Who You Are In Christ

All right, so the first thing, you guys will kind of have to bear with me and we'll be flipping through a couple places in the Bible today without the handouts. But the first thing that I wanted to ask everyone is what do you think of when you think inheritance? What does inheritance mean to you?

Money. Money. That's what I thought of it. For the majority of us in America or in the world today, inheritance is something that we're gonna get when somebody else passes away. We're gonna get property or money or whatever land, whatever the case may be. But yeah, that's generally how we look at it. But that's not really, what's that? What's that? Responsibility. Sorry if I cut you off. No, no, you're fine. You're absolutely fine. Don't worry about it.

What I was going to point out is that that's not really how Jewish people would have looked at it. And we're going to be looking at a passage in Ephesians today. And Paul, the church in Ephesus was a combination of Jews and Greeks and Gentiles and things. And Paul uses some phrases that are directed towards Jewish people for them to think, you know, that really, I connect with that. And he uses different phrases for the Greeks as well. But the one today will be kind of a Jewish thought process.

And some of the things that I wanted to look at as far as inheritance was concerned, actually the Genesis study that we're doing right now, if you have a Bible, if you want to turn to Genesis chapter 15. We've just gone over this a couple weeks ago now. But verses 2 through 4. 15 verses 2 through 4.

Abraham said, O Lord God, what will you give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? And Abraham said, Since you have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir. Then, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This man will not be your heir, but one who will come forth from your own body shall be your heir.

And when Verne went over these verses in the main study, one of the things that he really pointed out is this need, you've got to have an heir. So the Jewish people, it was so important to have an heir. And I don't think that we really think of it that way. What do we have an heir to have? Somebody's going to take over my condo when I pass away? I mean, I don't even know what that means. But for the Jewish people it was very important to have someone to take what was theirs as an inheritance. So the Jewish mindset, it was very important to have an heir.

And then if you guys want to turn to Numbers, chapter 27, Numbers chapter 27. We'll look at verses 8 through 11. There's no handout this morning, yeah. The dog ate it, yes. Numbers chapter 27. And if someone were to read from verse 8 through verse 11, I would appreciate that.

And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. If he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers. And if your father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the kinsman nearest him in the family, and he shall possess it. And it shall be to the children of Israel a statute of judgment, just as the Lord commanded Moses.

So, I mean, this inheritance is a big deal. We've got rules and laws to make sure it happens the correct way. So, I think the Genesis passage just shows the cultural, I mean, you've got to have an heir. I need to have one. This is so important. And the number passage, I mean, it was so important that God set up rules and regulations as to how they should go about doing their inheritance. So for the Jewish mindset, two things that come out there. You've got to have an heir, and it's so important that God would even set up rules by which we should follow to make sure this inheritance happens correctly. So, different than our mindset.

And then, so I think next what we'll do is we'll take a look at the Ephesians passage. And we're going to look at Ephesians chapter 1, verse 18 today. And we're really going to focus on just one area, one aspect of that passage. But if somebody wants to read it for me, I'd appreciate it.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling. What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. What I really want to do this morning is we'll kind of dig through this passage and look at each, kind of take apart each word or each phrase that we're going to look at this morning. And definitely keep your Bibles open to that page.

And we're not going to look at the hope of his calling. We're just going to look at what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. So you can kind of cover up the hope of his calling. Because we're not going to focus on that this morning.

And you may even just read it like this, the eyes of your heart, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what are the riches of God's glory of his inheritance in the saints. I think I just read that wrong. What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

So the first part there, the eyes of your heart. The term heart is a metaphor referring to the inner person. And it's a it's a Jewish or Old Testament perspective. It was something that was used I've got a bunch of passages here listed that we could look at but the idea is that it's a The metaphor of hearts is referring to the inner person And then the metaphor that you're, Paul uses kind of a mixed metaphor, that the eyes of your heart, so you have the metaphor of your heart being your inner person, and then the fact that it would have eyes is just kind of silly.

I don't know if you guys remember, but when Vern went through this, I've actually got his notes this morning, because that's what I could get off the computer. But he had a picture of a heart, and the eyes were blinking up there the whole time. I don't know if you guys remember that. It distracted me thoroughly. But...

