Sermon Tone Analysis

To be in Christ is to be co-heirs with Christ, and to have an inheritance that is undefinable and unfading.

Today, in our culture, an inheritance can be given to someone through a written will.

Maybe you’ve benefited from something like this.

But if you’re like most people I know, including me, you probably spend some of your time wishing you had a rich uncle, and that some day you’ll find a check in the mail for a few million dollars.

Perhaps some of you have inherited land, family heirlooms, or estates.

To this day I’ve inherited NOTHING on this earth from anyone.

My parents are both still alive, and I don’t think either of them play the lottery, so it’s not looking good for me.

Thank God that He has changed my worldview from that of the accumulation of earth’s riches, to the Gospel which assures me of an eternal home, an eternal king, an eternal inheritance.

God is a Father who gives good gifts to His children.

In the beginning, God created the world and then committed it to Adam and Eve.

It was theirs to tend and to care for.

That was their inheritance, the whole earth, with God as their head, and because they were his son and daughter, created by Him, what belonged to him belonged to them, and it was theirs forever.

But we all know what happened next.

They threw their inheritance away.

You might remember the account.

In Genesis 3 Satan deceived Eve, and they turned against the love of God, and the inheritance he gave to them.

What did they trade it for?

Temporary pleasure.

Tasting what God did not desire for them to taste - the knowledge of good and evil.

And that was the beginning of humanity reject her eternal maker for what they THOUGHT would satisfy them.

Sin is so deceitful, isn’t it?

If we could survey the entire Bible this morning, we would see that this is the story all the way through.

God’s grace to mankind - Mankind’s rejection of His love for worthless things.

But thanks be to God that he does not leave the course of human history to the will of human beings.

This is His world and his universe.

We are His creation.

You are HIS creation.

He still has an inheritance for His people, and it is better than what you could ever imagine.

Adam and Eve were banished from Eden, and with them, every person was spiritually and physically banished from the presence of God.

They died spiritually that day, and what are we left with?

Human depravity!

Is there evidence that our world is totally depraved?

Yes, and the kings and kingdoms of Daniel have proven such.

The beasts.

The wickedness.

The persecution against the people of God, are all evidences of the deeper issue in the heart of man.

In our study through Daniel, we began with king Nebuchadnezzar taking the people of God from their homes, and bringing them into a country that was not their own, to be governed by an evil dictators who hated God’s law and God’s people.

You and I need to remember this today.

The world opposes God, and we know it does by it’s constant rejection of Him.

But Daniel also serves as a type for us.

In one way, Daniel typifies the Christian call and what it means to be among the foolish who are chosen to confound the wise.

1 Corinthians 1:26 “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

Human depravity plummeted the entire world into sin, and yet God has chosen for himself a people.

And who does he choose?

The weak, the foolish, the needy, the despised…Now is this a prerequisite for salvation.

No, but nobody who has met the Savior, Jesus, and is truly saved would ever say they were anything but poor in spirit, and foolish, and weak, not only in the moment of their conversion, but for the rest of their lives.

“Lord, I need you, Oh I need you.

Every hour I need you.

My one defense, my righteousness, Lord how I need you.”

Daniel, a young Jewish teenager, chosen by God, then exiled, became a reminder to the people of God that He had not forgotten them, and, in fact, he was going to remedy the depravity, and fulfill his promise to Abraham.

Look at this prophesy again from Daniel 2.

“And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.

It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, 45 just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold.

A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this.

The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”

Daniel 2:44-45

This Scripture is extremely significant in shaping your view of the Kingdom.

What this tells us is that when Jesus, the stone from heaven, the stone that the builders rejected, came to earth as the God-man, his work was going to have a crushing effect on the systems of the world.

There would be significant change to Satan’s dominion and authority with Christ inaugurated as King.

At the cross, Jesus paid for the sins of the believer, and for all who ever have, and ever will trust in Christ.

The resurrection defeated sin, and spiritual death for the believer.

To trust in Christ, is to be raised with Him, and seated with him in heavenly places.

The ascension of Jesus to the throne resulted in what I believe was a defeat of the stronghold of Satan, and his ability to deceive the nations through world dominating and demonically controlled territorial empires.

Satan is the God of this age, and has some power, and can deceive, but he is not in control.

How can he be when we look at texts like this.

Ephesians 1:18-23 “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

Did you see that?

Our resurrected, and ascended Messiah, who is head over all things, was given to the Church.

And who is the Church?

We are the chosen of God, not for our merits, but according to grace alone.

In Christ, we have everything, including the kingdom over which he reigns today - a people of both Jews and Gentiles, a called out people from every nation, tribe, and tongue - - And why is this happening?

Because it was the plan, and the promise.

Jesus would inherit the nations, and it would not come easy.

He would pay with His life for the sins of His people, and by divine right rule as King over them, and rule through them.

The kings of the earth, including men like Nebuchadnezzar, Darius, all Pharaoh's, the Herods, and the Caesar’s of Rome, would all try to stop it, BUT THEY Could NOT.

Look at Psalm 2 Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,

“Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens laughs;

the Lord holds them in derision.

Then he will speak to them in his wrath,

and terrify them in his fury, saying,

“As for me, I have set my King

on Zion, my holy hill.”

I will tell of the decree:

The LORD said to me, “You are my Son;

today I have begotten you.

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

and the ends of the earth your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron

and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

Now therefore, O kings, be wise;

be warned, O rulers of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear,