Good morning.
I just want to begin by saying that I am very thankful for the verse with which we opened, because it is really going to line up with where I am going. I am going to take a little turn this morning. The verse was used for us to remember the Lord; I am going to turn it a little more toward us, if I can do that.
We are thankful that the Lord is on the throne. And you know what? He is inviting all of us, someday, to sit on that throne with Him. That is really what is on my heart.
Lord, we do come and bow before the One who is on the throne. Lord, this time is Your time. It is all about You. It is all from You, through You, and to You.
Lord, we just pray that, as we are here now, You will continue to be with us. Grant us that grace both to speak and to hear. Lord, we pray that out of this time, Your kingdom could be enlarged in our midst. We ask it in Your name, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Amen.
I would like to start by talking about how this burden came to me. Going back to the conference, the next morning—and this was kind of based on something Lucio said—remember, he talked about the Word of God? I wish he could have gone longer on that, but anyway, it had an impact on my life.
So that next morning, when I got up before the Lord, I prayed and asked Him, “I am coming to Your Word open. I want You to lay on my heart what You would have me to read.”
What came to me was Psalm 37. As I read it, I was kind of like, “Wow, this is something,” because there is a phrase in there that comes up five times: inherit the land, inherit the land.
I think a lot of you numbers people know this. I know Madhu probably knows this. The number five in the Bible speaks of grace. That said a lot to me: to inherit this land—which, for us, is Christ—to inherit Christ to the capacity that is pleasing to Him and the Father, is going to take grace.
It is the only way we are going to make it through. It is grace from beginning to end.
Also, when we prayed back there with the brothers, Jerry used the word companion. It is funny: when you know you are coming up here, your ears are tuned in to things related to what is on your heart. I do not know if he remembers using that word or not.
But that is what the Lord wants. He wants us to be companions. Darby uses that word. Rotherham says “partners.” Another version says “participants.” To be sharers with Him—I think that is tremendous when we think of Who He is and who we are.
Let me take a minute or so to tell you where we are going this morning, because if I do not do that, it is going to seem like I am jumping around a lot. And I will be. That is why I am trying to warn you up front.
First, we are going to go into Psalm 37. We are going to look at those five verses, along with a few other verses, in this matter of inheriting the land.
Second, we are going to look at some examples from the children of Israel related to gaining our inheritance.
Lastly, we will go into the New Testament and speak a little about the process of becoming fellow heirs with Christ.
There is an aspect of inheritance that is a reward. I do not know if you know that or not, but there is an aspect of it that is this: being a fellow heir with Christ.
Romans 8:16-17 says this:
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God;
and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,
if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
Notice something there: no condition is made concerning being heirs of God. When you are a child of God—when you are born again—you become an heir of God. What that mainly means is that you inherit heaven and eternal life.
But the verse goes on to say, “fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him.” Notice that there is a condition there. What is it? If we suffer with Him. I know that is not a word we like to hear, but that is the Word of God.
Colossians 3:24 says:
Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.
It is the Lord Christ Whom you serve.
Notice that phrase: “the reward of the inheritance.”
Turn now to Psalm 37. We are going to camp there for a short time, just to point out a few verses. All of this is going to be a reminder to you. There is nothing new here. But like Peter said, he did not mind writing again to remind us of these things.
Often, we can be like the children of Israel in the wilderness. Their memories were pretty poor at times. They forgot things the Lord did for them, and they had to go through situations over and over again because of that.
The first verse is Psalm 37:9:
For evildoers will be cut off,
But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.
Those who wait. I do not know about you, but waiting is probably one of the hardest things in my life. Waiting in traffic—whatever it is.
That word wait can carry the meaning of being bound to, or roped to. Think about that. Sometimes I feel that way when I am waiting on the Lord: I have been roped to Him. I want to get loose from that rope a little bit. But it says that those who wait for the Lord will inherit the land.
Here is the condition.
Then look at Psalm 37:11:
But the humble will inherit the land
And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.
I thought of 1 Peter 5:5-7:
Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,
casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.
