“And
now I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace,
which is able to build you up, and to give you the
inheritance among all them that are sanctified”
(Acts 20:32).
“…to
open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they
may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among
them that are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts
26:18).
“…giving
thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light”
(Colossians 1:12).
“…knowing
that from the Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the
inheritance” (Colossians 3:24).
“And
for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant, that
a death having taken place of the redemption of the
transgressions that were under the first covenant, they
that have been called may receive the promise of the
eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15).
"…unto
an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (1
Peter 1:4).
The greatest thing that is taken over from the Old
Testament into the New, and from the old Israel to the
new Israel, is that which is called “the
inheritance”. This inheritance governs everything in
both the Old Testament and in the New Testament; all that
is in the Old Testament and in the New Testament is
governed by the inheritance. It is the inheritance that
justifies and explains redemption. That was true in the
redemption of Israel from Egypt, and it is true regarding
the redemption of the Church from this world. All that is
governed by the inheritance. Redemption was never just
something in itself. The redemption of Israel out of
Egypt was a mighty thing, and we have seen that it was a
demonstration of the ‘exceeding great’ power of
God; yet all that was not just to have Israel out of
Egypt.
It was the inheritance that explained the tragedy of
Israel, and it was a terrible tragedy! Six hundred
thousand men came out of Egypt, but only two went into
the inheritance. All the rest of the six hundred thousand
men died in the wilderness. The New Testament makes a
very great deal of that as a matter of warning to the new
Israel, that is, the Church. You must read your New
Testament in the light of the inheritance, for that is
what governs it in all its aspects. The inheritance is the
interpretation and explanation of our very existence. It
is the positive factor in our very birth.
When I came to the Lord I was a young man and very
enthusiastic. You know, there is a saying that
“fools rush in where angels fear to tread”, and
I had a brother who was some years older than I was and
he was not the Lord’s. He was a very strong man
physically and could have knocked me to the ground with
one blow. In my enthusiasm I asked him about his
salvation. He looked me up and down, and I felt like a
grasshopper! He did not knock me down with his fists, but
he knocked me down with a word, for he said: “I was
never consulted as to whether I wanted to come into this
world. I just came into this world without having any
choice. Therefore, my being here is not my
responsibility, and I have no intention of taking any
responsibility for my life.” That knocked me down
and I had no answer to it at the time. I was just a young
Christian, but since then I have learned the answer. Why
are we born? Why are we in this world? We are here with a
great possibility in view, for there is a tremendous
thing bound up with a human life. If I had known then
what I know now I would have had the answer, and it would
have been this: ‘Do you not recognize that God has a
great purpose in your being in this world? This is not a
negative thing, that we just happen to be here. There is
a great inheritance to be gained or lost.’
If you ever have time, go through your Bible with that
word ‘inheritance’, especially in the New
Testament, for the New Testament is the explanation of the word.
With this in view, of course, we come to the Book of
Joshua, which is the book of the inheritance for the old
Israel, but it is the book of the power of the Holy
Spirit to realize the inheritance. Joshua himself
represents the energy of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of
God rested upon Joshua because Moses had laid his hands
upon him, and that anointing had the inheritance in view.
The word of the Lord to Joshua, after the death of Moses,
was: “Be strong and of a good courage: for thou
shalt cause this people to inherit the land” (Joshua
1:6). By the anointing Joshua represents the energy of
the Holy Spirit unto the inheritance.
Now this is a statement of fact. I am not giving you
something that I have studied. I am giving you the stated
facts of the Word of God, which says everywhere that
there is an inheritance for the people of God which they
can miss or gain. I am sounding very forceful. That is
because I take things seriously, but this is a very
serious matter. There is nothing more serious in the Word
of God.
What is the Inheritance?
If I were to begin to explain the inheritance and try to
cover all that it is, this conference would be a very
long one indeed. So you will excuse me, but I will just
say one or two things about this inheritance.
The inheritance is the full purpose and content of
redemption, and redemption is a far, far greater thing
than we have ever recognized. Redemption is only the
beginning of salvation. When we speak about salvation we
are really thinking of people coming to the Lord. We ask
them if they are saved, and many Christians will say:
‘I was saved so many years ago.’ So salvation
is just a matter of coming to the Lord Jesus, being saved
from our sins and receiving the gift of eternal life. But
if you look into the New Testament you will see that
there are three tenses of salvation. “We were
saved”, which is the past tense; “we are being
saved”, and that is the present tense; “we
shall be saved”, and that is the future tense.
Therefore salvation covers past, present and future.
If
you want to get just a little idea of salvation, look at
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15.