But it's the idea that your inner person would have spiritual eyes. The mental picture that the believer would have eyes in his or her heart is apparently Paul's mixed metaphor. The next part to look at is going to be, the verse says, the eyes of your heart may be. And if you look at the King James Version, it actually says, the eyes of your heart being. So this verb, we've talked about this a couple times before, but this verb, which is translated may be, is giving speculation that it might happen.

But this is, the verb is in the perfect passive. So it's a completed past action. The eyes of your heart being, they have been in the past. It's a completed past action with ongoing results into the future. So that's a very key part in the Bible actually, or in this verse, is that it's not maybe, it's not that it might happen, it's that it has happened. This is a fact, God has done it to you. And the next word, so we have the eyes of your heart, the spiritual, your spiritual inner being, be enlightened, or being, and then the next word is enlightened.

And the word for enlightened here is a word that actually had meaning to both the Jews and the Greeks. And from a Greek background, pagans often used this word to come to greater spiritual understanding. So it was a word that had an idea of greater spiritual understanding. So the Greeks would have understood this word as, I'm going to have greater spiritual understanding. And the Jew, would have viewed this to describe the insight from God and from the presence of God. So the Jewish person would have viewed this word as something that, you know, I'm gaining insight from God, and not just from God, but from the presence of God. So it's a very unique word that had meaning both to the Greek and the Jewish person. So, really interesting word there used for enlightened.

My Bible says the eyes of your understanding. The eyes of your understanding, yeah. Which actually gives you almost a better than your heart since people kind of misread what that might be. Well, and the actual word there is heart. It's the actual word, the Greek word for heart. So understanding is actually an interpretation of the word rather than a strict, you know, But it gives it a better, because that's actually what it means, is the depth of your understanding of the being enlightened.

So Paul's prayer here, that the eyes of our heart, our understanding, being enlightened, being enlightened so that we have a greater spiritual understanding from God, his prayer So that, so he wants, he's praying that this happens, so that you will know what are the riches and the glory of his inheritance in the saints. So there's a purpose behind, you know, you being enlightened. You know that, usually when you see that, so that or that, what they call a purpose clause, So, and the purpose is to know.

There's two purposes there in your hand. That's kind of like a little flag or a little stoplight or whatever. This is the purpose, you know. Yeah, I'm praying these things for a reason. You need to understand these things. And then the next couple of words I really want to... I really want the magnitude of these words to come forward to you guys. Can I say something? Sure.

It's interesting because he uses the word enlightened, and in our culture, when we hear about enlightenment, it's been modified. The definition is often having to do with mostly intellectual knowledge. You know, when you think about the Enlightenment, historically, it was, you know, look at how much man, in his humanistic ways, achieved things. And it's easy the language and understand it the Greek and Hebrew would understand it with a spiritual context. Yeah. It's not just that, oh, you've got some new knowledge by itself. It's a spiritual context. Yeah, you're not enlightened to geometry or philosophy or something along those lines.

This is something that God is showing you, that God has revealed to us through Christ and through his word. Kurt, so is this close to Logos? Is the word in Greek that's in there, is that close to Logos? Do you remember what it is? For enlightened? Yeah, enlightened. No, the word is actually, I'll butcher trying to say it, but it's P-H-O-T-I-Z-O, so... Phtiso? Phtiso? Is that right? Not T-O-T-I-Z-O? Yes.

Is that where we get our word for photography from the Greeks? That's where light is. It's like it's a word for light, which is felt like photon or phosphorous. But the next word that I really want to focus on is is no. And the word the word no is is it? Oh, that's the Greek.

And it's to know by perception. And the verb here is in the perfect passive which tells us that Paul is praying with a view to a completed past action of knowing with ongoing results into the future. With God having done the work of bringing them to know by perception. So this is actually, you know, a spiritual perception of the truths that God has for us.

And then the next word there is riches. And the word riches can be translated wealth. Some of the basic definitions are an abundance of external possessions, fullness, abundance, plentitude. And to these people in Ephesus that he's writing to, I actually want to give you guys some cultural insight into what wealth was to them. And the average person's wealth was something that somebody else had.

It wasn't something that they had. So I'm going to read a little passage from this book. It's the Greco-Roman world of the New Testament. And it's by James Jeffers. And he gives some really interesting insights into what life was like at that point in time. So I'm just going to read this real quick.

