Partakers By Faith

Transcript

Alright thank you very much, and hello again dear radio friends. How in the world are you? Doing Alright today? Oh, I trust so, bless your heart. So glad for the privilege of sharing with you, day by day, on, on the radio. This is part of my life to be sure.
You and I were talking about the inheritance, it has made us worthy, Paul says in Colossians 1, “To be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints”, and I referred you in that connection then to first Peter 1, “We’ve been born-again to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you”.

Now, the words he uses are interesting. He uses words that can be applied to human resources and he says, “Nothing that happens ordinarily to human resources could happen to your inheritance”. When I became of age, there was a small inheritance that had been held in a local bank to which I was entitled, but in the meantime the crash of 29 had occurred and so when we went to the bank it was closed. What had happened to that inheritance was that circumstances had altered it and it had indeed, as Peter said, faded away. Ultimately I think I got $.10 on the dollar, something like that, but that happens to human inheritances, doesn’t it?

Then he uses word incorruptible and to corrupt an inheritance means that it decreases in its intrinsic value. A commodity of some sort can decrease in its intrinsic value. I have an acquaintance who deals in gold and of course right now the price of gold is fairly stable, I guess-goes up and down a little but there were days when it was fluctuating wildly a while back as you know, and so it was that I spoke to him one day and asked him how things were going. Oh, he said, “I just lost $1 million”. Said it quite casually and I marveled that he could take it so easily, but then maybe he had quite a few more million left so that it didn’t bother him that much. But what had happened was that he had he had bought a certain amount of that precious commodity and the price had fluctuated that much, so he had lost that much money.

Well, you know, these things do happen in our world. The car dealer was telling me the sad story of a man who had bought a certain make of car for which he had paid close to $20,000, but something had happened with that particular make of car and it, the value of it on the market, just seemed to disintegrate. So that when he came to try to trade it in, it was worth only, although it was comparatively new, it was worth only a fraction of what he had paid for it and he just cried about that and felt bad about it.

Well, these things happen in our world, but Peter says, nothing can possibly happen to the inheritance that you have from the Lord Jesus because your inheritance is based on a Person who is forever alive, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance, see? Your relationship with God is based on being born from above, through faith in this living Person and so your inheritance is based on Him as well. You follow that?

You go then in that connection over to Romans 8. Now then he said, “Where the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit”, this is Romans 8:16, “that we are the children of God and if children, then heirs, heirs of God”. And here’s the catch, joint heirs with Christ. The value of your inheritance depends upon the Person to whom you are related, the Lord Jesus Christ, joint heirs.

Someone illustrated this for me many years ago, in a way that I’ve always remembered. He said if you and I were joint heirs to two dollars, who would own the two dollars? Would you own the two dollars? Yes you would, but would I also own the two dollars? Yes, I would. If you and I were joint there is then two dollars, who could spend the two dollars? Could you spend it? Yes, you could but not without me. Could I spend it? Yes, I could, but not without you. Everything that one owns, the other owns, everything that one enjoys the other enjoys. Joint heirs, it all belongs to you. Joint heirs with Christ.

Oh, what a precious, wonderful, lovely concept that is, and so Paul says, “All things are yours, all things are yours, and ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s”. “Let no man glory in men for all things are yours”, this is First Corinthians 3:21 and 22,23, “Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours and ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s”. That’s wonderful, isn’t it? The inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled fadeth not away. Circumstances can’t alter it, outside influence can’t change it and you and I are assured of our eternal inheritance because there’s an eternal Person who guarantees it, the Lord Jesus Christ is our guarantee of the inheritance that we have. Isn’t that great? Everything that He has is yours.

Another thing that follows of course is if you’re a joint heir, everything you have is His. That’s why Paul says in Romans 1, “I beseech you brethren and by the mercies of God”, see because everything He has is yours. Because that’s true he said, “I beseech you that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service”. See, it stands to reason that if Jesus gave everything He has to you, you and I may very well say, Lord I want to give all I am to you.

Yield yourself to God in a new way today, beloved, would you? By faith right now, wherever you are, whisper a prayer and say, Lord Jesus, take all that I am today, everything and use it for your Glory. Alright?

Well he said, “Me to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light”. That word partakers is an interesting word. It has the concept of a boarding house reach out and help yourself. That’s a concept, help yourself, “Partakers of God’s power, partakers of the Lord’s table, partakers of God’s promise in Christ, partakers of God’s grace, Philippians 1:7, “Partakers of the benefits of salvation, partakers of the heavenly nature, partakers of Christ”, Hebrews 3:14, “Partakers of the Holy Ghost”, Hebrews 6:4, “Partakers of His holiness, Hebrews 12:10, “Partakers of Christ’s sufferings and partakers of the Divine nature”. All of this is part of what you can enjoy as you reach out and take it by faith.

Now, this whole matter of faith is something that many people neglect, bypass, or frankly are afraid of, and I’m quick to acknowledge that in our day there are those who overemphasize the so-called word of faith. There are people who have made a whole career out of teaching that you say it and you got it, you know, which in my opinion is taking a good point and running it in the ground, so to speak, but I want to spend a little time in these moments today in emphasizing the fact that there is beloved, such a thing as taking God at His Word by faith, even though you don’t feel anything or see anything or experience at the moment anything, you take it by faith.

Jesus our blessed Lord said what things you desire, “Whatsoever ye desire when you pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them”. And the order there is desire, pray, believe, receive, and last of all, have. Paul says- I take it that Paul wrote Hebrews, maybe some of you scholars will disagree- in Hebrews, “That faith is the substance, substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen”. There is a place every day for you and for me to say God said it and I’m going to take it by faith and believe it and act upon it. The Word of God,

“Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God”: you take the promises of the Word of God and you act on them with the confidence that God will keep His Word while you are acting on it. Faith as I’ve sometimes said to you, is the quality of risking the situation on God and His Word. God said it; I’ll risk the situation on it. The Red Sea didn’t part until they moved forward to go through it. The waters of the Jordan later on as they went into the Promised Land, the children of Israel went into the Promised Land, the waters of the Jordan didn’t part until the priests feet got wet. You and I often times are afraid to get our feet wet, so to speak, in this matter of partaking of God’s promises.

Now, what I’m teaching you today is not wildfire and hysteria, you know that, I’m a pretty practical person after all. What I am saying however, is many of us lose out on this whole matter of partaking of God’s nature and God’s promises and God’s inheritance and God’s holiness and God’s joy and God strength and all of that, because we do not exercise simple faith that says, God said and I’m going to act on it.

Today, by faith reach out and take all that Christ purchased for you. Reach out by faith and realize that Christ has made unto us as we read, as we read in First Corinthians, “Made unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption”, all that you need to live successfully any given date is already yours in Christ- reach out and take it by faith and thank God for it and then act on what you know to be His will this very day. God bless you and comfort and thrill your heart with His Presence, is my prayer for you.

Dear Father today, oh may we be people of faith who partake of the blessings of God, in Jesus’ name, Amen. Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!