At the beginning of that chapter Paul says that he is
reminding the Corinthians of the gospel which he had
preached to them, and then through that chapter he tells
us of the gospel which he had preached and shows that
that gospel leads right through to the eternal glory,
which includes our resurrection body, and our position
and condition in the eternal ages to come. He looks at
the sun, then at the moon, and then at all the stars, and
says that “there is one glory of the sun, and
another glory of the moon, and another glory of the
stars… so also is the resurrection of the dead”
(verses 41, 42). There is much more in that wonderful
chapter, and this is the gospel which he preached. Well,
that puts salvation on a very much higher level, does it
now? Peter said: “the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ… begat us again unto a living hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an
inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth
not away.” This great inheritance is the content of
redemption. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews calls
it the “so great salvation” (2:3). The Lord
Jesus said to the first members of the new Israel:
“Fear not, little flock; for it is your
Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”
(Luke 12:32). He also said that the Kingdom of heaven
shall be taken away from the old Israel and given to the
new (Matthew 21:43). So the inheritance is the Kingdom!
What is the meaning of that word ‘kingdom’? It
is the sovereign reign – reigning together with
Christ. He is the destined Lord of this universe, so the
kingdom is not only being with Christ, though it will be
a wonderful thing to be with Him when He comes in His
kingdom, but it is more than that – it is reigning
with Him, being members of the government of the eternal
kingdom; and, more than that, being members of the Royal
Family that governs.
It is impossible to describe the inheritance! These are
some of the things revealed in the Word of God. In the
case of the old Israel, Moses had great difficulty in
explaining the inheritance. He was learned in all the
wisdom of the Egyptians, but he had difficulty in
explaining the land into which the people were going. He
said that it was “a land flowing with milk and
honey… a land of hills and valleys… a land
which the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord
thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the
year even unto the end of the year” (Deuteronomy
11:9,11,12), and the Bible tells us that the eyes of the
Lord never rest favourably upon anything that displeases
Him. So, if Moses could not explain it, and Paul could
not do it, I give it up! Paul tried to explain the
inheritance: “Things which eye saw not, and ear
heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man,
whatsoever things God prepared for them that love
him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). I say again, we must give
it up, but let us register the impression. To be called
according to the eternal purpose is a tremendous thing to
gain. It is therefore a tremendous thing to lose, and
that is why the Bible is all about the inheritance.
The Essential Basis of the Inheritance
Now we go back to the Book of Joshua, and here we see the
essential basis of the inheritance.
We recall what happened when the people went over the
Jordan. I dare not stay now to speak about the crossing
of the Jordan, though I may touch it again later, but
there is one clause that I like very much: “When all
the nation were clean passed over Jordan” (Joshua
4:1). We speak of people making ‘a clean breast of
it’, and by that we mean that there is no
compromise, no reservation, nothing that they are holding
on to. They have made a clean job of it, and that is what
the Jordan means. You know that it is a symbol of
baptism, being baptized into Christ. When I baptize
anyone I always demand that there is enough water to get
them right under and I make sure that they do go under! I
hold both their hands, in case they put a hand out. No,
they must go under altogether, and if I did not bring
them up within forty seconds, that would be the end of
them! Now, I am not trying to be humorous. Paul says:
“We were buried with him through baptism”
(Romans 6:4), and it says of Jordan at the time of the crossing: “Jordan overfloweth all its banks all the time of harvest” (Joshua 3:15). It is a
complete inundation, a complete burial of everything.
Jordan is only a type in the Old Testament, but that type
contains the New Testament spiritual principle, so Paul
says: “We were buried with him through baptism”
– and if God does not raise us with Him, that is the
end of us! That is the spiritual position of the people
who are going into the inheritance.
Now there is this interesting thing: When the nation were
clean over Jordan the Lord commanded that the whole new
generation should be circumcised. While I am speaking
about this, remember Paul’s interpretation of
circumcision: “Neither is that circumcision which is
outward in the flesh… circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit” (Romans 2:28,29). As we said
earlier, circumcision is a sign of separation unto God.
It is an interesting and impressive thing that the new
generation which had arisen in the wilderness had never
been circumcised. The parents had neglected this command
of God, and those parents had all died in the wilderness.
This means that they had ignored the spiritual law of
heart separation unto God, so what arises is this: there
is no entering into the inheritance without a circumcised
heart. The heart has to be wholly and utterly for the
Lord. If that is not true, sooner or later there is going
to be a tragedy in the Christian life.
