Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light (Colossians 1:12).
As the result of the fall, man is not fit for the inheritance our heavenly
Father has prepared for the saints in light.
I want you to take notice of verse 13: “Who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.”
There is no middle ground. We cannot serve God a little and the world a little.
We are either serving the flesh or we are serving the Lord.
Romans 1:25-26 says: “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped
and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did
change the natural use into that which is against nature.”
When we serve the creature rather than the Creator then we are left over to the
power of darkness.
I read an article this morning that so touched my heart. We have legislators who
have prepared legislation to not only legalize homosexuality but to actually
make it a violation of civil rights, meaning it could be charged as a felony, if
you do anything against them. One pledged to close every church that opposes
their thinking, and that they would prove that there is no such thing as a God
except for those men who support that thinking. We have a man running for
president who condones this legislation. We are living in scary times. Those
people have been delivered over to the power of darkness.
We cannot serve two masters. If we are going to serve the things of this life,
sin and Satan, we are not translated into the kingdom of His dear Son. The
indelible mark of Christianity is: Who do we serve?
See what we read in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
This is who we are by nature. By nature our pride will rise up against the
throne of Christ.
What a blessing we read of in verse 11: “And such were some of you: but ye are
washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
Some have been washed, and some have been left over to the power of darkness.
In our text, the Apostle Paul is speaking of “giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light.”
We have to made properly prepared. This word meet is taken from the Greek word
hikanoo (hik-an-o-o), which means “to qualify, to enable, to be worthy, or fit
in character.”
The Father has made us to qualify. He has given us the qualification. He has
given us a new heart. He has given us a new attitude. He has made us a new man.
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and service to the kingdom of
darkness, and He has brought us into the kingdom of His dear Son. He has
translated us out of that kingdom of darkness and brought us to where it is our
heart’s desire to serve the kingdom of His Son. It is a matter of who you serve.
The Apostle Paul tells us why our character, our attitude, our disposition, must
become converted in Colossians 1:21: “And you, that were sometime alienated and
enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.” We have to be
transformed from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His Son. He has made
us acceptable in character. He has made a new man out of us. Our hearts now
become reconciled to the will of God.
The verses preceding our text tell us what the apostle saw in the character of
the saints in the church at Colosse, which made him exclaim the words of our
text, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of
the
inheritance of the saints in light.”
What did he see in them that caused him to exclaim this gratitude to God? We see
this in Colossians 1:7-8: “As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear
fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; Who also declared
unto us your love in the Spirit,” that is in the mind of Christ.
Where are your affections? What is your desire? What is the center of your love?
This faithful servant Epaphras saw in the church at Colosse that Spirit of
Christ, that Spirit of love, that Spirit of the mind of Christ.
This Spirit or mind of Christ is exemplified in Philippians 2:3-5: “Let nothing
be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem
other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every
man also on
the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
Where there is strife, the Spirit is quenched. In the original, the word mind or
attitude is basically the same word as Spirit. In the original, the word spirit
means a mental disposition. Where are our affections? Where are our priorities?
This Spirit of Christ in the church at Colosse excited the apostle’s heart to
cry unto the Lord that they might receive the knowledge of God’s will. The
Apostle Paul recognized the love of Christ in the heart. He recognized that
right Spirit, that right attitude, but he also recognized their ignorance of the
will of God.
If we are going to be translated into the kingdom of His dear Son, the essential
thing is that we know the will of God. The Lord says, My people are lost for a
lack of knowledge. They do not know what His will is.
The Apostle Paul cries out to the Lord that they might have the knowledge of His
will. He is talking about those who have the Spirit of Christ. He is not talking
about the world. Watch what we see in Colossians 1:8-9: “Who also declared unto
us your love in the Spirit. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it,
do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the
knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”
What is the beginning of wisdom? The fear of the Lord. What is the fear of the
Lord? To hate evil. He is asking for all wisdom, in other words, for a true
godly fear, and spiritual understanding.
We can say, We believe, and if you talk to 50 people, you may find 50 different
I believes, and I do not care what you believe. All I want to know is what does
the Word of God say?
I talked to a young family last week coming out of the Catholic church. They
said they had begun to see that the church has so much ritual, and they do not
really teach the Bible. This is what we must sort out in every church and in our
own hearts. How much of my religion is God-centered and centered in the Word of
God?
