The eternal inheritance of t..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Good morning, everyone. Would you please open up your Bibles to First Peter?

First Peter chapter one, by the grace of God, we continue with our study through this beautiful and powerful letter of the apostle Peter. And this morning we're going to be focusing our attention and our studies and our hearts in verse three and verse four. We're going to be reading from verse one to verse nine to get the immediate context, so let's pay attention to the words of God. I'm reading from the English, the standard version of the Bible, 1 Peter chapter 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect, exiles of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable and defiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you. by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, might be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Amen. That is the words of God. Beloved, as we come to this beautiful Lord's Day and as we come together, I want to remind you of the things that we have studied so far in this first letter of Peter.

When we came together last time, probably two or three weeks ago, we had the opportunity to address the nature of our new life in Jesus Christ. We said that we have been caused to be born again by the great or abundant mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, of God the Father, through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That this new life that we have, it is in Jesus Christ and has been caused sovereignly and freely by God the Father. There was something very important that I wanted you to have in your mind, and please keep it in your mind and also in your heart, that these blessings that we receive from God the Father are to be seen and are distilled in light of our union with Jesus Christ. So that which God, the father gives to God, the son is what he gives us.

God, the father to us, the church. So God, the father rose Jesus Christ from the dead. He was resurrected by God, the father. So we from the father are also given life just as the son is also given life. So just as the father has given life to the son, we're also resurrected in a new life.

It is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that gives us that new life that we have in Him. Now, this new life is a sonship. We have been made sons of God. That is the nature of our new birth. But I want you to see how the Apostle Peter connects eternity past with the present.

And what we have here at hand is going to be connected to the future. He has said in verse 1 that we are elect. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. And he has applied that through the Holy Spirit for obedience to the gospel and sprinkling with his blood in the application of our conversion. We have been caused to be born again in the present, that we have been made sons of God in the present.

This is the sonship that we have in Jesus Christ. But now he's going to take the nature of this new life and he's going to give us the goals or the objectives of our new life. He says that we are born again to a living hope. And then in verse four, it says to an inheritance, that inheritance is imperishable and defiled and unfading that is kept in heaven for you. In the mind of the apostle Peter, he's connecting eternity past through the life of the Christian, by the application of that conversion.

And now he's taking the mind of the believer to that, which is to come to that, which is eternal, but in the future. And this is very important because there is a sense in which our life is defined by two moments. One that happened 2000 years ago, what happened at the cross. and that which is coming in the future. He has said now, the apostle, that the objective or the goal of our born again or our begottenness again in the Father is to live in hope.

and to an inheritance. Now, beloved, I said that this is the sonship that we have in Jesus Christ. And I'm using the biblical vocabulary. When I say sons of God or the sonship that we have in Christ, this is the vocabulary that the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter uses. But of course, we know that he is speaking about sons and daughters.

male and female. The Apostle Paul would say in Galatians that those who are in Christ Jesus by faith, they have been baptized into Christ Jesus and we have put on Jesus Christ and there is no Jew, no Greek, no free, no slave, no male, no female. We are all one in Jesus Christ. The same Apostle Paul would say in 2 Corinthians 6 that God, the Almighty God is the fathers or sons and daughters. So when I say the sons of God or the sonship that we have in Christ, I'm referring to sons, some daughters, and simply I'm using the biblical vocabulary.

But beloved, it's very important that we understand what the apostle Peter is doing here of connecting the present reality of the Christian with the future. Because sometimes it's very difficult for us to connect that which is coming. We are people that live more in the present and with the experience of something that happened in the past. But that which is coming in the future is not something that we have very present. We don't wake up in the morning saying, oh, today is the day that the Lord comes.

I wish that that was our heart. But sometimes we don't basically or we don't precisely have those things into our mind. So I want you to have that in your mind and in your heart. The puzzle is connecting this present reality with something that is coming in the future. And he's given us these two objectives or goals of our begottenness, of our sonship.

a living hope and an inheritance. And this is the way that he connects the present with the future. The living hope is something that we have today. And the inheritance is something that is coming. I live in hope means that is today.

The same apostle Peter will say in chapter three, that we are called to give always an answer or an apologia, a defense. If someone asks of a reason for the hope that is within us, we have a hope that is present, that is living in us. And of course we know that that inheritance is coming in the future because the verse says that is kept in heaven. We are going to see how the apostle Peter connects this concept of the living hope in the life of the Christian in the present with the inheritance that is coming. And we're going to see what is that living hope that is connected with that inheritance that is coming in the future.

