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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-lavery/the-inheritance/
Now I'd like to read in five different places, and we're going to read them in the order that will consider them, and the first one is in the book of Numbers, chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13 and verse 21.
So they went up and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin onto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. And they ascended by the south and came unto Hebron, where Haman, Shishai, and Talmai, the children of Anak were.
Now Hebron was built seven years before Zon in Egypt. And they came unto the brook of Eshkol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they buried between two upon a staff. And they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs.
The place was called the brook of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes, which the children of Israel cut down from thence. And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. Now the book of Joshua, please, chapter 3 and verse 14.
Joshua 3 and 14. It came to pass when the people removed from their tents to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people. And as they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water.
For Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest. But the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam that is beside Zeratan. And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed and were cut off, and the people passed over right against Jericho.
And the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.
Now numbers 32, please. Numbers 32 and verse number 16. And the king came near unto him and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle and cities for our little ones, but we ourselves will go ready armed before the children of Israel until we have brought them unto their place.
And our little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return unto our houses until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance, for we will not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan, or forward, because our inheritance falleth to us on this side of Jordan eastward.
Now 1 Chronicles chapter 4, please. And we're going to read verse number 9. 1 Chronicles 4 and verse 9. And Jabez was more honorable than all his brethren. And his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bear him with sorrow.
And Jabez called on the Lord God of Israel, saying, O that thou wouldest bless me indeed and enlarge my coasts, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me.
Now the last place we want to read is in Ephesians chapter 6, please. Ephesians 6 and verse number 11 is where we want to read. Verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the day of evil, and having done all, to stand. Now we know that God always blesses the reading of his precious word.
Now before I came to the conference, I had this in my mind and came a little late. I have to apologize for that. And I did hear part of the last two messages, at least all of the last message, and I noted of course it was about the inheritance.
I wondered if our brother William was going to take everything that I had in my mind, but that doesn't usually happen because we look at things from a different perspective. So you don't mind if I take you back to the inheritance again.
And from Numbers 13, I want to speak to you for a little while about the earnest of the inheritance. That's a New Testament expression found in Ephesians chapter one. We're indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, who is the earnest of the inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.
So all of us, every believer has the earnest of the inheritance within. And then in Joshua chapter three, I read about the entrance into the inheritance. The children of Israel had come through the wilderness, out of the land of Egypt, and now they're going to go in to the inheritance.
There's only one place where they went in, that was the River Jordan. So we have the entrance to the inheritance. And then in Numbers 32, we read about the two and a half tribes who had their inheritance on this side of Jordan.
Moses gave them the inheritance. I've often thought about it, maybe I haven't come to too many conclusions about it, but Joshua gave the other ten and a half tribes their inheritance, but Moses gave Reuben Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh their inheritance on this side of Jordan.
So I want to speak about some of the excuses for not enjoying the inheritance. They came back, and it gives us the reasons why they didn't stay in the land, really, that God had given His people. And then this man, Jabez, a wonderful character, and all these lines, genealogies, many of them are quite dry, but once in a while, there's a little spark of light.
And we hear of something about one of the persons that is in the lineage of Judah, and here is the enlargement of the inheritance. He asked the Lord, he said, I want you to enlarge my coasts. That's the borders of his inheritance.
And then you're maybe wondering why I read Ephesians chapter six. Well, I wanted to let you know there's an enemy that will try to do everything to disrupt us from enjoying the inheritance that God has given us.
And that enemy is very busy today, and we should be very careful not to give him grounds to work on, but I'm afraid that he gets an inroad into many assemblies and into many lives so that we're not enjoying things as we really should.
And I like to enjoy things in this life, and I don't want anything that's watered down. I want the real thing, and I think maybe we all should be that way as well. Now as far as the earnest of the inheritance is concerned, we have that illustrated by Moses sending the spies into the land.
The spies, of course, were chosen right in the wilderness, and he sends 12 of them out, and he said, you go and you spy the land. And that's what they did. They went into the land. They couldn't say anything about the inheritance if they hadn't really been there.