When we talk about social class in American society, we usually mean income levels such as upper, middle, and lower. But our concepts of social class and status bear little resemblance to those of ancient societies. Imagine a society in which the gulf between the upper class and all the others is so wide that their members virtually have nothing in common. Imagine that you were forbidden by law to marry someone in another class and upward mobility was frowned upon. Imagine a legal system that always favored the upper class. Imagine a society in which, with very few exceptions, your status at birth determined the course of your future life. While we may be able to think of some examples of this kind of separation in American society, it is nothing like the chasm between those at the top and those at the bottom of Roman society that existed at all times in every place.

And then he actually gives a, I don't know, there's a pyramid here. And there's basically four levels of the upper echelon. And you've got the Senate, which is about 300 families. Then there's an equestrian part. And when that originally came together, they were It's the equestrian obviously, horses and stuff. And it was a division of the Roman army that you had to be privileged enough to have enough money to own a horse and your own weaponry and things like that. But it began to take on a different meaning.

And then there's two other areas, and they make up about eight or 10% of the population. So 90 to 92% of the population, they didn't have anything comparatively. And that's the majority of the people who Paul is talking to here are people that wealth is a ridiculous thing for them to think of because it's something that they'll never attain. Imagine a society where upward mobility was frowned upon and you couldn't marry into another class. I mean, you're stuck where you are, basically. And so Paul's talking to these people that wealth is ridiculous to them. It's something they'll never attain.

And then another quote that I thought was really interesting Romans considered wealth an essential requirement of virtuous life. He says, in contrast with popular American idea that wealthy are less honest because of power corrupts, the Roman elite believed that only the rich could afford to be honest. They reasoned that the poor must do whatever is necessary to survive, and so more likely to lie, cheat, and steal. So I mean, and that was the viewpoint of society. That may have been their viewpoint. That certainly wasn't their practicality. Well, right, yeah. I'm not saying that it's right, but that was how they viewed themselves.

And so for Paul to talk to these people about riches is just ridiculous. And he's saying, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. That's a pretty amazing statement for these people that they are, they are riches of glory to God. talks about, we're all citizens of the heavenly kingdom. So therefore, don't steal anymore.

What's the matter with you? That's your lifestyle, right? That wouldn't seem like it would have to go to a believer would, but that was their lifestyle. Yeah, that was the culture, that was the lifestyle. So this riches is, you know, it's... Just unfathomable, unattainable to these average people. I want you to just understand the amazing, how big that word is. Because we look at it and see riches, but this is a really big word to these people when they're reading it. So definitely just try and grasp how big that word is. And the next word is glory. And this is another word that's big.

And, you know, what is meant by glory as it is used in scripture? And in short, glory is the radiant essence of who God is. And so, Paul's telling these people that they are an unattainable, unfathomable amount of glory. They are an unattainable amount of the essence of who God is. It's a pretty amazing statement for Paul to bring forward to these people. And especially for people that couldn't even, they didn't think they could be in the presence of God, the Jews anyway.

It's a huge thing. Another part, another thing I want to read here, since God's glory is the radiant essence of who God is, it makes sense that God's glory is the sum of all his attributes. You know, and there's just so many, you know, God is a spirit, God is self-existent, he is infinite, he's truth, he's love, he's eternal, he's holy, he's omnipresent, he's omniscient. You know, I mean, the list just is on and on and on.

And so Paul's telling these people that they are an abundant wealth of all of God's characteristics. And what Roger said, or excuse me, what Bob said, was that... I'll get it straight. What Bob said is that these things are all based on positional truths.

So it's not something that is of the believers that is making them this abundant wealth of God's radiant essence. It's God that makes them this. It's their position in Him. It's the likeness that they have with Christ because of the cross that is causing this.

Kurt, you know, the word glory has helped me. You know, your first, your mind's first drawn to what, you think of His, like in the Old Testament, the Shekinah glory. You think of that, you know, just kind of You couldn't look at it, but actually it focuses as much on his inherent attributes, just like you listed those things. So that's the attributes, you know.

It's God's attributes in the believer, which is something you can't be righteous, you can't be holy, you can't be any of those things. It's all of God and nothing of you. But it helps with the glory that you don't get too focused on the shining or the physical. It's more, this is who God is and his wonderful character, which is nothing like man's character. We can't completely understand it. And we cannot, right? Someday we'll get a chance to go to school in this school room. Maybe we'll have a class like this. The Lord will be teaching it. I go to that one. I was going to say the same thing.