The first thing that he says then is a living hope. This concept of life or something that is living is very particular for the theology of the Apostle Peter. He mentions and he says, living, living, living many times throughout this letter. If you go to the end of the first chapter here, you will see that he has given a very parallel verse that speaks of our begottenness. He says that we have been born again, not of a perishable seed, but of imperishable seed.

And then he will say, through, the living and abiding Word of God that endures forever. The Apostle Peter is saying that we have been born again, and here in verse 3 it says, through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, but then in the end of chapter 1 he says that we have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, that is Christ, through his living and abiding Word. Then when we go to chapter 2 he will say that Jesus Christ is the living stone the precious and chosen cornerstone he's the living stone and just as christ is the living stone we are to be also living stones built up in a spiritual house offering spiritual sacrifices this concept of something being living or life is in the mind of the apostle Peter, I don't know if you remember when in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, when the Lord Jesus Christ was with his disciples and he comes to them and he asked, who do people say that I am? And then the disciples would say, some people say that you're John the Baptist. Some other people say that you are Elijah.

Some other people say that you're Jeremiah of one of the prophets. And then the Lord Jesus Christ asked, but who do you say? Who do you say that I am? And then our beloved Peter will come and say, you are the Christ. the Son of the Living God.

This concept of something being living is present in the mind of the Apostle Peter and is here in the text. It is God the Father who has given us life. We were death and he has made us living children through the living son. The son was dead and he was resurrected by God the Father. And now we have the living son.

So what the apostle is thinking in his mind is that the living father from eternity past has made us living children through the living son, through his living and abiding word of God. Beloved, and this is majestic, this is glorious. Our brother has explained to us that every single type of life is derived from God himself. So what Apostle is saying that the life that we have through Christ is a life that is derived from God himself. And now he's putting that life into our hope.

The life that our hope should have is the same life that has been given to us through Jesus Christ. So that makes the hope that we should have a powerful hope. A hope that lives and moves and operates. Not a hope that is passive, not a hope that is just an abstract concept, but a hope that transforms the life of the person who has it. It is a living hope.

I'm going to submit to you that the life and the power of that hope is your faith. The faith of the believer is the life of the hope that will connect our present reality to the inheritance that is to come. Pay attention to this beloved. The life of your hope in the inheritance that is to come is the faith that was given to you by the Father through the ministry of the Word in the power of the Holy Spirit. In verse 20 in chapter 1 here in the first letter Peter, Peter will say, that Jesus Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world.

And he was manifested in time or in the last days for the sake of the church. And through Jesus Christ, we are believers in God, that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And then he says, so that, or that the purpose says that your faith and your hope together may be in God. Faith and hope always come together. My belief and my hope always comes together.

That is the definition of faith. Hebrews 11 verse one would say that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, that we hope and also the conviction of things that we have not seen. Faith and hope. always come together. Hope is not simply an assertion of my mind or a thought of my mind in which I hope and I think or I expect that something is going to happen.

The hope that the Christians should have is a certainty equal to our faith. And I'm going to submit to you that faith and hope are both sides of the same coin. With faith, we look to the past and we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, filled with assurance and certainty that he died for our sins. And with hope, we see to the future with the same assurance and certainty of confidence that what he did in the past has implications for the future. So what I expect that is coming in the future should be as secure and safe as that which I believe that happened in the past.

This is powerful. This is majestic because it's easier for me to pay attention to my daily life. And when I'm speaking of the gospel, to just think about what the Lord Jesus Christ did, but not necessarily think of what is coming in the future. Yet the Bible says that we have been given a living hope that because we are sons of God, we have this hope that derives its life from God himself. It is this faith that is empowered entirely.

Now, the question that we need to ask ourselves, because when we are speaking of faith, we know what we believe in the past. But now the question that we need to ask ourselves is what does Peter wants us to set our hope on? Because if hope is powerful in the present, I need to know the things that I'm hoping for so I can give shape to that hope. And he gives us the answer in verse 13. So go to verse 13 in chapter one.