So they went into the inheritance, and then they brought out word of what kind of a place it is. And you all know sometimes we're saying 12 spies went to spy on Canaan, 10 were bad, and two were good.
And that's true. There were only two that brought a good report. It was Caleb, and of course there was Joshua. The others brought a bad report. They said, we'll never be able to enjoy this inheritance.
We never should even have tried to get in here, and many of them thought they'd want to go right back to Egypt. Now I don't know if you've ever been left in inheritance. If you have, that's fine. I hope you enjoy it.
I haven't been left too much in my day. I almost had a Cadillac left to me one time. Brother Dave can vouch for that. And a friend of mine had a lovely big Cadillac. Now nothing wrong with having a Cadillac or a car like that, but he said to me, Bill, when I die, this is yours.
I said, well, if you feel yourself getting a little bit sick or weak, go out and trade it in for a new one. But of course he didn't do that. But the time came when he said, now it's in my will. You're going to get this car, but you know, I never got it.
I often wondered what I would have done with it, really. I thought maybe I'd put a verse in the back, be content with such things as you have, or something like that maybe would have helped a little bit.
But there are lots of times people, it would seem to us that they should get the inheritance, and the person that passes away, they seem to overlook the ones that really helped them and send it to someone else.
Now I'm not telling you what to do with your inheritance if you have any, but I'll tell you, this is one that we can enjoy. There are different ways that we look at this inheritance. It's already been quoted, I think, referred to in 1 Peter chapter 1, why we have an inheritance.
It's reserved in heaven for you who are kept by his power. I would take it that's all the blessings we're going to enjoy when we get home to heaven. We have an inheritance in heaven, we're going to get it, it's reserved, or could we say preserved for us, and we're preserved for it.
Doesn't matter how we end our life here, we can be assured of that. In Ephesians, it's maybe a little bit different, maybe you won't agree with me, but it seems to me the idea there is reigning with Christ over this world.
So that would be inheritance in that way, just as Adam and Eve, Adam and his bride were given dominion over this world, dominion that was lost, so that's all going to be regained through Christ in the church, and we're going to reign with him.
That's something that we're absolutely sure of because it's recorded for us in God's Word. Now what about the earnest of the inheritance? Well, I've already said and it's been brought before us that they went in to the inheritance and they brought out evidences to those who were in the wilderness so that it would whet their appetite.
You know, that's what we need today, we need an appetite for the things of the inheritance. It's not more education that we need. Some of the people I know that knew the most about the Bible were at very poor educations.
Most of you here maybe have more education than I ever had, but it's not education that matters, it's a real desire, the desire to get the things of the inheritance. And if you had been there in the wilderness and you saw this great big bunch of grapes, my, there's nothing like it.
Grapes that's what they make wine off and that speaks of joy. It's almost like an unlimited amount of joy in the inheritance. And if you had been there, like me anyhow, you would have said, I wish I could just get one of those grapes and I would eat that grape and I'd say, what a great place the Lord's bringing us into.
And then what about the pomegranates? Well, I don't know if you know much about them, a lot of stones in them, little pits or whatever you call them, and they really speak of fruitfulness. And he was showing them that the land, the inheritance is a place of fruitfulness.
And then they also brought figs. Sometimes we don't hear about the pomegranates and the figs much, but the fig speaks of sweetness. And that's the kind of a place that God has brought us into. Now you'll notice I've changed the, is that the tenses of the verb?
I told you I didn't have much schooling, but anyhow, it's something we enjoy now. Our brother had it right on when he said, it's the present enjoyment of a future inheritance. And the reason we can enjoy it now is that we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.
Every believer, and because we're indwelt by the Spirit of God, we can enjoy things that we're not into yet. In other words, I love that hymn, the streams on earth I've tasted, more deep I'll drink above.
We're going to be brought into the fullness of it, but we can enjoy it and measure now. Now I think these spies, I would liken them first of all, maybe to the ministering brethren, because that's what we do really.
We try to get into the inheritance. That's all the blessings that we have recorded for us in the scriptures. And we try to bring them out as it were, so the saints will have a real appetite for the inheritance.