It's like the sun, where the heat from the sun is actually a reflection of the sun. It's part of the sun. It's an attribute of the sun. Light, same thing. It's an attribute. It can't be changed. It's an inherent part of the sun that's reflected from the sun. And so the Chicana glory was the same thing. It was just an attribute, a reflection of who God was. just one of the infinite things that we've got to do.

Yeah, and it's blinding us. Yeah. Do we have time? Yeah, absolutely. We have more than enough time. Can we turn to the second question? Absolutely. That's a great place to go. Absolutely. Are you going there? Go ahead. No, it had crossed my mind to go there, but I hadn't necessarily planned it. I'm sorry to pull this out. I don't know. This is a good verse. Margaret's brother was around.

Does he still kind of believe So at verse 6, if we read down through... What chapter? I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians 3, verse 6 through 11. How can you in fact hear about the kind of the glory of God manifested in the Old Testament, mostly through the tablets of stone? I mean, the comparison here is dramatic, I think. And how like this section, too, and I really am fond of this.

Verse 6, who also have made us able ministers of the New Testament. gone away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be more glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious that the ministry of the Spirit is written in the heart of the believer. That glory is far superior to any glory that we see in the stone.

Yeah, written not on tablets of stones, but on... That's the kind of glory we're talking about here in Ephesians, don't you think? Yeah, absolutely. The riches of God's glory, I mean that's in fact in each and every one of us, no matter what caste we've been given in life. Yeah.

Further, right down at the end of that passage is 3.18, which he says, but we all with unfilled faith, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the spirit of the Lord. When you look at yourself in the context of the law, you see failure over and over and over. And then Paul says, but look at yourself in the context of Christ. and looking in the mirror reflecting Christ, and you're seeing His glory in your life over and over. We're more than conquerors.

And that focuses, you know, you see your failures, but the Lord says don't focus on your, you know, you focus on Him. It's all grace. It's all grace. glory of the Lord, other than to say that it was separate and different from my life and had no place involved with Randy Peterman. And that's not what Paul writes, but it was very selectively skipped out of all the theology that I ever heard until I became an adult. And it's a tremendous thing to think that you've been somehow imparted with the glory of God. Yeah, well, and if you're living in the Spirit and you are, you know, the likeness of God's character, then His glory is shown out through you. Yeah. That's pretty amazing, yeah.

If you ever have people apologize for me, they'll say, at least I have them, they'll say, they want to say something profanity, they'll say, oh, excuse me, Roger, I want to say this, and I always wonder, You know, you don't have to ask me. I mean, I don't know. But it's interesting.

I thank you, Lord, that they feel some conviction about that. Because they're going to do it anyway. That's my favorite part. They realize it's going to offend you whether you act like it or not. Exactly. And it's interesting. And you think, well, why are they saying that to me? And then you realize, well, they're not really saying that to you. That's God working through it. It has to be.

Because I look at myself and I say, well, you didn't see the times that I legal? Well, I mean, it's some sort of a legal barrier that they're sensing they're offending, right? I mean, maybe, I mean, we know that it's God's glory that's reflected in the light. You shine into darkness, but yet they view it as some sort of, he doesn't like profanity because he's this kind of Christian, right? And that's kind of a legal view on their part.

Just think, the man or woman who's not under grace is under law. Right? And so they view you as some sort of illegal principle. Yeah. But even the law reveals God's character. So that law, they may not realize that it's God's character, but it is. you know, that legal barrier that they're sensing, that still is... It's there to convict. It's there to convict, yeah. Well, that's the part I get excited about. They're convicted and you think, wow, that's neat.

And that wasn't, that wasn't me because, you know, a lot of the times when they didn't see me, they'll be here. Thank you, Lord. Stan? Okay, I want to ask you, Bob, on verse 18. This is the... I want to embrace Randy. I was thinking the same thing. Go ahead and stand. I don't know if I want to do that. It says, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

So is that similar to Romans 12.1? That this transformation that's taking place is metamorphosis? Yeah.

And it's nothing, what I'm gathering it's almost like And this is not a very good analogy, but it's the only one I can even think of that could possibly pertain because I don't think it really happens. But it's almost like transubstantiation when you take communion in the Catholic Church. That they believe that there's some kind of change taking place automatically from God.