The next one is Psalm 37:22:
For those blessed by Him will inherit the land,
But those cursed by Him will be cut off.
I thought of Matthew 5:3:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
We are all poor in spirit. The question is whether we realize it or not. If you realize that, you are in a very pliable place for the Lord to work in your life. Thus, theirs is the kingdom of heaven—not only now, but in the age to come.
Psalm 37:29 says:
The righteous will inherit the land
And dwell in it forever.
This righteousness is practical righteousness. It is not talking about the positional truth we have as believers. This is touching on our conduct.
Finally, Psalm 37:34 says:
Wait for the Lord and keep His way,
And He will exalt you to inherit the land;
When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
That word way in the Old Testament can mean road or path. What is the road or path of the Lord? We know it is the way of the cross, do we not? That is what we need to keep: the way of the cross.
We can see in this psalm—and that is what was amazing to me—that inheriting the land is a noteworthy theme of the psalm.
This psalm was written in the latter part of David’s life. We see that in Psalm 37:25:
I have been young and now I am old.
Boy, I can relate to that.
The latter part of David’s life included internal strife and external threats. He had difficulties within his kingdom, within his family, and in neighboring countries. Yet, despite these troubles, David gives sound instruction concerning how to deal with difficulties.
The first verses of Psalm 37 say, “Do not fret. Do not fret.” How many of us fret over things? I wonder how many times I have done that in my life. I do not know if I could count them.
Strong’s says that fret generally refers to a state of agitation or distress, often associated with worry, fear, and anxiety over circumstances beyond human control. Can you relate to that?
The Hebrew word for fret means “to burn,” indicating a sense of emotional turmoil. David certainly had things he could fret about in his life. But David found the secret to overcoming fretting and the other things he was dealing with.
Psalm 37 gives us several instructions:
David learned to trust in the Lord with all his heart. Do you delight in the Lord? That is really a matter of the heart. Our heart has to be in the right place to delight in the Lord.
What is interesting about David is that he was currently in the land. Positionally, he was in the land. But in reality, the land was still in the process of being recovered. There was still work to do within his family and among the neighboring countries. It was not fully possessed at that point.
I want to give a definition of positional truth, or objective truth, for anyone not familiar with these terms. If you have read Watchman Nee and some of those brothers, they use these terms a lot.
Positional or objective truth refers to a believer’s permanent standing in Christ, showing how God sees them because of their union with Him, independent of their daily experiences.
I got that from AI, by the way. I thought it was pretty good, so I hung on to it.
Subjective experience is the work of the Holy Spirit in leading us into the knowledge and experience of what is true of us in Christ.
John 16:13 says:
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.
What is the truth? Jesus said, “I am the truth.”
But we have a part in this. By faith, we need to appropriate the truth as it is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. That is our part.
There is always a part on our side. Do not ever forget that. There is God’s part and our part.
There is another Old Testament word related to inheriting: enter. It is not a quiz. The word is enter.
In the NASB, “enter the land” comes up fifteen times. One example is Deuteronomy 17:14:
When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it.
Notice that entering is connected with possessing.
The word enter in the Old Testament can mean “to go in” or “to come into.” This “come into” carries the meaning of progressively entering. I am pointing that out because we are going to speak to that a little later.
The Old Testament word for inherit means to take possession of, to dispossess, to occupy, and—this is the part I love—to be an heir.
Now I am going to jump to the children of Israel. We know that they were in bondage in Egypt and had to be delivered. First, they had to be delivered out from Egypt—which is a type of the world—before they could be brought into the land.
Colossians 1:13 says:
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness,
and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.
Positionally, the believer is brought into the kingdom of God.
The children of Israel were brought out of Egypt to enter and thus inherit, or possess, the land. But they first had to dispossess the land before they could possess it. That sounds kind of funny, does it not?
What did they need to dispossess?
Deuteronomy 7:1-2 speaks of seven nations greater and stronger than Israel. It says:
And when the Lord your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them.
You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.
Notice that the Lord is working, but their part is to work with Him.
