HERALD INTERNATIONAL
The Nations Are Christ’s Inheritance
By Richard Owen Roberts
Scripture Reading: Psalm 2
…But now we come to the heart of Psalm 2: "But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘Thou art My Son, Today I have begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Thy possession’" (vv. 6-8).
"But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion..." (v. 6). It is not that Christ may be able to mount up on His throne. It is not that somehow the church can be triumphant and somehow stand against all the forces of evil. Christ is already installed on His throne! In the light of that, how can we live with such defeat? How can we be satisfied with the notion that things are just going to get worse and worse.
God does already triumph. Why indeed, do the heathen rage? (v. 2). Most assuredly all their acts against God are acts of foolishness. They are in a battle not merely that they are going to lose, but a battle that is already lost. They would do well immediately to shoot up a flag of surrender.
But we act as it we are the ones in danger, as if we are the ones that are going to have to surrender. Indeed, multitudes among us have already surrendered to the world. These have not all abandoned their religious profession, but they certainly are not victors with Christ in this conflict.
I am saying that at the very heart of revival is the conviction that revival indeed will happen again and again until the very end. And I believe we do God a grave injustice when we act as if it is too late for any mighty acts of God to happen again.
Notice verse seven – "I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘Thou art My Son, Today I have begotten Thee.’" Spurgeon summarized the verse by saying, "God’s anointed is appointed and shall not be disappointed."
And look at the next statement: "Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Thy possession" (v. 8). Do you think the Savior ever asked for the nations as His inheritance and for the ends of the earth as His possession? I say absolutely He did. When we pray, "Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10), are we not part and parcel of the conviction that the inheritance of our Lord Jesus Christ has as its principal parts the utmost part of the earth as His possession, and the nations as His inheritance?
But is He getting that today? Well, not like He deserves and has been promised, because we have contented ourselves as His people with a lot less than God intended His Son should have. Some Christians have had as their most eloquent heart cry, "O God, take me out of this mess, for all around me is wickedness and confusion. Just hurry up and come and deliver me from all the sordidness of the earth." That is very self-centered. When you reflect upon the Father having offered the Son as His inheritance, the nations, and as His possession, the uttermost parts of the earth, you ought to lay aside for ever all pessimistic views and you ought to say, "We have been brought into the kingdom for such a time as this, to see our Savior triumph in the midst of these oppressive and wicked people."
Is Revival a Realistic Possibility?
I am really asking the question, is revival a realistic possibility? Have we any solid biblical grounds on which to beseech God to move in a powerful way? And I say to you, absolutely!
One of the most encouraging things anyone here could do would be to acquaint himself with the great literature of the church during the 1500’s, the 1600’s and the 1700’s, where a view that was full of hope was demonstrated. Why were revivals so common in those years? It was because the men and women of those days believed that Christ was to have as His inheritance the heathen and the ends of the earth as His possession. But now we are ready to surrender that to Satan. And we live for the most part as if God ought to be satisfied with what the Son already has; as if we cannot hope for any more in these last days. God forgive our folly in that type of thinking. Focus upon the great hope that is set in front of us.
What an incredible thing that millions, even billions of people scattered throughout the earth, multitudes of whom have never even heard the name of Christ, are nonetheless to be His inheritance, and parts of the world that have long been under the reign of darkness are part of His possession. The only way this is going to be realized in our day is in a great revival that stirs the church out of its apathy and causes the church to go out triumphantly taking the message of the Cross to the ends of the earth.
– Excerpted from a message delivered at the 2000 Heart-Cry for Revival Conference.