INTRODUCTION
A. Many Christians live in ignorance of what God has done for us.
B. Many are not interested in doctrinal matters but in only what they get out of a church.
C. I appeal again to George Barna’s research of 1996 and 1997.
1. Many professing Christians believe that people are inherently good, that our primary purpose is to enjoy life and that our most important responsibility is to take care of our family.
2. 81% believe that the Bible teaches that God helps those who help themselves.
3. 49% believe that the Bible teaches that money is the root of all evil.
4. 72% believe that people are blessed by God so they can enjoy life as much as possible.
5. 34% believe that the Bible is not accurate in all it teaches.
6. 40% believe that all religions teach equally valid truths.
7. 60% say that Satan is not a living being but a symbol of evil.
8. 55% say that if a person is generally good or does enough good things for others they will earn a place in heaven.
9. 44% believe that Jesus committed sins while on earth.
10. 61% believe that the Holy Spirit is not a living entity but a symbol of God’s presence and power.
11. 40% believe that after he was crucified, Jesus did not physically return to life.
12. 34% believe that there are some sins that even God cannot forgive.
D. Maybe the lifestyles of many Christians cause them to ignore the central truths of Christianity.
1. We are so busy that we don’t have time to pray and study God’s Word.
2. Two decades ago, people would devote 4 blocks of time weekly to religious pursuits, but now it is down to one.
3. A breakdown in doctrinal teaching in the church and at home has contributed to this state of affairs.
E. Theology is important.
1. It is important that we know what we believe about God.
2. It is more important that what we believe about God is correct.
3. Religion is more than a good feeling we get from attending some worship serve.
4. Christianity is more than an emotional high we might feel after leaving a worship experience.
5. Our theology tells us who we are in Christ and what we have been given by him.
6. We must understand what God has done for us on Calvary, and what the implications are as a result.
7. If we don’t, we will not live in the power of the Spirit of God.
HE HAS QUALIFIED US FOR AN ETERNAL INHERITANCE
A. “Always thanking the Father, who has enabled you to share the inheritance that belongs to God’s holy people, who live in the light.”
B. Andy Griffith show where Gomer loses his job.
1. Gomer worked at Wally’s filling station.
2. He loved to talk, and this occasionally caused some customers to have to wait, and they would get mad.
3. Well, Wally had scolded him a couple of times, but he just kept on talking and customers kept on leaving.
4. Finally, Wally fired him.
5. Andy allowed him to move in with him until he could find another job and a place to stay (you see, he lived in the back of the filling station).
6. One day he came by the sheriff’s office and told Andy he was going down to the meat market because they were advertising for a meat cutter.
7. Andy asked him if he knew how to cut meat, and he said, “You reckon they will ask me that?”
8. Gomer was not qualified for the job.
C. Being qualified for a job is important.
1. Some places will simply not hire you if you are not qualified for the position for which you are applying and they are advertising.
2. Others will hire you but will require that you be trained.
D. Christ has qualified us for our eternal inheritance.
1. Why do we need to be qualified for our eternal inheritance, and why can’t we just go to heaven no matter what we do.
2. Many folks think we can.
3. The roadblock is our sin, and the Bible says that we are all sinners and that we are sinners from birth.
4. The wages of this sin is eternal death and separation from God in eternity and in this life.
5. Thus to receive our eternal inheritance someone has to qualify us for it.
E. Verse 14 tells what Christ has done for us.
1. “God has purchased our freedom with his blood and has forgiven all our sins.”
2. We were not free because the Bible says we are slaves to sin.
3. A slave will do the bidding of his master, and we do the bidding of our master-sin.
F. Christ has redeemed us (purchased our freedom).
1. To redeem something means to buy it back.
2. Christ has bought us back from the chains of evil and from Satan.
3. We belonged to God in the beginning, but that sinful nature that Adam and Eve acquired when they rebelled against God has now been given to all of humanity.