How can we be translated into the kingdom of His dear Son and serve the Lord
Jesus Christ and not have a full knowledge of His will? That becomes the prayer
of every God-sent servant—that the people might be enlightened with the will of
God and all spiritual understanding.
God’s Word so clearly teaches that this is how we sort out His true servants and
those who are hirelings. Do they teach the will of God or are they teaching what
they believe? Some call themselves pastors but condone homosexuality from the
pulpit. They believe this but it is not what the Word of God says.
I just read to you about it in 1 Corinthians 6:9, where it talks about
adulterers and the effeminate and the abusers of themselves with mankind not
inheriting the kingdom of God. Effeminate and abusers of themselves with mankind
means homosexuality. The Word of God is explicit on this, and yet there are
those who will stand in the pulpit and say, I believe we have to recognize that
they are normal, and we have to recognize their rights. They are not preaching
the Word of God. This is an extreme example, but how close do we have to bring
this to home? We have to sort out our own teaching and our own thinking and our
own beliefs and our own understanding. We must know what is taught by the Word
of God, and we must be able and willing to put everything else up on the shelf
and leave it there.
I want you to see what Jeremiah 23:21-22 teaches about false prophets: “I have
not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they
prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to
hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from
the evil of their doings.”
How do we distinguish between those who are truly sent by the Lord and those who
are false prophets? If they were preaching according to the Word of God, if they
were causing people to be translated into the kingdom of His dear Son, then they
would be preparing them to become inheritors of the kingdom and inheritance of
light.
How can we come to the light if our deeds are evil? Every one of us should have
no greater joy than to be able to come to the light and to have our hearts
revealed and to see if there is a wicked way within us that it might be
revealed, that we might repent of it and turn from it.
The Apostle Paul equates our faith in the Lord Jesus with our love for the
brethren, which excites his prayers for wisdom, which begins with the fear of
the Lord. Look what we read in Ephesians 1:15-17: “Wherefore I also, after I
heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not
to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of him.”
He is talking about the church at Ephesus, where he sees that the love of the
brethren and their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ was recognized. The yearning
desire of a true-sent minister of the gospel is that the people might come to a
better and more complete knowledge of the will of God. This is the process the
Father is using to make us meet, to make us fit, to make our character right for
being in the inheritance with the saints in light. This means that nothing is
hidden. We become totally transparent before the will of God, and every thought
and intent of our hearts is laid bare and naked before the Lord.
As we are made “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,”
we are redeemed from all iniquity and given to abound in all wisdom, that is,
the fear of the Lord through the knowledge of His will.
In Ephesians 1:7-9 we read: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in
himself.”
The greatest blessing you and I can ever have in this life is to be growing in
the knowledge of His will—to grow in that knowledge, to abound, meaning to break
forth, to spread out. We desire to know His will and to have our hearts revealed
in the light of His Holy Word.
The apostle goes on to show us why the Father fills us with wisdom, that is, the
fear of the Lord, and the knowledge of His will to “make us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light.” I want you to see this in Colossians
1:10: “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
This is what it means to be made meet, to be made worthy, to be made a partaker
of the inheritance of the saints in light. This is how we become prepared. This
is how the Lord works His grace in the soul. It is a progressive thing. It is
growing in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we grow in this
knowledge we grow in the knowledge of the sinfulness of sin. We grow in the
knowledge of the corruption of our own evil hearts, and we have more and more of
a heart that is tender in the fear of God. Our hearts become increasingly tender
for anything that could offend the Lord. We have to walk worthy of the Lord.
This preparation for the inheritance of the saints in light begins while we are
still in our sins, and increases in the way of sanctification by “increasing in
the knowledge of God” and His will. As the Lord begins working His grace in our
hearts, He begins this progressive work of sanctification while we are still in
sin. We increase, we grow, we go from being spiritual infants and we grow into
spiritual maturity. As we are growing in the knowledge of His will, we continue
to find sins in our hearts that are bosom sins that before we had never thought
were sin. Now the Lord brings it to light, and He opens our understanding, and
we begin to realize that that is a grievous sin, something we have lived in all
our lives, and never thought it to be sin.
