THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS

"To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you" -- I Peter 1:4.

     When the rich young man, his heart filled with anxiety concerning eternal things, came running and kneeled before Jesus with the question, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" the Lord's answer puzzled the disciples. And as He further conversed with them after the young man had departed in sorrow, telling them that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven, the disciples marveled. Peter, who perhaps until now had never stopped to count the cost and to ponder the result of leaving all to follow Jesus, broke out with the statement and the question, "Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; What shall we have therefore?

     What minister of the gospel, who has recklessly ventured all on the Lord and in the Lord's work, has never run into this same question? When he has felt the pangs of disease, and has been haunted with the nightmare of "going away" to leave his wife a widow and his children orphans, his heart has more than once asked, "What shall I have? What shall I get for all this sacrifice? Who will care for these if I am taken away?"

     Jesus did not rebuke the anxiety of Peter. His was a legitimate question. He was, as far as we know the only one of the disciples who was married, and he would naturally be the one who would be tempted to uneasiness concerning the future. The young man can smile at the other's cares; the man who has plenty can harshly accuse the poor man; but Jesus did not do this, He gave an answer that was satisfactory to the questioner.

     He first gave them, as His apostles, the promise of eternal blessings: "Ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel;" and then followed with that wonderful promise of temporal blessings to everyone who should forsake all for His sake, saying, "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life."

     King's children are born to be princes and kings. The throne and royal honor by those who believe in the "divine rights" of kings, are acknowledged as their inalienable possession. He who would dethrone them and take their place is called a usurper. The children of rich men inherit the goods of their father; and he who would deprive them of their rightful possessions is called a criminal. Real Christians, those who are begotten again, those who are born from above, are heirs to an inheritance, and in the ownership of this inheritance they are joint heirs with Jesus Christ. God gives His gifts to all men; He causes it to rain upon the unjust as well as upon the just; but the inheritance is for none but His children. Concerning the person who would willfully attempt to deprive one of His children of this inheritance, God says it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he be drowned in the depths of the sea. After we have borne the burdens of life, and, in Jesus' strength conquered our last enemy, then we shall receive our inheritance. We can have only an earnest here, a foretaste that draws us on with great desire for the obtaining of the full fruition.

     Four things are said of this inheritance. It is (1) "incorruptible," (2) "and undefiled," (3) "and that fadeth not away," (4) "reserved in heaven for you."

     (1) An object is corruptible which may decay or perish as, the human body; it is corrupt when it has lost its original soundness, integrity or purity, as corrupt flesh, corrupt practices, corrupt judges. Corruption is decay, decomposition, or putrefaction. These terms are used in their strict sense concerning matter which may by a process of decay or putrefaction become so deteriorated as to lose its original purity and uprightness, and thus become unfit for its intended use. This element is not some foreign substance clinging to the outside, but is caused by the decay and decomposition of the essential elements of the thing itself.

     The Christian's inheritance is incorruptible. It will never decay, or putrefy, or in any sense of the word deteriorate. Some of our earthly possessions must be guarded with great care or they will spoil and so become unfit for use, but the inheritance which God gives, to the end of eternity, will remain pure and wholesome. How strange that an immortal soul, before whose eyes such glories are displayed, and into whose possession such riches are given, should turn away and seek for vanities, things that perish with the using, trifles that may become corrupt before they can profit in the least. If you would allow your soul, which is now, by your own willfulness, engulfed in a sea of amazing corruption, to pierce the veil of self-imposed blindness, it would become so ravished at sight of heaven's joys and incorruptible glories, that with pious Monica you would cry, "Wings! Wings!"

     (2) A thing is defiled when it is made foul or impure, when it is filth or dirty, as a dish; defilement is pollution, foulness, dirtiness or uncleanness. These terms refer strictly to outward pollution. The essential substance of which the thing is composed may be as wholesome as ever, but it is covered with dirt or filth.

     Nothing will ever approach the inheritance of the Christian which will defile or contaminate it. John says that whosoever is born of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not. Satan, in his reasonings with God, declared that Job was surrounded with a hedge through which no evil could come to him. God's saints are protected with a wall of fire, and He is the glory in the midst; the angels of the Lord encamp about them to deliver them; as the mountains are about Jerusalem so is the Lord about His children; the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are safe.

     If God so protects His people from defilement here, it stands to reason that He will keep their inheritance from pollution. In the Book of Revelation, He declares, "There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." Thank God, here is one place in the universe where the saints are safe, and will be forever safe.

     "No chilling winds or poisonous breath

     Can reach that healthful shore;

     Sickness and sorrow, pain and death,

     Are felt and feared no more."

     (3) It "fadeth not away." Nations have come and gone; kings have worn their crowns with pomp and splendor, but their bodies are moldering in the dust; mighty men and chief captains have crushed the people under their iron heels, but have, themselves, been forced to yield to the grim reaper, death; cities, built by man as though they would stand forever, are gone, and some of them are now giving up their buried secrets to the spade of the archeologist; years come and go;. our days fly in and out like the weaver's shuttle; springtime with blossoms, and birds, and gladness; summer with sunshine, and glory-clad fields, and autumn with its fruition and plenty, are followed by winter with its frosts and chilling blasts, its desolation and winding sheet of snow and ice. We spend our lives as a tale that is told; the cry of the infant, the merry ripple of childish mirth, the buoyancy of youth, the cares of manhood, the frosts of age; then a lowly mound and spectral stone tell of departed hopes and an empty home.

     Such is our inheritance in this world. But the inheritance God gives "fadeth not away." Its mighty glories will eternally ravish the soul of their happy possessor; this gift, like the bountiful Giver, is eternal. George Nitsch says, "The fount of all blessedness is to be found where the mighty Jehovah dwells, from whose presence constantly flow such varied streams of unutterable joy upon body and soul that the bliss is as sweet at the end of millions of years as it is the first moment a man enters heaven.

     (4) "Reserved in heaven for you." Most of us are naturally spendthrifts. When we see a thing we desire we will make most any sacrifice to obtain it. We have great difficulty in seeing beyond the present and its enjoyments. Some of us go so far as to even forfeit future good for present pleasure, future joy for present happiness, and future heaven, for worldly honors and wealth.

     God, realizing this propensity in man, allows us to have only an earnest of our inheritance here and reserves the principal, the thing itself, till we get to heaven. It is strange how lavishly we would scatter abroad even our spiritual blessings if we could. There are two striking examples in the Bible. When God told Moses to stand aside and He would destroy the Israelites and make of him a greater nation, Moses threw himself in the gap between an offended God and an offending people, and said, "If Thou wilt forgive their sin; -- and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of the book which Thou hast written." God heard the desperation of Moses' prayer and spared the people, but would not blot him out, for He said, "Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out."

     The other case is that of the Apostle Paul, who, because of his great heaviness and continual sorrow, declared, "I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh."

     Thieves may take our inheritance here, but that inheritance moth cannot corrupt nor thieves break through and steal. Others cannot appropriate it to their purposes, it is reserved for the rightful owners, safe in the Almighty's keeping.