'That ye may know what is the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints.'--Eph. i. 18.
The misery of Hope is that it so often owes its materials to the
strength of our desires or to the activity of our imagination. But when
mere wishes or fancies spin the thread, Hope cannot weave a lasting
fabric. And so one of the old prophets, in speaking of the delusive
hopes of man, says that they are like 'spiders' webs,' and 'shall not
become garments.' Paul, then, having been asking for these Ephesian
Christians that they might have hopes lofty and worthy, and such as
God's summons to them would inspire, passes on to ask that they might
have the material out of which they could weave such hope, namely, a
sure and clear knowledge of the future blessings. The language in which
he describes that future is remarkable--'the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints.' He calls it God's inheritance, not as
meaning that God is the Inheritor, but the Giver. He speaks of it as
'in the saints,' meaning that, just as the land of Canaan was
distributed amongst tribes and families, and each man got his own little
plot, so that broad land is parted out amongst those who are 'partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light.'
And so my text suggests to me three points to which I seek to call your
attention. First, the inheritance; second, the heirs; and third, the
heirs' present knowledge of their future possession.