That is where David cried out, O Lord, the sins of my youth remember not. In
other words, when I was a spiritual child and living in various sins. I am
increasing in the knowledge of the Lord, and it is brought to my mind that these
are grievous sins against the Lord. As we look back it grieves us that all these
years we have lived in those sins.
We see this in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-3: “Furthermore then we beseech you,
brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how
ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye
know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of
God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.”
I want you to see that we are going to become spiritually mature. We will abound
and grow and increase as we grow in spiritual knowledge, how we should walk, and
how we must please God. Now we become more fruitful. We are to grow in holiness,
in separating ourselves from the things of this life and from the things of the
flesh. We are to grow and to abound in sanctification and to abstain from all
spiritual adultery, from anything our hearts desire that gets between us and the
Lord.
Being made ready for the inheritance of the saints in light is through a godly
desire and a delight in doing His will by the exercise of saving faith. I can
have all kinds of faith. I can have faith to move mountains, but if I do not put
it into exercise it is dead and without works. It is by the exercise of saving
faith. It is by doing His will that we see, that we grow.
In Hebrews 13:20-21 we read: “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the
dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the
everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to
whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
That word perfect in the original means to be delivered from conniving, to be
delivered from underhanded cheating, from double-talking, to make it so we come
to the truth. It is to be delivered from the power of sin.
The apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ exhorted the church to obedience to the
will of God with all longsuffering and patience, because that is how the Father
makes “us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.”
It is so important that we understand these exhortations of the apostles to the
churches.
I want you to see in 2 Peter 1:11: “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto
you
abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Is there anything more important to understand than this? It is by the exercise
of saving faith as we see in the previous verses. What is it if you do these
things you shall never be barren in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? It
all centers on the second commandment: loving your brother as yourself.
Continuing in verse 12 the Apostle Peter says, “Wherefore I will not be
negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them,
and be established in the present truth.”
He had told them before and knew that they knew it, but he wanted them to
remember.
He said in verses 13 to 15: “Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this
tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I
must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these
things always in remembrance.”
He is saying, Never forget how that entrance is ministered to you into the
everlasting kingdom by the exercise of saving faith, by doing what you know is
right.
This was the heart’s desire of Paul as we can see from his loving exhortation in
Hebrews 13:22: “And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for
I have written a letter unto you in few words.” Do not become angry because I am
being faithful to you.
I was talking to a pastor in another church here a few months ago, and I
commended him after the service for his faithfulness of exhortation. I commended
him about what a tremendous responsibility we have and how faithful he was
exhorting his people against sin. He replied, But I am not sure I will be here
anymore next week.
Even the faithful of God, when you touch on their bosom sins, you have ignited a
fuse. Look how faithfully the apostles exhorted the people, and look how
essential it is to exhort.
The verses after our text tell us what it is to become meet, that is, fit in
character, “to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” We read
in Colossians 1:13-14: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and
hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the
forgiveness of sins.”
All of our pardon, and all of our forgiveness of sin, is centered in being
transformed into that kingdom. This does not mean for eternity alone. That means
in this life too. If we do not enter the kingdom in this life, we will not enter
it after this life. If we have not learned to know what it is to serve the Lord
and to have a heart tender in the fear of God for His will in this life, we will
never enter it hereafter.
This kingdom of His dear Son is the kingdom of light. It is that inheritance. We
read in Revelation 21:22-23: “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God
Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun,
neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and
the Lamb is the light thereof.”
We have to be prepared to be able to dwell in the light, because Christ is the
light. He is the light of heaven.
Our Saviour has told us plainly how the light separates those who have been made
fit in character by coming to the light in this life, and those who are still
living in the kingdom of darkness. We see this in John 3:20-21: “For every one
that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds
may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”
Many of God’s dear children have been quickened while they were still in sin,
but now the process of preparing to be inheritors of the kingdom of light means
that in this life we come to the light that our deeds might be made manifest so
we can repent of them and turn from them, that we might become prepared. That is
what our text is talking about: He made us meet to be partakers. He prepared us
for the ability to dwell in the light.
Do we think we can come into the light, but hate the light because our hearts
are evil? No. That is what this work of sanctification is for. It is to cleanse
us from evil. Our deeds are to be wrought of God. They are to be according to
His will, in other words that we have entered the kingdom of His dear Son. We
have been translated. We have been transformed. We no longer walk under the
kingdom of darkness. This is how He makes us ready, which means to be prepared
now to live in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those who are blessed to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light
must be made “meet,” that is “to qualify, to be enabled, to be worthy, or fit in
character,” because they will spend eternity walking in the light. How are you
and I going to stand eternally before the light and have every thought and
intent of our hearts clearly manifest before God and walk in it if we shun the
light in this life.