He says, therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now take each one of those words. It says, Set your hope, and now you can see one qualifier of hope, fully, because just as faith is fully placed on the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did in the past, our hope of things that are coming in the future is equally and fully filled with certainty and confidence. So set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul will say to Titus in chapter 2 verse 13 that the grace of God has bring salvation to all people and that powerful grace is transforming us in this present evil age and that we await for the blessed hope The appearing of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

That this blessed hope, beloved, is the awaiting, the holy expectation of the coming of the Savior to redeem us. Now, beloved, I need your mind now. Because I said to you that the apostle is going to connect these two goals of the living hope, these two goals of our begottenness, of our sonship in Christ, our living hope with something that is coming in the future, the inheritance. I'm going to submit to you and I'm going to show you from a scripture that these grace that is going to be brought to us at the revelation of Lord Jesus Christ is this heavenly inheritance that is imperishable and defiled and unfaithful. Why is because the Lord Jesus Christ, when he accomplished what he accomplished at the cross, he became the heir of all things.

God in other times and in diverse manners, in diverse ways, he spoke to our fathers through the prophets. In these last days, he has spoken to us through the son who he has appointed as the heir of all things. Jesus Christ is the heir of everything. Everything is going to be united in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, there's going to be inheritance.

We have been given an inheritance in union with Christ, and we are going to receive that when the time comes. Redemption is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Adoption is through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus Christ that he is going to receive all things, and those who are in him will receive the grace at his revelation. Let me show you that.

Go to Ephesians, please. Ephesians 1. Ephesians chapter 1. We are recipients of that heavenly inheritance just because we are united to Christ and Christ is the heir or the recipient of all things. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5.

It says Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5. He says. He predestined us for adoption 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, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight. Pay attention to verse nine.

making known to us, word by word, making known to us the mystery of His will. He's going to tell us what that mystery is. According to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ, Achaia, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, that is Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. Now pay attention to verse 11. In him, that is in Jesus Christ, the one that is going to unite all things when he comes, 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.

Now, stop there. Don't continue reading. This inheritance that we receive, that is at the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, when Jesus Christ is revealed and all things in heaven and on earth are united in Jesus Christ, we have obtained it in our union with Jesus Christ. We have been redeemed and we have been saved through Jesus Christ and because we are united to Christ, We are going to be recipients of all of these things. So our hope is filled with power because we are at the expectation that we're going to be heirs with Jesus Christ.

And the confirmation, not only of our inheritance, but also of our union with Jesus Christ is what it comes here. Go to verse 12. He says, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of his glory. Now, a glorious verse comes here, verse 13. In him, that is in union with Christ, 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 who is the warranty of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

And this is where my words are not sufficient to explain and to communicate the glories of what is contained here. Because Peter says that the living father has given us life, living children through the living and resurrected son, through his living word, living and abiding word of truth, through the gospel. And now here, the apostle Paul says that we have been zealed. by the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit, beloved, is the warranty that we are going to be recipients of that heavenly inheritance that is coming.

It is not only that we are united to Christ, it is that the Holy Spirit has inserted us in Jesus Christ. So it is by the promise of the Gospel and also by the power of the Spirit that we can have full assurance and certainty that we are going to be heirs with Jesus Christ in the future. Beloved, pay attention to this. Under the old covenant, Israel was given the promise of inheritance of the promised land. They were walking through the wilderness.

They were going to obtain the inheritance of the land just upon obedience. They disobeyed and they did not believe and many of them died. 40 years they were in the wilderness and the future generation was the one that received the inherited land that was promised to Abraham in Genesis 12 through 15. I will make you father of many nations and I will give you this land. This was the promised land.

Now in Christ, we are recipients. We are the ones that are recipients of the promise in Christ. This promise that was given to Abraham of an inheritance that does not depend on our obedience or performance is already given to us. And we are walking through this present evil age to that glory. And we have to be sure that these inheritance is ours.

We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. Go to Romans, please. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, verse 14. Romans chapter 8, verse 14.

It says, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Now, please open your eyes and see the comparison of Old Covenant language with New Covenant. For you did not receive this period of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received this period of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. This period itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

Being a children or a son or a daughter of God makes you necessarily an heir, because once you have been inserted into this glorious new covenant, all the heavenly blessings are given to you in Jesus Christ. Some of them at the application of your salvation, some of them in the coming of glory. It is the zeal of the Holy Spirit that should empower the hope that we already have. It's a living hope. Paul says to the Romans in chapter 15, that he prays that the God of hope might fill us with joy and peace in believing so that the power of the Holy Spirit might make us abound in hope.

The power of the Holy Spirit might help us. to abound in hope because the hope that the believer has been given in Jesus Christ, it is a hope that is powerful, filled with faith and filled with life that comes from Jesus Christ himself. A hope that is placed in an inheritance that therefore It's imperishable. It's undefiled. It is unfaithful.