We're not here to spoon feed people. I'm sure we've all been spoon fed quite a bit with the scriptures, but we're here so that you might have an appetite, so that we could whet the appetite of God's people to get into the inheritance themselves.
We're still in the world, you know that, but God has provided food for us in the world, the roast lamb, to get us out of the world that crucified him. And we're in the wilderness, God has given us the manna, and that speaks of Christ and humility.
That's what our brother Jerry was bringing before us, just to walk humbly before God and obedience to him. If we do that, well, we're going to get through the wilderness. There are many perished in the wilderness because of unbelief.
But while we're in the wilderness, God says, I'm going to give you something that you can really enjoy. And those are the truths, especially the truths concerning the Lord Jesus. That's what we really enjoy.
Have you been gleaning recently? Have you been getting into the word of God? That's what we want to... I'm not asking you to go to the foreign field or to start ministering the word of God here. That might come later, it may, may not.
But the important thing is, every one of us, whether we be a school teacher, a personal worker, or visit the sick, no matter what way God would use us, some little way maybe, we need to know the word of God.
There's no substitute, not just parroting what we have been told, we might do that some, but we want to get in and get it for ourselves, get into the inheritance. What did some of them say? They said, oh, there's giants in the land.
How could we ever expect to get into a place like that? There's too many obstacles in the land. And what did Joshua and Caleb, they said, that doesn't really matter. The Lord's given us the inheritance, doesn't matter what the, how big the enemy may be.
We can all go in and enjoy the inheritance. I often think, how big were the giants? I think they maybe exaggerated. They said, we were like little grasshoppers in their sight. You know what question I would ask?
How big is God? Why, no matter, giants are nothing compared with God, the God of heaven. And God says, here, here it is. There may be difficulties, but still overcome them and get into the inheritance.
Now, what about the entrance into the inheritance? Well, that was through the River Jordan. I find that a lovely place in the Bible to read. The Ark of the Covenant speaks of the Lord Jesus. And you know, at the beginning of the wilderness journey, I think it's Numbers chapter 10, we find that it went before.
The Ark went before to find out a resting place for God's people. And then, in the central part of the wilderness journey, and when they were camped around, of course, the Ark was in the midst. Like the Lord, it was the Lord that led us to the place where he is, by the Spirit.
That's why we're in the assembly, the Lord's there, and that's where he led us to reading in the scriptures. And now we're in the place where he is, in the midst of his gathered people. But you know, when it comes to the end of the journey, and we can apply it this way, when it comes to leaving this world, there's one who went in the death before us.
There's one who went through the rivers of Jordan. That's a river of death. But for you and I, going into the inheritance, what's the truth here? I have died with Christ. The truth of the Red Sea, you remember, is Christ died for me.
And we need to know that, and someone has suggested that maybe that's as far as most of us get. And it's very evident sometimes, the hymns we give out at the breaking of bread, they're all about how our sins have been put away.
Well, maybe we could sing those before we come to the meeting, and know that they're all put away, and just be occupied with Christ, and Christ alone. So it's, I have died with him. Died this old world, a change has taken place.
We could have read how there were stones brought out of the Jordan, and stones put into the Jordan, and I haven't heard many people speak about that, but I know this. When we come into the New Testament, the book of Colossians, we find that God dealt with me.
There was something that was left. I died with Christ. The old Bill Loury is gone, as far as God is concerned. And now there's something new comes up out of that river. One that would walk, bearing and showing the fruit of the Spirit.
So the beautiful picture of the Lord, if we were to keep 2 ,000 cubits away, no mortal can with him compare among the sons of men. What a wonderful person. And it's through him we enter into this inheritance, through the Jordan.
It's also interesting that the rivers went back, the river Jordan, the waters went back, and the waters went forward. You say, what's interesting about that? Well, I enjoy these, maybe I'm feeble-minded, but don't agree with me.
No amens, please. But you know, when you read the genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew, it's like the river flowing down. It starts with David, son of David, son of Abraham, and it flows down to Christ.
When we go to the genealogy in the book of Luke, it goes back. That's what happened. These waters went back. They just didn't stay there. They went back. How far did they go back? They went back as far as Adam.