What do these seven nations represent to believers spiritually today? Three things come to mind. Maybe there are more; correct me if there are more. I will have lunch with you, and you can tell me what you would want to share.
I think they speak of:
That is what needs to be dispossessed in the life of the believer before we can really possess the land.
For the application of dispossessing the world, consider 1 John 2:15:
Do not love the world nor the things in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
We have heard this many times, but I believe we need to bring it before the Lord often in a very living, practical way: “Is there a love in me for the world that is not right?”
We live in the world, but we do not want to love the world or the things in the world.
James 4:4 says:
You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?
Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
That is strong.
Regarding the flesh, Ephesians 4:22-24 says:
That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
You could say, “Put off the old self.” Self and flesh are very closely connected. They are like first cousins, if you can put it that way.
This putting off and putting on is a principle we have to live by all the time when dealing with the flesh.
Lastly, regarding the enemy, 1 Peter 5:8-9 says:
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.
Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
But resist him, firm in your faith.
Be awake. Be alert. A lot of things come into our lives, and it is the enemy doing it, but sometimes we are not aware of it. We think it is so-and-so or a certain situation, but he is behind it.
Ephesians 6:10-11 says:
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
I said, “Be strong in yourself,” just to see how many smiles I would get. I got quite a few, so I know at least some of you are awake.
The truth is: be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
Where was it that the Israelites were to learn how to dispossess the land? In the wilderness. That is where they learned their lessons. Of course, many of them failed. They never learned the lesson. They got an F and were thrown out of school, if you will.
Deuteronomy 8:2-3 says:
You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years,
that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know,
that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone,
but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
In the wilderness, we learn, first of all, to be dependent on the Lord. I find in my own life that I go forward to do things out of myself rather than first stopping and looking to the Lord and saying, “I want to commit this into Your hands.”
Often, I do that in things I think I do fairly well. I think, “Oh, I can do that.” But the reality is that the Lord wants us to be dependent on Him in all things.
Maybe as I do that thing, whatever it is, I stumble a little bit, and then I have a desire to get mad about it—or worse, to cuss about it. If I stopped and was dependent on the Lord in the beginning, I may have cut that off, if you follow what I am saying.
We also learn in the wilderness to be separated from all else but Him. Practically speaking, when the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt, they were physically separated from Egypt. But were they totally separated in their hearts? When things got tough, they wanted to go back. Remember that?
They needed to learn to be separated from that and to be dependent on the Lord. These things grow upon each other.
Lastly, in the wilderness, you get shut into a place where you cannot get out. Pharaoh said that negatively: “They are shut in the wilderness.” He thought, “There they are. I can go get them.”
I believe the enemy will whisper in your ear sometimes when you are in a situation where you feel you cannot get out: “Ah, you are shut in. I have got you now where I want you.”
But there is a further way in which we can learn to trust in the Lord, commit our way to Him, and wait on Him in a practical way.
Basically, the wilderness is a place to show us our inability, our weakness, and the Lord’s sufficiency. We all need to grow in that area. It is progressive, is it not?
The wilderness is a great teacher, but we also need to remember that it is not an end in itself. It is a means to the goal, which is to learn and gain Christ, our inheritance.
Now I want to move forward to the New Testament. We are going to look at phrases that include enter the kingdom, as well as inherit the kingdom.
We will begin with the passages concerning entering the kingdom. The Greek word for enter can mean the act of entering, a way leading into a place, or entering into something for an important purpose. I really like that last part.
The first verse is Matthew 5:20. These first passages are from the Sermon on the Mount, spoken by the Lord Himself:
For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was nothing but self-righteousness. That is a dead end for us spiritually. If you are in a place where you feel you have to do all these righteous things in your own strength, you are just going to wear yourself out. Just give up on that.
I believe this has both a present and future application. If you are living in self-righteousness, you are not living in the kingdom in the sense that you are not under His reign. That is what the kingdom speaks about: the reign of God. Not rain coming down—reign.
Matthew 7:21 says:
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven.
There is quite a bit of discussion over this verse within Christianity. Some say it speaks of unbelievers, while others say it speaks to believers.