The Place of the Heirs of the Inheritance
Do you notice what the Lord said when this nation was
circumcised on this side of Jordan? He said: “This
day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off
you” (Joshua 5:9). What does that mean? Have you
ever thought about that? The reproach of Egypt rolled
away! When they were utterly separated in heart unto the
Lord the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. Who were
these people? They were the children of Israel, and
‘Israel’ was Jacob’s other name. What does
‘Israel’ mean? It means ‘a prince with
God’. These people were therefore, by Divine decree,
children of a prince with God, and, as children of a
prince, they were princes. What would you think if you
saw a man, who was a prince of the royal household and
therefore an heir to all that that household inherited,
in prison, with his clothes in rags, his food being doled
out to him from time to time, never able to choose
anything for himself, and without money or home of his
own? What would you say? ‘What a shame!’ That
would be a reproach to a prince, would it not? It would
be a great shame upon such a person! Yet these children
of a prince with God were in Egypt like that. No, princes
ought never to be in a position like that! That was the
reproach of Egypt, the shame of the whole situation. It
is called the house of bondage, and no prince ought to be
in that.
These people are now clean over Jordan, their hearts are
circumcised, and now they are wholly for the Lord. The
reproach and the shame of the past are rolled away.
What a glorious thing to have the reproach and shame of
our past life all rolled away! Why are you not shouting
‘Hallelujah’? I think it is because you are
listening to the word but are not having the spirit
– or perhaps I should say that you are not taking the
word seriously. But our rightful place, dear friends, is
where all the reproach of the past is rolled away. That
is the place of the heirs of the inheritance.
The Cross and the Inheritance
This is the deeper, and inward meaning of the Cross,
because the New Testament teaches us that the Cross is
the place of spiritual circumcision. All this just says
one great thing: only truly crucified Christians, and
only a truly crucified Church can meet the enemy in the
coming battle with any hope of victory. This entering
into our inheritance is something which is withstood by
all the principalities and powers. All these evil powers
in the universe are set against one thing, that is, God
having a people for Himself to whom He is going to give
the Kingdom, when the kingdoms of the world become the
kingdom of our God and His Christ. I say that all the
spiritual forces are set against that. As we have seen,
they will fight to keep the people from coming out to the
Lord, and if they cannot do that, they will work to keep
them from going on. That is the wilderness story! And if
they cannot prevent them from going on, they do not
give up the battle. Now you have the story of the Book of
Joshua. The people are now in their new possession, and are
not fighting with the world. That was in Egypt and in the
wilderness. You are not now fighting with the flesh, but
you have come through into the heavenly places, and the
warfare is in the heavenlies. It is spiritual, against the
spiritual hosts of wickedness. There is no hope of
victory in this realm unless we have come through the
meaning of Jordan and heart circumcision.
Now I come to my last point:
The Battle for the Inheritance
The principalities and powers have the kingdom of this
world in their power at present, but that power is the
birthright of God’s Son. That kingdom was eternally
appointed for the Son of God, and for all who are with
Him. Do you think the enemy who so strongly controls
this world is going to give it up easily? He will not
give up one spiritual metre without a fight! Every bit of
spiritual progress is resisted by the evil forces. Surely
you know something of what that means! For many weeks I
had a most terrible battle over the message of this
conference. Night and day, for a long time, I was in that
battle. Then some of you know what a battle it was for
you to get here! And I can tell you that it has been like
that for many, many years! Whenever there is something
new of the Lord in view, when there is going to be some
new ground taken for the Lord, when the Lord’s
people are going to move on into something more in Him,
there is always a battle. It may be a battle in the
spirit, it may be a battle in the soul, it may be a
battle in the body, it may be in yourself, or it may be
in other people and in other things, but no bit of
spiritual ground is going to be taken easily. The enemy
sees the implication of the people of God taking the
inheritance; his kingdom is weakened, his reign is
shortened, and his days are numbered when the people of
God go on to the possession. Are you going to let him
win? Are you going on? Are you going to take the kingdom?
Are you afraid? You notice that in the first two chapters
of Joshua the Lord says to Joshua so often: “Be
strong and of a good courage!” Why should we not be
afraid and of good courage?
Go back to Joshua, and you find that it is not he who is
in charge. Joshua looked “and, behold there stood a
man over against him with his sword drawn in his
hand… and he said… as captain of the host of
the Lord am I now come” (Joshua 5:13,14). It is the
captain of the hosts of the Lord who is in charge!
Joshua, as we have said, but represents the energies of the
Holy Spirit, and it is in this spiritual connection that
the Apostle Paul utters some of those wonderful words:
“Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to
the power that worketh in us, unto him be the glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus unto all ages for ever and
ever” (Ephesians 3:20). We can count on the energy
of the Holy Spirit! The battle may often be very fierce.
The enemies may seem to be very strong, but He that is in
you is greater than he that is in the world.
So our last word in this connection is: “Be strong
and of a good courage!”