So it's not coming from man here. I mean, this is from glory to glory. So it's from the Spirit of God that goes into the Spirit of man. And because of that, there's a transformation that takes place. not requiring any effort on man's part. Well, there is an effort on our part. It's all active faith, isn't it, by grace?

Sure, I mean, it's hard to put a yardstick to how we're doing here. I mean, the life that's lived by faith is a life. It's not something we measure by 1, 2, 3, and 4. It really isn't. So I think that it is a transformation of conforming us to the image of the sun. That's an ongoing active process all the time in all of us.

But even faith is an active thought, right? tough, I'm going to turn to Roger. Goodness, where does saving faith come from? I mean that's been discussed for centuries after century and God must have had enough faith to be able to respond to the truth of the gospel and what it represents or what it stands for. But I mean what is God, you know, injects us with faith and therefore we have to respond. I mean, I don't look at it that way. Does anybody look at it that way? Faith is an act of man's will. Yeah, there's definitely will involved, absolutely. Which is not like an inheritance. A will. Sorry.

Stan, you know, something that's helped me a lot with faith, and I've said this a hundred times in this class, and maybe people tire my faith is believing what God has revealed. It's a very simple statement. That's actually, I think, the fundamentals of 18 is simply that what has already taken place to us in Christ, which is obviously the topic of this whole series. We're being transformed from glory to glory simply by recognizing and having faith that these things are true. Spiritual growth happens when we recognize what is already true of us. not when we, you know, suddenly do something. It's just simply that we understand and then the growth takes place because we understand, oh, this is already true.

Yeah. Yeah. Your position is that you are, you are an abundant wealth of God's glory. Right. Your condition may not always be that, but that transformation is what's going on there in the transformation of your condition. We're to grow in grace and the knowledge of Him. You know, there is a growing process and that glory to glory is an aspect that's going on. As you trust Him more and you understand more, you can reflect more. There should be. There should be there. The old man is there to, you know, to battle with that. There should be a growing.

Okay, looking at it strictly analytically, God first set up the law to obtain some kind of purpose. And now he set up this, which is the spirit, to achieve the same purpose, right? Paul said the law was the tutor. It was supposed to teach people, you know, what God wanted them to do. Okay, now we have the spirit indwelling, which is teaching us to know what to do.

And in both processes, there was supposed to be a transformation that was being taken place, right? Through faith. transformation. The law doesn't achieve transformation. It just sets a set of standards that you're to comply with. And it condemns you, basically. It constantly condemns you. Because you constantly realize you can't meet that standard.

And even in the verses that we read, though, it says that the law written on tablets was glorious. But then it says, how much more? How much more, then? you know, now that we're under this grace principle. But the law was a picture of God's character, right? I agree. So in a sense it was his glory, the Chicana glory was reflected in the law. His absolute holiness is reflected in the law, but that's not, you know, God, we're not under law, we're under grace.

Yeah, and the transformation is something that can only take part under grace. The thing that's interesting with 3.18 is that he says we behold as in a mirror. And the thing is, what does a mirror do? It reflects what is there. You are viewing the image of Christ in the mirror because you have been identified with Christ.

And so when we are being transformed from glory to glory, I think in my own life of the concept of grace, It wasn't until I listened to the Chester McCauley series on grace, which of course then got turned into a longer series here at church, I had no idea what God's grace was really like. I didn't understand grace until someone taught me about grace. And suddenly I understood grace and it made it a lot easier to be gracious, because the glory of God's grace was being imparted into my life. It made it a lot easier for me to I still have a long way to go in the conditional sense. I'm still being transformed and this glory is being shown in new ways in new places in my life for me to grow. So Randy, what made you seek that out? I didn't actually seek that out at all. It was something Mike Doyle goes, have you heard this? And I said, no. And he said, well, here's this website. Go check it out.

And I downloaded the lessons and it was like this It was like God took a bulldozer and cleared the old previous blueprints and half-hearted construction of grace that I had and I got a scriptural understanding of it. But that delivered a hunger in my heart. Okay, so the hungry heart is what drives each one of us to God's grace. Absolutely.

Because the more we try to please God and realize in our own power and in our own selves we can't. Then what? Then what's next? Do we just throw up our arms and say, gee, I can't pay God back for his great gift? Or do we start trying to understand what Scripture really says? I think, you know, we come partly, most of us come here partly because we have hungry hearts. We're interested in understanding more about God's great grace. Yeah, and that hungry heart is desiring to develop a deeper relationship with God.

