Flesh and blood will not inherit heaven- our flesh and blood is corruptible- it can decay. How well do we know that our lives on earth are finite and filled with degradation. You don't notice it right away as you're growing up, instead you hear it from your parents and their moans and groans. As we age our bodies just aren't as they were when we were children. Yes, we can be in tiptop shape but aging factors will happen regardless. You'll lose the ability to read fine print, your hair will gray, your flesh will wrinkle even with the best creams and lotions. Your facial features will alter. No matter how much people exclaim that some actors/actresses seem ageless- it's a lie. Yes, they may be aging gracefully and not look their years but if you take a picture of them as a young teen and them at forty, fifty, sixty… they just are NOT going to look that young. Eventually even the most youthful in appearance will succumb to death, if of nothing other than old age.
We know how our bodies react to time, we know the frailty of flesh and blood. Our flesh and blood HAS to be altered if we are to inherit a kingdom where there is no death, God's kingdom, the kingdom of heaven this is where we will go when our Lord and Savior returns to take us with him. Corruptible flesh and blood will never, ever make it to heaven. We don't know how the change will take place- that is the miracle beyond our comprehension that only our Lord knows, but we know it will take place.
May we be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye…
1Co 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior now and forever!
Amen.
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THE THRONE OF DAVID
Jesus says he is set down on his Father's throne, and will grant to the overcomer to sit down with him in his throne. Of this latter throne the angel said to Mary:--
"He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." Luke 1:32, 33.
The throne which he now occupies is the throne of the universe, and it can in no sense be called the throne of David. The difference between his occupancy of the two can be readily seen.
1. He inherits this throne as the son of David. On the throne of his Father in Heaven his genealogy is not reckoned.
2. David had no priesthood; and Christ will have no priesthood on David's throne. In Heaven only, as the antitype of Melchisedec, is he a priest.
3. He shall sit upon the throne of David forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. But he will resign the throne of his Father in Heaven, and of his priestly kingship there will be an end; he will deliver up that kingdom.
Now we may confidently appeal to every reader: To which of these thrones and kingdoms will the promises and prophecies apply, which we have been noticing? Which of these kingdoms will destroy the kingdoms of this world, and fill the whole earth? To which of these thrones will the saints be exalted? Will Jesus destroy his enemies while he sits a priest at his Father's right hand, or after he leaves that position, and takes possession of his own throne?
He will sometime say to the righteous, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; will he say this while he is on the Father's throne, or when he shall come again, in his own kingdom? See Matt. 25:31-41.
Mat 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Mat 25:37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
Mat 25:38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Mat 25:39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Mat 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels
James says: "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?" James 2:5. This describes the present position of the saints, and their relation to the kingdom. They who are rich in faith, and love God, are heirs of the kingdom, and not yet in possession.
Indeed, they cannot inherit the kingdom in their present mortal state; for if they did they would leave it to other people at their death. Some may doubt the correctness of this, thinking that it conflicts with the words of Paul in Rom. 8:38, 39; but it does not. Death cannot separate us from the love of Christ, for he is Lord both of the dead and the living. Rom. 14:9. He will redeem us from the grave, which is the land of the enemy; for death is an enemy. Jer. 31:15-17; 1 Cor. 15:26. But surely, when we are in the land of the enemy, under the dominion of death and the grave, we are not in the kingdom of
Christ.
On this point we have the most decisive testimony in the words of Paul in 1 Cor. 15:50: "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." Flesh and blood is an expression denoting a corruptible state, such as we all possess in this world of mortality. In this state we cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And why not?--
Because the kingdom of God is an everlasting kingdom; of the reign of Christ there will be no end. Being an incorruptible kingdom, only incorruptible subjects can inherit it; otherwise they would die and leave it to other people. From this point the apostle goes on to explain how we may inherit that kingdom. "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."
This will take place at the sounding of the last trump, when the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and the living shall be changed. At that time the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven "with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." 1 Thess. 4:14-17. Then the dead in Christ will arise immortal, and the living will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so be forever with the Lord.