Watch what it says in Revelation 21:24-25: “And the nations of them which are
saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their
glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day:
for there shall be no night there.”
I do not see how the Scriptures could be more clear. It is an eternal light.
There are no shaded areas. There are no gray areas.
Continuing in verses 26 and 27 we read: “And they shall bring the glory and
honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any
thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie:
but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
That corruption and that defilement of the heart must be purged and cleansed in
this life. This is what the Father is doing to make us meet. He is working in us
that work of sanctification. He is bringing us to the light in this life. When
the light is shined on us does the pastor have to worry that next week no one
will be in church like the pastor I mentioned earlier told me, or do they come
to the light that their deeds might be made manifest that they are wrought in
God.
Everyone who has become “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light” will come to the full realization of the power of the light in this
life. I will show you where we find the power of that light in the Word of God.
It is in Hebrews 4:12-13: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and
sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his
sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we
have to do.”
Every evil thought that goes through our mind is open and naked before the Word
of God, and the Word is the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what heaven will be—to walk in the light. It is going to be to walk
where every thought and every intent of our own imaginations will be naked and
open before the Lord.
Where is our walk? Do we hate the light because our deeds are evil, or do we
love the light and come to the light that our deeds might be made manifest so if
there is any evil way in us we can repent of it, so we can cleanse it, so we can
pray for the Lord to deliver us from it.
Oh beloved, what a day of horror it will be for those heaven-seekers whom the
Father has never made “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light.” Millions and millions are heaven-seekers. They want to go to heaven to
escape hell, but they have no desire to have a renewed heart. They have no
desire to walk in the fear of the Lord. They have no desire to come to the
light. They have never been made fit in character.
I want to show you what Revelation 6:15-16 tells us of those people: “And the
kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains,
and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the
dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks,
Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and
from the wrath of the Lamb.”
The light came on and they could not come before the light because every thought
and intent of the heart is naked and open before Him. They are heaven-seekers,
and they come to the gate of heaven, and the light comes on. All of a sudden
they see the wretchedness of their hearts that they have never been cleansed
from. The light was their condemnation and they fled the light. They did not
want their hearts revealed. The Lamb was so angry because they never loved Him.
They never were translated into His kingdom. They had never served Him in this
life.
Those who have been made “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light” have learned to know what it is to come to the light in this lifetime.
They want to come to the light of the Word. They want their sins revealed. They
want their sins to be made manifest so they can turn from them, so they can
repent of them, so they can have them forgiven.
In John 3:21 we read: “But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his
deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”
If we have a truly regenerated heart, then we want to come to the light that our
deeds might be made manifest that they are wrought in God.
Their heart’s desire is that of David, which we find recorded in Psalm 26:1-2:
“Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in
the LORD; therefore I shall not slide. Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my
reins and my heart.”
This is the cry of a regenerate soul. We want the light to shine in our hearts.
We want to know wherein we walk offensively to the Lord. We want to know that
which is not right in His eyes.
Continuing in verse 3 David said: “For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes:
and I have walked in thy truth.”
Those who love truth come to the light.
We read in verse 4: “I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with
dissemblers.”
David is professing before the Lord what is in his heart. There are those who
love to be tale-bearers. They love to take the church of God apart and destroy
it.
David went on to say in verses 5 to 7: “I have hated the congregation of
evildoers; and will not sit with the wicked. I will wash mine hands in
innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O LORD: That I may publish with the
voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.”
He concluded in verse 8: “LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and
the place where thine honour dwelleth.”
What did David love more than the house of God, where he could come together
with the saints to worship and to praise and to sing forth the glory and honor
of God? What was more near and dear to the heart of David than to be able to
have that day of rest where he could assemble with the saints of God to honor
the house and name of God? His honor dwells in His house. We come to bring
homage and to honor His name.
David wanted his heart cleansed. If there is an evil way in it, reveal it, so he
can turn from it.
May the Lord be with us and may He give us wisdom to understand what He has to
say to the churches.
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