Isn't that amazing? And the genealogy, of course, in Luke, goes back as far as Adam. The Lord Jesus needed a genealogy to show he's a mere mortal man. He was more than a man, don't get me wrong, but to show that he was a real man.
The genealogy likely through his mother Mary. Now what about the excuse? You know, I've often thought it's possible that we could go into the inheritance and fight for the inheritance, and then come back out and never really enjoy it.
Legalism is an awful thing, isn't it? So is looseness, if we can use that expression, but legalism is an awful thing. A lot of people are very legal in that, wow, they're going to stand for this and stand for that.
And I say to myself, I wonder have they really enjoyed these things? Here's these men, and they said, oh, we're going to fight. We're going to fight and make sure everybody else gets into the inheritance, but then when it's all over, we're going to come back again.
What was it that brought them back? Well, it was the land. What was it that brought them back? Their cattle. What was it that brought them back? It was their families. And you know, when we come into the New Testament, you find the land of the Gadarenes, it wasn't such a great place.
The two and a half tribes, Ruben Gad, half the tribe of Manasseh, I think the land of the Gadarenes likely was that area. What are they doing? They're feeding swine. It took a long time, but things deteriorate, don't they?
Because they've forgotten, put it in a New Testament language, that they had died with Christ and they come back. And then I think of the great supper. Certain man made a great supper and bad many, and they all with one consent began to make excuse.
What was their excuses? I have bought a piece of land. Oh, I'm not going into the supper. And I bought five yoke of oxen. I have cattle, you know, and they're on this side of Jordan, and I've married a wife of families, kept them from the supper.
You know, while we preach that in the gospel, and I've done it often, I'll tell you there's something there for us, isn't it? It's not a famine that God has called us to. It's a feast, and he wants us to enjoy these things.
And don't let the other things hinder you, whether it's a family. Families can be a big hindrance. I'm glad when God saved me, my family wasn't a hindrance. They were a tremendous encouragement, and we would try to be that to our own children as well, those that have been saved by the grace of God.
What about land? Is it possessions that I'm after in this life? We're going to leave all those behind. Forget the inheritance that you may not get anyhow, and whether it's animals, possessions, whatever it is, and he sends out, and who is it that comes in?
Those that are poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. A blind man could never go and see his land, or a maimed man didn't have much chance of getting a wife, you know, and a lame man couldn't, a halt man couldn't walk behind oxen, and so on.
No, but you see, if we see our weakness, and what we really are, maybe it's not so much weakness, but what we are, that is weakness, but we see what we are, and then we'll be hungry for the things of God.
Don't let anything keep you back, and if you're not married, make sure, try to make sure you get someone that will be a help to you, that will not keep you on the other side of Jordan. Get someone that's spiritual, and you can be a help to them, and they can be a help to you.
Now, what about Jabez? Just very, very quickly, here's a man, his name was called Jabez, because his mother said, I bore him in sorrow. I think the idea is that she had hard labor at the birth of this man, Jabez, her son.
However, here he is, and he's got great desires. He wants the Lord's presence to be with him, and he wants the Lord to bless him. He was more honorable, a man of character, than his brethren, and his mother bore him with pain or sorrow, and Jabez called on the Lord God of Israel.
My, we need to do that, don't we? We need to call on Him. What are we calling on Him for? What do we want? What do we really want? And we have to be careful, because God can give it to us. Children of Israel cried out for a king, and God gave them one, but he wasn't really a help to them.
But he said, I want to be blessed. You want to be blessed. That's wonderful, isn't it? We're blessed with every spiritual blessing and heavenlies in Christ, but just to enter into it, and he says, bless me indeed.
Enlarge my boundaries, my border, my coasts. Give me greater enjoyment of all that you have brought me into. Give me a greater appreciation of the Lord Jesus. Teach me more of His wonderful person. Give me a greater appreciation for the local assembly.
Give me a greater appreciation for God's people. Give me a greater love for the souls of dying men and women. Enlarge my coasts. Bring me into contact with others that may help, and that thy hand would be with me.