It's not paying Him back, it's develop that relationship with Him, because we can never pay Him back. He doesn't even want us to. there's you know and listen to modern music with Christian Christian lyrics and things like that and you hear it a lot that you know well you've given so much to me and I'm gonna try and pay you back right well that's not what he wants that's not what it's about and I think that that is that that definitely that concept is out there well I mentioned earlier about not having no understanding glory I always felt like I needed to glorify the Lord And that came through works.

I had to do the works over and over and over again to make sure I got them. And I actually had some people tell me it was hard to be around me because I was so much more righteous or whatnot than other people they knew. And I was like, dude, you don't even know all my failures. It's embarrassing. But I didn't understand that God's glory could be in my life.

Well, and back to Ephesians. No, I think this actually brings us back there. I honestly think this does bring us back there. You know, we've talked about the abundant, the just dumbfounding amount of riches, of wealth. And now we, I think we now have a little bit of an idea of what glory is.

And then he says, of his inheritance in the saints. In the saints is, if that wasn't there, it couldn't happen. Because it's not his inheritance in the Jews. It's not his inheritance in the unbelieving. It's his inheritance in the saints. And the saint is a key word there because a saint means a holy one.

And how do you become a holy one? You believe. And so once you believe, you know, the things that we're talking about in this Christ, who you are in Christ, all the things that you're identified with are there. You're identified in the likeness of Christ so that you can look into a mirror and see the reflection of His glory. If in the saints isn't there, there's no inheritance for God. Because He can't have it. Because without you being a believer, without you being a holy one, the things that precede inheritance, riches of glory, can't be there.

So it's all about who God has made you in these verses. It's all about understanding that He's made you everything that we talk about in this class. And because of those things, there is a dumbfounding amount of wealth of His glory, of His radiant presence. And that's His inheritance in us, which is pretty amazing to think about that not only are we God's inheritance, but it's because of Him. I think it's cool to see the contrast between that Leviticus passage we just read at the beginning of the class. Talking about, okay, this individual, this individual, this individual. If it's not this one, then he's got to passage this individual. And it's always one person. And this is, hey, you're a saint. We're all inheriting this jointly.

There's no contention. I don't ever have to be contentious because Oh, well, I'm the firstborn in the family, so when my dad goes, my sister and my brother, they're second rate because they're second and third, and so I get the inheritance. That was a concern in the life of an Old Testament saint or Jew. As a believer, I go, man, we can all share in this, and that's tremendous. And I never have to have envy.

Oh, well, this guy. and they missed out. There's got to be some kind of jealousy there, in their errant doctrine. In contrast to, hey, we've been given all of these things, we're sharing them, and there's no jealousy. Yeah. Well, and that's our inheritance. But the fact that we're His is pretty amazing too. You know, the fact that God wants, He's inheriting us, and that's cool to Him.

Where's the passage, Kurt, that, uh, do you not know that someday you will rule over angels like Paul was saying? When you look at this as being, and that's just, I can't even fathom that, you know, from a human standpoint, that just seems, you know, like that's not even possible when you think of the way God has and right-hand ambassadors for this entity that created the universe. And yet Paul's saying that? I mean, is that not what the inheritance of the saints is referring to as well?

Well, I'd say that's part of it, yeah. The interesting thing about these verses in Ephesians, the whole chapter of Ephesians 1, Paul goes through blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing, and then he talks about the millennial kingdom. Then he says blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing, blessing, and he talks about the millennial kingdom. So inheritance is definitely there for a reason. When this earth is said and done, there's going to be a different one, and we have a pretty cool position there. I don't know exactly where that angel's verse is though. It is Paul that says it. I think it's implied in the gospel in Matthew in terms of the kingdom age.

It also says that angels are observing believers. I mean, that's another aspect. They're observing. They're learning God's grace by looking at the saints. Yeah. That's another kind of mind-boggling. Another thing that, obviously, they look at They look at us when we're not walking in Christ. They're not going to learn anything. They look at us as we walk in Christ. They learn about God's grace.

