Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20040728.htm

APPLYING THE BELIEVER'S POSITIONAL RICHES IN CHRIST
Part XXVII: Applying The Truth That Believers Have The Inheritance Of The Saints
(1 Peter 1:4; Ephesians 1:14; Colossians 3:24 and Hebrews 9:15)
  1. Introduction
    1. We who believe in Christ are called by God to be content with the possessions we already have, for God has promised to meet all of our material needs so that we can do His will, cf. Hebrews 13:5-6.
    2. However, this calling can sometimes seem to be a tremendous challenge, for we may lose our job or property or position that we had expected to have for a years to come, or another party may forcibly remove these things from us, leading us to be tempted to be discouraged or disillusioned.
    3. In God's grace, one of the 33 positional truths every believer possesses the instant he trusts in Christ is that he comes into an eternal inheritance that he will obtain to the full when he arrives in heaven, Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. III, "Soteriology," p. 261-262. Focusing on this truth keeps us encouraged in view of what difficult experiences we may have regarding our earthly possessions:
  2. Applying The Truth That Believers Have The Inheritance Of The Saints, 1 Peter 1:4 et al.
    1. The instant we believed in Christ and were born again, we gained an inheritance in heaven, 1 Peter 1:3-4a.
    2. Scripture supplies us brief glimpses of some of the items included in this heavenly inheritance as follows:
      1. We who believe in Christ will inherit a home in heaven that Christ is making for us, John 14:2. We do not know what it will be like, but we know from the description in Revelation 21 of the heavenly city in which this home is located that it must be a marvelous home!
      2. In heaven, we who trust in Christ will rule in God's throne room as kings and priests (as follows):
        1. Revelation 1:5-6 reports that Christ has made us Christians kings and priests unto God the Father.
        2. As such, we will sit on thrones dressed in white robes as priests to beseech God on man's behalf and men on God's behalf, and we will rule in God's kingdom as kings with crowns on our heads: (a) The 24 elders in Revelation 4:4 represent a priesthood, for the number 24 elsewhere in Scripture refers to the 24 courses of the priesthood established to care for the Jerusalem temple, cf. Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 943. (b) As these priests are crowned as are Christians in Revelation 1:5-6, these 24 elders represent us in the Church who have been raptured to heaven and are in God's throne room!
        3. This inheritance includes owning all God creates in the new heavens and earth, Rev. 21:7a; ch. 22.
        4. This inheritance includes a tearless, deathless, grief less, painless, eternal existence, Rev. 21:4.
        5. This inheritance includes an eternal job of serving God, Revelation 22:3b.
        6. This inheritance also includes the activities of judging good angels and demons (1 Corinthians 6:3) and judging the world [presumably during Christ's Messianic Kingdom] (1 Corinthians 6:2)!
      3. Expanding on this previous point, since the 24 elders of Rev. 4 also represent the glorified Church in heaven, Rev. 5:8-10 reveals that we will also rule on the earth [in Christ's earthly reign], Rev. 20:4-6!
    3. Examining Scripture provides us a glimpse of the quality of this our heavenly inheritance as follows:
      1. Our inheritance will never to cease to exist as our possession; it will always belong to us, Heb. 9:15.
      2. Our inheritance is imperishable; it can not be destroyed from within or without, 1 Peter 1:4b ESV.
      3. Our inheritance is undefiled; it is not composed so as to be in any way morally undesirable, 1:4c ESV.
      4. Our inheritance is unfading; its state will never slacken in its beauty or value, 1 Peter 1:4d ESV.
      5. Our inheritance is irrevocably reserved for us from the instant we first trusted in Christ; from the point of salvation, our ownership of it can not be shifted to another party under any circumstances, implying God must get each of us to heaven so we can possess what He initially reserved for us, 1 Peter 1:4e-5.
      6. Our inheritance includes the full expression of the Holy Spirit, a part of which we now know based on the Holy Spirit's function as the Earnest of our fuller, future blessing of the Holy Spirit, Eph. 1:14.
Lesson: Since we who trust in Christ have such a wonderful and unalterable inheritance reserved in heaven for us, and since this life's possessions are transitory in every way due to the presence of sin on earth, we can handle the decline of TEMPORAL things by focusing on our FUTURE life with God.

Application: We should shift our love for this world's temporal things to love God and to long for our heavenly inheritance from Him, for doing so moves us from sadness to productive living 1 John 2:17.