It is imperishable in the sense that death has no power over it. Undefiled, that there is no unrighteousness in it. There is no corruption and unfaithful because time has no power over it. It is imperishable, undefiled and unfaithful. For that reason, it's kept for us in heaven.

But you will not know the power of this living hope that is being given to you because of your sonship in Christ if you do not know the things that you are going to be inheriting, the things that you are going to be heir, or the things that you are going to receive. Now, beloved, there are three things that I'm going to give you. three things that you are heir of or that you are going to inherit in Jesus Christ. There are many things and the simple answer to that question of what are you going to inherit or what is that heavenly inheritance? The simple answer to that would be that you are an heir of everything because heirs, because Christ is the heir of all things.

And if we are in Christ, then we are, we inherit everything. But I'm going to give you three specific things. that I want you to have in your mind, not only in your mind, but also in your heart, that every time that you're thinking about that which is to come, that you fill your heart and your prayers with this holy expectation, that if you are in Jesus Christ, by the power of the Father, through the ministry of his holy, living and abiding word, that these things are yours in Christ. First thing is that we are heirs of the kingdom of glory of Christ go to James 2 James 2 James chapter 2 verse 5 here James is going to give us in a rhetorical question and a statement of truth James chapter 2 verse 5 Listen, my beloved brothers. And, of course, now you know that this language in the Greek speaks of brothers and sisters.

Listen, my beloved brothers. Has not God, I love this, chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of what? the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? It's a rhetorical question because the answer is yes. He has chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and those who are rich in faith and love God are the heirs of the kingdom.

Listen to what Apostle Paul says in Colossians 1, that we are to give thanks to the father who has qualified you to share the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. We are heirs. We are recipients of these inheritance in light with the saints of the kingdom of Christ. But I said to you that this is a kingdom of glory.

Because the only way in which this which is mortal and perishable can enter into the kingdom of Christ, which is a kingdom of glory, it is through the glory of Christ himself given to us. For those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ, who is the first root among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified, conforming to Jesus Christ.

It is the glorification of the saint, because the same apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that the kingdom of Christ cannot be inherited by flesh or blood. The perishable cannot inherit that which is imperishable. And then he says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. Not everyone will fall asleep, but everyone will be changed, like in the twinkle of an eye in the last trumpet. These which is mortal will be made immortal.

These which is perishable will be made imperishable. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? We belong to a kingdom of glory in Jesus Christ, where death has no power anymore. There's no sin, so we are heirs of this glorious kingdom.

First thing, that we are heirs in Jesus Christ. Second thing that the theologians call the vindication of the saints or the confirmation of the saints. Beloved, this is glorious, but it's also frightening because on the last day, the sons of God are going to be revealed. Go to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight.

This is the vindication of the sons of God. Romans, chapter eight, verse 18 and 25. Now here, beloved, let me just give you the framework of how we are supposed to understand here this. Apostle Paul has speaking that those who are in Christ are led by the Spirit and therefore they are children of God and heirs with Christ, heirs of God with Christ. And now he's moving into an eschatological scenario of those things that we are heir and he's going to tell us, he's going to explain to us how creation and the sons of God are with this holy expectation of the things that are yet to come.

And he's going to give us information of how we are made sons of God in the future. Pay attention to this. Romans 8 verse 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

There is going to be a revelation of the sons of God. So that which was hidden is going to be revealed in the last days. Then he says, for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Creation is going to be freed from the bandage to futility by the glory of the children of God. For we know, verse 22, that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, 23.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly Pay attention as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Now pay attention because Apostle never gives us a statement just in the air. He says, We await eagerly for adoption as sons." And then he says, that is the redemption of our bodies. In verse 19, he says that this is the revealing of the sons of God.

This is what theologians call the already, not yet of our adoption, that we have been adopted by faith through Jesus Christ as sons and children of God. But there is an eschatological adoption or there is an ultimate times adoption in which the sons of God are going to be revealed. The books are going to be open. The hearts of people are going to be open and the sons of God are going to be lifted up in glory. This is glorious because even the creation is awaiting for that moment.

But in that day, many will say, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we do mighty works in your name? Didn't we cast out demons in your name? And he will say, depart from me. I never knew you.

I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of inequity, workers of lawlessness. There is going to be an eschatological revealing of the sons of God. The creation is awaiting and expecting. This is when we are fully redeemed and fully adopted into this glory, where the sons of God are going to be vindicated, are going to be justified, are going to be confirmed as the sons of God.