When I considered it, Matthew 5:1 seemed important. At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, it says that when Jesus saw the multitudes, He went up on the mountain, and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. His disciples. In opening His mouth, He began to teach them.
I do not think a disciple is an unbeliever. Maybe you have a different thought about that, and that is fine.
These people say, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy, cast out demons, and do mighty works?” I really wonder whether an unbeliever, standing before Christ, would dare open their mouth and say that before the Lord. That is why I believe this passage speaks to believers.
Notice the condition: “He who does the will of My Father.”
Matthew 18:2-3 says:
And He called a child to Himself and set him before them,
and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children,
you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Become like a child in the sense of total dependence. That baby cannot do anything on its own. It will be a while, too.
Matthew 25:10, in reference to the parable of the ten virgins, says:
And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came,
and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast;
and the door was shut.
That phrase “went in” is the same Greek word translated elsewhere as enter. Notice: they were ready, and they went in.
John 3:5 says:
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
There are different thoughts regarding the word water here. Some say it means baptism. I personally do not agree with that interpretation, though if you do, that is fine.
Ephesians 5:25-26 says:
Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.
That is what I think the water in John 3:5 refers to. But I am open to discussion about that.
Acts 14:21-22 speaks of Paul and Barnabas:
After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples,
they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,
strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith,
and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
I underline that word many: “Through many tribulations.”
Do we see a problem in these passages? Or perhaps another way to say it: do we see any apparent contradictions?
Some passages seem to infer that one needs to be converted or born again to enter the kingdom of God. Others include conditions such as doing the will of God or passing through many tribulations.
I think, if we look carefully at these passages, they point out two specific types of entrance for the believer in the matter of the kingdom.
There are other cases in Scripture that, on the surface, seem to contradict each other. Consider the word justification. Scripture speaks of justification by faith in Romans 5:1, and justification by works in James 2:21-24. How do we reconcile those two?
They speak of two different aspects of salvation: the salvation of the spirit and the salvation of the soul. Brother Max spoke very clearly recently about the different aspects of salvation. I would recommend going back to that message.
This is where controversy comes within the church: many do not see the distinction between the salvation of the spirit and the salvation of the soul.
Brother Kong helped open this up to me. When I was a new believer, I was in the charismatic and Pentecostal realm, and many believed that you could lose your salvation. It put a deep fear in my heart.
I remember reading about Watchman Nee. Before he was clear about this matter, he said he could not rest for a minute, thinking, “If I sin now and get run over by a truck, I am going to hell.”
We need to know the distinction between gift and reward in the Scriptures.
A gift is connected with receiving eternal life, going to heaven, and being justified by faith. Eternal life is a gift.
A reward is connected with faithfulness, enduring, reigning, ruling, and crowns.
Those who believe a person can lose salvation see verses such as, “He who endures to the end shall be saved,” and conclude that a person must endure to the end or lose salvation. But they are talking about the wrong salvation. They are talking about the wrong consequence.
If one does not endure, one may lose the reward.
When it comes to gift, once the gift of eternal life has been received, it cannot be lost. Consider Romans 6:23, Romans 3:24, Romans 11:29, Ephesians 2:8, and Ecclesiastes 3:14.
On the other hand, rewards for the believer can be forfeited or lost. We see that in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, concerning whether one builds with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw. We also see it clearly in 2 John 8.
Another distinction that helps us is the difference between positional truth and subjective experience. If we can see that, it helps us with difficult passages.
We can also consider sanctification. There is positional sanctification. Paul wrote to the Corinthians as those sanctified in Christ, yet look at all the problems they had. They were not very sanctified in their practical experience.
But 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says:
For this is the will of God, your sanctification;
that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.
That is very practical. So we can see a distinction between positional truth and experiential reality.
We took the long way home. Remember that song? Never mind—that was back in the seventies or something.
We can say this: to be brought into the kingdom initially requires being born again, as John 3:5 says. Thus, after we are born again, we are positionally brought into the kingdom, as Colossians 1:13 says.