4. David reminds us in one of his psalms that we are sinners from birth.
5. Whereas we once belonged to God, now all humanity belongs to Satan.
6. On the cross, Christ purchased our freedom-he redeemed us.
G. Think of the kind of activity that goes on at a pawnshop.
1. A person needs some money temporarily.
2. They take an item of value to the pawn broker.
3. He or she gives them so much money and holds their item until they pay back the money.
4. The person has to redeem, or buy back, what they have pawned.
H. Our situation with our dog Sarge.
1. He had belonged to my youngest brother since he was a puppy.
2. I had always told him that I wanted him if he ever decided to get rid of him.
3. When he married the second time, his new wife wanted him gone, so she took him to the pound.
4. When I found out, I asked him to get him back and I would take him.
5. He had to pay $20 to get him back.
6. He was redeemed from certain death by my brother and us.
I. The gifted boy who carved a sailboat out of a block of wood.
1. Took it to the stream to see if it would float and sail.
2. The current was strong and carried it downstream.
3. Ran along the bank after it, but soon it was out of sight.
4. He searched until dark, but never found the boat.
5. One afternoon he was walking downtown and saw the boat in the window of a pawnshop.
6. He told the pawnbroker his story, but he was not impressed.
7. He pulled out several dollars and bought his boat.
8. As he walked away, he spoke to the boat, “Little boat, you are twice mine. I made you. And I bought you. You are twice mine.”
J. Characteristics of this eternal inheritance.
1. We will understand many things that are incomprehensible to us now.
2. Even though Christ has forgiven us of our sins, our minds are still darkened to a degree by the presence of sin.
3. The true desires of our heart will be fulfilled.
4. Augustine, early church father, said, “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Thee.”
5. Our passions will be pure and sinless because no sin will be found in our eternal inheritance.
6. Our weak and dying bodies will be transformed into heavenly bodies.
7. We can take comfort now by what we look forward to in the future.
K. Inheritances are not earned but simply received.
1. Now we may have been good to a loved one and helped them out so they will what they have or a portion of it to us.
2. Still we have not earned it; they simply chose to give it to us.
3. All we do is receive what they choose to give us.
4. Sadly many do not realize this about salvation.
5. Remember Barna’s statistic that 55% believe that if a person is generally good or does enough good things for others during their life that they will earn a place in heaven.
6. We cannot earn what we don’t deserve in the first place. We can only receive it.
L. Biblical images of salvation.
1. Justification-God justifies us or makes us right in his sight based on the work of his Son on Calvary and our acceptance of that.
2. Redemption-God buys us back from the grips of sin.
3. Forgiveness-This literally means a sending away in that God sends our sins away based on what Christ has done so that the barrier that once separated us no longer does.
4. Adoption-Whereas we were not a member of God’s family because of our sin, he makes us a member (just as in real life adoption).
5. Reconciliation-We no longer stand before God as enemies but as friends who are at peace with him.
HE DELIVERS US FROM THE POWERS OF EVIL
A. “For he has rescued us from the one who rules in the kingdom of darkness, and he has brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.”
B. What is the kingdom of darkness?
1. It is the realm controlled by Satan and his demonic hordes.
2. It is the realm of opposition toward God.
3. It is the place of sin.
4. Ephesians 6:12, “For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those might powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.”
C. What some think about evil.
1. No one could possibility deny its existence.
2. 60% believe Satan is not real but just a symbol of evil.
3. September 11, 2001 should remind us all that evil is real.
4. We come into the world with an allegiance to evil.
5. The extent of this binding is only made evident to us when we try in our own strength to escape it.
6. Turning over a new leaf is easier said than done.
D. What Christ has done for us.
1. He delivered us from this kingdom.
2. We can now say no to sin and have the power to live victoriously over it.
3. He gives us new natures at salvation.
4. It doesn’t mean we will be free from temptation or that we will never sin, but we have the power to live above it.
5. We can still choose to sin just as we can choose not to.
HE TRANSFERS US INTO CHRIST’S KINGDOM
A. “He has brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.”
B. Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
C. The benefits of Christ’s Kingdom.
1. There are many just as there are many advantages to being a citizen of some country.
2. We are no longer bound to sin.
3. We have a new life that operates by new principles.
4. God replaces our old way of living with a new way.
5. No longer do we rely on ourselves but on him.
6. We no longer live by sight but by faith.
7. It gives us a foretaste of what is to come.
8. We have been delivered from the penalty of sin and are being delivered from the presence of sin.
9. We are assured of an eternal and glorified body fit for heaven.
10. We are given the Spirit to empower us and enable us to live the Christian life.