Just as Jesus Christ was risen from the dead and through the power of the Holy Spirit, he was declared the son of God. He was vindicated and justified upon his resurrection in our eschatological resurrection of end times. We are going to be vindicated as the son as sons of God. So we receive the kingdom of glory of Christ. And we also receive this glorious vindication or confirmation of our sonship in Him.

Continue reading, please. In verse 24, it says, For in this hope, verse 24 in Romans 8, For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes, for who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Beloved, the kingdom of Christ in glory, the confirmation of our sonship in Jesus Christ, but the most glorious thing that we receive and that we are heirs of, the most precious inheritance that we receive as the sons of God.

It is Jesus Christ himself. There is no one like Jesus as we sang this morning. And he being the heir of all things is the most precious thing that we, if I can say thing, the most precious person that we receive upon glory. Go to John please. First John chapter 3.

First John chapter 3 verse 2 and 3. Let's just read verse 2. It says Beloved, 1 John chapter 3. Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appear, present and future.

But we know that when he appears, Jesus, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who does hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. The apostle Peter says in chapter two of this first letter that you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. The psalmist in Psalm 16, he says, the Lord is the portion of my inheritance. Whom do we have in heaven but you?

And there is nothing that I desire on earth except you. Now, this is what the psalmist says is what connects our living hope with our inheritance. For who do we have in heaven but our beloved Savior Jesus Christ? So there is nothing on earth except you. So what are the effects of this glorious heavenly reality that is to come?

How is my living hope and power. How is this hope that I have today given reality and substance? If the life of my hope is my faith, and living faith is debt without works, so then living hope without works of righteousness is also debt. I have been given power to have a faith that produces works, so then my hope whose faith is its life should also be a living hope that transforms me that changes me now beloved i don't want you to Don't see it in your mind, the context in which this letter was given. Because this letter was given 30 years after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The church was going through tribulation and difficulties and trials. So for them, the expectation of the coming of the Lord was real and was powerful. And it was sufficient for them to go through trials and difficulties and all problems. I don't want that 2,000 years of history separate you from the reality of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's the same hope that was given to them 2,000 years ago in the early church that has been given to us through the Holy Spirit. So the living hope that we have in faith in Jesus Christ should move us to be like Him.

What does this living hope produce in the Christian? Go to Colossians, please. Two things that I want you to pray for and have it in your heart and in your mind. You are recipient of the kingdom of glory of Christ. You are going to be vindicated and confirmed as the son of God.

And then you're going to receive Christ himself in the future that is to come. So how is that going to change you today? The Bible exhorts us in Colossians chapter one, verse three, pay attention to what the apostle says. Colossians chapter one, verse three. We always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith.

This is how the apostle works. One, of your faith in Jesus Christ and two, of the love that you have for all the saints. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love towards the saints and that he's going to give us the reason because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this hope you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel, the living and abiding word of God has given us a powerful living hope of the eternal life that is coming in the future. So in the present, my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ increases and my love for the saints.

my expectation of the glorious revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ should fill me with a living hope that produces in me more faith and love to the saints because those saints are also going to be heirs of everything that Christ has received and given us. This is a faith that produces love towards the saints. Second thing, this inheritance that is to come should produce in us a heavenward mindset, a mindset that is set on things above. Go to chapter three in the same book of Colossians. Colossians chapter three, just a couple of pages, verse one, it says, now pay attention in light of everything that we've said.

If then you have been raised with Christ, Jesus Christ was resurrected, the living Son. We are the living sons in the Son. If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. What Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds, beloved, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of this, the wrath of God is coming. How are we to live the life that we have in this present time in light of the eternity and the inheritance that is coming?

We are children of God in Jesus Christ. And we have this powerful and living hope that should take us to put our eyes and our minds entirely in the future. Now, beloved, please put this in your heart. Our life should be driven by that which is coming. We should always have this holy expectation that I'm going to see my Lord, that this could be my last day on earth.

And then I should live my present life. Why would my life and my eyes and my heart taken by temporary things when I have a secured and kept inheritance that is reserved in heaven? this is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ that he has saved us by grace through faith not deserving this salvation not only to eternal life but to an eternal life in which we are going to be heirs of God himself we're going to be united with God himself in the eternity that is to come and I want to give you the exhortation that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to the disciples listen to this Matthew 6 do not Listen to this, do not lay up yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, perishable and defiled and fading. These are things that perish, things that are defiled and things that fade away.