Yeah. Yeah, the Bible definitely displays a different relationship between the believer in God and the angel in God. Absolutely. And also tells us that the angels don't know. Right. They don't know about grace. Yeah, they're looking at it in awe. I think is the way that it's portrayed in the, yeah. I think that non-believers, well they seem to be automatically impressed with angels.

But we have the Lord and so they can't hold a candle to what we have and to me it's not amazing that saints would rule over angels because that's the part of the inheritance they got and they're different from the angels. Yeah. I think to the Jewish mindset that would have been something else though.

To rule over angels would have been what? Well the angels come down in the Old Testament and there's usually fear and trembling and there's a distinction. Well and I think that the point that we're trying to draw out of being higher than angels is that our likenesses with Christ and His position, which is over angels, and it's not different than that.

I think 1 Corinthians 6.3 says, Hey, do you not know that He sent subjects to the angels? There you go.

The reference is to Revelation 20.12.

What is it 1 Corinthians 6.3 I saw the dead spawn great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. Yeah, but that glory the glory of being above angels I mean that's just a small part of it but That's what God has in us, in His inheritance.

Did everybody pull away to see how amazing those couple words are? Vern and I were sitting down Monday night looking at, you know, how should I go about presenting this lesson? And we first looked at it and we went, I don't know if there's going to be enough material. It might be hard to fill the time.

And we looked at those three words, or we looked at riches and glory, and giving an idea of what inheritance was, and we went, those three words could probably fill the whole hour. So I hope that everybody goes away with just how the magnitude of God's glory, and just how big this word riches is, and the word riches is describing God's glory. And I think that this verse is amazing because we're His inheritance, and the only reason that we could be His inheritance is because of Him, because of who He has made us, and the amazing amount of glory that comes out of us that is reflected in a mirror, like we were talking about, because of Him. I just really think, you know, when I first looked at this, I didn't really understand it and I thought it was small. And the more I looked at just those couple of words, I realized how big it was. So, it's a really neat verse. Does anybody have anything they want to add?

To me, the most important thing is what's not said in it. This is talking about the magnitude of His glory that we inherit through the Holy Spirit. The umbrella over all of it is His grace that surpasses all understandings. And none of this would happen if it weren't for that. And if it weren't big enough. Right. Well, and grace is one of God's characteristics. Which is, you know, we said glory is the radiant essence of who God is. So grace is definitely a big part of it. And without it, this all doesn't happen. But all of God's other attributes are a huge part of it too. Well, all I could be to you. Right.

There's that verse in Hebrews 1.4, being made so much better than the angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Right, and that's talking about Christ being higher than the angels. And if we're in the likeness of Christ, then so are we. Right. Yeah, by inheritance. Right. It goes on to say, But all the angels worship him. Right.

Anyone who doesn't want to talk about it. They don't figure it out. It would seem that the angels were at one time in a position of choice. Otherwise, they didn't. It would be going down to the bottomless pit with Satan and the rest of them in the final judgment. Yeah. And I mean, I mean, the Bible definitely reveals things about angels. But you said they once were in a position of choice. Maybe they still are. I don't know. Does the Bible contradict that? I don't know.

Well, there's, you know, the fallen angels and we have angels who serve God. Right. Gabriel, you know, there are certain angels that are named by name, Gabriel. So there are, there are holy angels, quote, and fallen angels. Right. Who haven't received their properly observing grace. The holy angels are about God's grace and the saints.

And they're marveling at that. Well, I imagine Satan is too, probably marveling at that. But they didn't seem to have grace as far as what they were concerned. Because as soon as Satan, as it says, where is it? The Old Testament, the King of Tyre. But anyway, it talks about when sin first came to him is when he was judged.

I mean, there was no grace. It was it. You know, the same thing with like what Bob was saying about the angels that went to the pit. I mean, they were sent. You know, and so no wonder they're observing this grace that God's providing. It's almost like prodigal son, you know. Does anybody have anything else they'd like to add? I think I'm good. Alright, well I'm going to end in prayer here.

Lord, we thank you that you've opened the eyes of our hearts so that we can see and we can have a spiritual understanding of just how amazing you are. And that you are in us, so because of you, we're amazing. And it's nothing out of us, it's all out of you. And I just pray that our glory would shine out of you more and more in our lives and that we just continue to abide in you so that the world may see the unattainable riches of the radiant essence of who you are. It's just amazing that that's in us. Thank you for this time in Jesus' name. Amen.