I thought, you know, the two on the way to Emmaus when I read this recently. And I imagine they're going along, and it's almost like the Lord has them by the hand. And the Lord wants to be with us, and to be close to us.
We need His presence, and it's the only way we're going to have His power is through His presence. And then he said, in other words, keep me from evil. My, that's some prayer, isn't it? Lord, don't let me do anything that would dishonor thy holy name.
We all have a propensity to do the worst things. We need to be preserved. Provide for me, he's saying, and preserve me. Give me a sense of thy presence with me, and don't let anything happen that would grieve me.
He would have grieved himself because he would be grieving to the Lord. What a wonderful person, then, this is. Wouldn't you like to be more like him, and have a prayer like that, so that we would be greater testimonies to the saving grace of our God?
What about Ephesians 6, the enemy and the inheritance? You know that the book of Ephesians is the book of the inheritance. And Paul tells them these wonderful things about how they were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, and they're indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who's the earnest of the inheritance.
And then what does he do? He prays. It already told him what he wanted him to know, but because we read things in the scripture doesn't mean that they really have an effect on our lives. So he prays to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What does he pray for? That the eyes of their heart, or their understanding, the eyes of their heart may be enlightened, that they may know. What is the hope of his calling? And what is the greatness of his inheritance in the saints?
It already told him. But he's praying that these truths would grip them, and that's what I would pray, that these things would grip me. We can read them. We can know them. Are we enjoying them? Are we enjoying the inheritance?
All that God has brought us into and the power that he has shown to us who believe. And I'm just going to close by reminding you about the walk. Our walk has been mentioned. You know, Ephesians is a book that starts with being seated.
That's something that's never going to change. We're seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's a foregone conclusion. That's something that God has done to please himself. That's for the glory of his grace.
The riches of his grace comes out to us. But then, you know, there are seven walks in the book of Ephesians. It's how we once walked, according to the course of this world and so on, and then how we walk now.
And then he said, if you walk right, you're going to be able to stand when the enemy tempts you. That's why I think we have Satan brought in in the book of Ephesians and Colossians as well because they're dealing with the inheritance and he's the hindrance.
How does he hinder God's people? Well, first of all, he brings in relationships, a husband and wife and children in the workplace and so on. And this is where Satan can really get believers away from concentrating on the inheritance by family troubles.
Bring up your family in the admonition of the Lord. Bring them up for God. It's not easy, I know. When we all have experienced, or well, maybe not all of us, most of us have experienced difficulties with family.
We'd like to see things differently from what they really are. That's where he attacks. In the workplace, stand up for your rights and so on. They tell you, no, no, that's where Satan wants to get you.
But we want to be able to stand. And you know it's with standing or with holding against them and standing when the battle commences and standing while it's going on and remain standing when it's finished.
How do you do it? With the whole armor of God. How do we get the, we need to get into the word again. Now I have talked about sitting and walking and standing and it was only recently I noticed something else that's maybe the most important thing.
Paul in chapter three, he said, for this cause, I bow my knee to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Bow the knee. Maybe that's something that we need if we're going to enjoy the inheritance. We need to make sure we bow the knee and live our lives in dependence upon the God of heaven.
So may the Lord help us to enjoy this inheritance that he has given us, all the blessings that we have in Christ, so that we might realize that we do have the earnest of the inheritance. We have a capacity for understanding and getting into these things.
Then the entrance into the inheritance, I've died with Christ, living my life now to live for him. If any man be a new Christ, is a new creation of a new standing before God, may my life correspond to it.
Then we have excuses for coming back out of the inheritance. So much in the world, things that occupy us, occupy our time. And then, of course, we have the enemy of the inheritance, enlargement first of all.
Oh, that it would enlarge our coast, give us greater enjoyment in the things of God, and that we'd be able to stand against the enemy. Don't let him get the upper hand, don't give him ground to work in, he's a defeated foe.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Mr. Spurgeon, he says, resist the devil and he will flee from you, resist the deacons and they will fly at you. Well, I hope that doesn't happen, but we want to resist the devil and he'll flee from us.
And above all things, let's have a greater desire, let's have a greater appetite for the things of God. Get into the book and get the book into us, for his name's sake.