the culture as it is now.

And it's a fascinating thing to see the lack of unity across the board.

It starts in our churches, it goes to our families, and then it goes to society. It is, there's a reason why as we look at Ephesians, Paul, and really across the board with his writings,

Paul emphasizes unity. He emphasizes the fact that this is what the gospel does, is it brings man and man with the same inheritance and a joy to come together under Christ Jesus.

And so when that doesn't, that's no longer the telos, that's no longer the goal, it is no surprise that that unity would then be fractured.

And so when a church is not unified, it is not a little affair. It is a serious thing when you're not unified with your fellow brother and sister in Christ.

We do not take that lightly. If there is something between you and another brother or sister, we don't just say, well, you know, just hopefully it goes away.

Because Christ has came with an inheritance, and that inheritance has its taste today, and that taste drives unity and love for one another, that we would all enjoy the blessings that Jesus has given.

And so when there is a problem with unity between each other, it's because there's a problem with unity with our blessed

Father. And that's a blessing that Jesus has brought as an inheritance, that we'd be together with the

Father. So enough cannot be said about unity. Our inheritance that awaits us drives unity, because this is exactly what is done between Jew and Gentile, and what it should be doing in our own families, in our own culture, if it is being influenced by the gospel.

So this is at the point to where I wanted to finish up, but I'll have to end sooner and make this a two -parter.

And so we'll chalk that up right there, that the taste that we receive, it changes who we are to where we're praising our

God for what he has done for us, and it drives a love for fellow brother and sister that creates this unity.

And so one thing, you know, as a father, as you are called to—and I always want to bring this down to the boiling point, right?

As you look at your own family, fathers, is unity dwelling there? And if it's not, it shouldn't be, oh, they're always fighting, you know?

Oh, my wife, you know, would make jokes about, oh, we used to be in love, but now we just fight all the time. I hear this all the time.

That's such a serious offense, that you wouldn't have unity in your home. The biggest issue in your heart should be, is that we are not enjoying the inheritance of Christ together.

That's not everything in our eyes, because if it was, there would be unity. And so the biggest thing that should haunt you, fathers, as you leave your home, if there's no unity there, that's because the inheritance of our

Lord is not there. Or if there's no unity with your spouse, it's because the unity that we have under Christ in the inheritance waiting for us, that's not everything in our arguments, in our relationships.

Our children fighting, that is, the world laughs at that, say, oh, children would be children. No, you teach them to desire the inheritance of Christ more than they desire the passions of the flesh, which drives enmity with one another.

Everything becomes a gospel issue and should bow the knee to Jesus Christ, because he has done great things for us not to bow the knee to him.

And again, I've already touched on unity with other brothers and sisters in the church. If you are not unified, it's because the inheritance that's waiting for you up in the heavenlies is not everything to you.

You're letting other things creep in. That needs to be everything to you, because it is marvelous. It's an inheritance that you cannot fathom to be together with the

Father without sin. And so it needs to start individually, as you are dealing with your sin, as you're dealing with this contrary notion.

Your inheritance is that you'd be perfectly righteous with God forever in eternity, and now the sin is going to drive me away from that inheritance?

No, sir. I'm going to drive that sin away from me, because that has taken that inheritance enjoyment today away from me, and I'm not going to let anything do that.

So you see, this has far -reaching implications. The inheritance waiting for you in eternity needs to be so large in your eyes that you can't see around it, and it drives your action, it drives your love, and it drives your unity.

I pray that that might be what I impressed upon your heart today. Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus Christ, the spiritual blessing that's found in him.

Lord, I know that I have people before me, both believers and unbelievers, who they have forgotten to focus upon this inheritance that we can have in Jesus.

The believer has forgotten, the unbeliever has never done it. Oh, Lord in heaven, that you would draw these people, that you would draw my own heart to look at what

Jesus Christ has provided. He has redeemed us and made us, those who believe upon him, adopted sons and daughters, so that there is an inheritance waiting for us, not one of temporal, not one of physical, but we have this inheritance that we will be together forever with the

Lord without sin in eternity. And Lord, such a large inheritance, it must affect us today.

It has to, with it being so large. Oh, God in heaven, we need to be like the early church, the

Jewish Christians, those Gentiles who came in, and what Paul says here, that when we hear the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, and believe upon him, it was all to the praise of his glory.

We need to have that, that within us, that this is so massive that it creates that praise in us today.

And I pray, God, that it would be our delight to see the implications of that praise in us today, the unity with one another, the love for one another, the dealing with our sin in light of this inheritance, that the praise of your glory would reveal itself in all sorts of different myriads of ways in our lives.

God, let this be our purpose. Let this be what drives us, so that you would have the glory, and it would be for our good.