But we find that God’s full desire is to bring the believer into an abundant entrance. Do you know where that is found? Second Peter 1:11:
For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
will be abundantly supplied to you.
Read 2 Peter 1:3-11 sometime. You will see that it requires diligence on our part, adding virtue to faith, and then the other virtues that follow.
Thus, the word enter, in regard to the kingdom, has the meaning of initially coming into and then further entering into. These various verses speak together of a progression that brings us to the goal of gaining the kingdom.
Now let us look at some verses concerning inheriting the kingdom. We have talked about entering; now we want to talk about inheriting.
To inherit means to receive the portion or lot assigned to one; to receive as one’s own possession; to become a partaker of; to obtain.
These Scriptures primarily speak of a future application, although they also have a present application.
Matthew 25:34 says:
Then the King will say to those on His right,
“Come, you who are blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
When does this occur? Matthew 25:31 tells us:
But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him,
then He will sit on His glorious throne.
That is when the Lord comes back.
First Corinthians 6:9-10 says:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers,
will inherit the kingdom of God.
This is spoken of very negatively, is it not? Galatians 5:21 says something similar.
Ephesians 5:5 says:
For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater,
has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Notice that all of these passages speak to the practical righteousness required of the believer to inherit the kingdom. Revelation 19:7-8 does as well.
Before we go further, I want to define this word kingdom. The Greek word translated kingdom is basileia. Strong’s says it can mean royal power, kingship, dominion, or rule.
I came across another lexicon, the third edition of the Bauer Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament by Frederick Danker. It points out that this Greek word should properly be translated kingdom when speaking geographically or positionally.
It can mean a place, a geographical realm, or a position.
But the word can also be translated, experientially, as kingship. Kingship means the state or position of being a king. It can also mean rule or reign.
Unfortunately, our English translations generally translate the same Greek word simply as “kingdom.”
We are all familiar with the calls to overcome given to the seven churches in Revelation. I find it interesting that the final call, given to the church in Laodicea, says this in Revelation 3:21:
He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne,
as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
To me, this seems to be the pinnacle of the overcoming promises given to the seven churches.
With that being said, I believe we can go back to some of these verses—whether they say “enter the kingdom” or “inherit the kingdom”—and understand kingdom in the sense of kingship or reigning.
For example, Acts 14:21-22 could be understood this way:
Strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith,
and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingship of God.”
I believe all believers, through being born again, are brought into the kingdom. But not all believers are going to enter into kingship within the kingdom, except those who come under the required conditions.
Do you follow what I am saying? Do you follow the seriousness of this?
First Thessalonians 2:10-12 says:
You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers;
just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children,
so that you may walk in a manner worthy of God, Who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
We might understand this as the call to kingship, or to reign, and glory. Those who enter into that will have an aspect of glory that is a little beyond, we will say, the average. I dare say that.
Second Thessalonians 1:4-5 says:
Therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith
in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.
This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment
so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering.
That reminds me of Hebrews 6:12:
Through faith and patience inherit the promises.
In closing, this is the thing that is really heavy on my heart: to see this from the Lord’s perspective.
It is the Lord’s desire for all of us to have an abundant entrance—not merely into the kingdom, but that we would enter into kingship, to reign with Him. That is His desire.
What king does not want his queen to sit with him on the throne?
Further, those who attain to this will experience, I believe, a unique and intimate experience with the Lord. Those who overcome—Brother Kong spoke often of overcoming—I know he saw clearly how this was the heart of the Lord for every believer.
That is the reward of the overcomer. That is what the Lord desires for us all. But the question is: do we have that same desire?
Lord, we just commit this word back to You. Lord, I pray that You will write it upon our hearts and help us to see it from Your perspective—that which You want for us.
All of us, Lord, that we could be overcomers; that we could not only just enter, but fully enter in; that we could inherit that kingship, Lord, and someday sit on that throne with You.
Lord, I know that is what You want. We see that type in the Old Testament. The whole purpose of Eve being created with Adam was so that they could have dominion together over the earth.
Lord, we commit it back to You, and we just pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.