Of this time the Lord Jesus speaks in Matt. 25:31-34. The Son of man will come in the glory of the Father, and all the holy angels with him. His voice will raise the saints, immortal, incorruptible; and then he will say to them: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." This is "the first dominion," for it was prepared from the foundation of the world. And that will be the first moment that the saints could inherit it, for until that time they are mortal, corruptible, and cannot inherit the incorruptible kingdom of God. The gospel of the kingdom is still being preached, and concerning it the prayer of faith is still ascending: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven."
Here we may emphasize the facts already noticed in regard to the true heirs. For purposes which have been considered, the children of Jacob had especial privileges for a season, and they might have occupied a high place in the fulfillment of the purposes of grace; but, as Jesus said, they would not. Matt. 23:37. For this unfaithfulness, for their oft despising the messengers of God's love and mercy, and finally for maliciously putting to death his only-begotten Son, their house was left desolate, and the kingdom of God was taken from them to be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. Matt. 21:33-43. From the first announcement of the gospel, this truth began to be given to them. John the Baptist said to them:--
"Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our Father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham."Matt. 3:9.
Do any think this was a hard saying? If so, why? He who could make a living soul of the dust of the ground, and can bring the dead from the earth, and would cause the very stones to cry out if necessary to have the words of the prophet fulfilled (Gen. 2:7; Luke 19:38-40), could make living beings of the stones of the valley of the Jordan, and make them children of Abraham through faith in Christ. And Jesus said that the literal descendants of Jacob, who did not believe in him, were not the children of Abraham, but were the children of the devil. John 8:39-44; compare Matt. 13:38, 39; Rev. 3:9.
The apostle Paul might have gloried because of his descent, yet he considered it all loss for Christ. Phil. 3:5, 7. How many have lost the treasures of the riches of God's grace in his covenant with Abraham, because of their vain boasting of their birth, proud of the accident of being born in a certain line, never accepting the word made plain to everyone, that they must be born again or they could never see the kingdom of God! Paul emphatically says they are not Jews; they are not the children of promise, and their circumcision is not circumcision (Rom. 2:28, 29); they have been broken off, so that they no longer belong to the stock of Israel, and they can only be restored by being grafted in again by faith in Christ. (Rom. 11:23); while the Gentiles by birth, who have accepted Christ, are no longer strangers; they are no more foreigners, but citizens of the commonwealth of Israel. Eph. 2:11-19.
Having traced the promises of the kingdom of David to their fulfillment, and having seen that it will be as extensive as, and identical with, the inheritance promised to Abraham and his seed, we are prepared to notice a query that has seemed to puzzle many minds. Seeing that the Scriptures declare that. Abraham was the heir of the whole world, why was he taken to the hill country of Palestine to be shown his inheritance? He was led from Mesopotamia to near the present site of Jerusalem, and there the Lord said to him, "Unto thy seed will I give this land." Why was not the promise made in the rich valley of the Euphrates? or why was he not taken to the land of Goshen, in Egypt? Let us illustrate our reply by a supposition. The empire of Russia is very large. Suppose that an individual were taken to some far-away corner of this empire, and told that he and his posterity should possess all the land that he could see, it might prove to be an inconsiderable gift. But take him to St. Petersburg, to a position overlooking the city, its palaces, and all the treasures of the empire; then tell him that all that he can see shall belong to him and his children after him, and that would be quite a different thing. So God took Abraham to the spot where the capital of the earth is to be located; where the city which hath foundations, for which Abraham looked, will come down from Heaven. Here Abraham offered Isaac; here the True Seed of promise died to purchase the inheritance of the children of Adam; and here will the triumphant Saviour descend to redeem the purchased possession. Here will David see his Son sit upon his glorious throne. Here will Adam recover his longlost garden, and again delight in approaching unto the tree of life. There was good reason why Abraham was led to this land, to the seat of the future capital of the whole world, to receive the promises. The great wonders of God's power and grace have been here displayed; and here will the full fruition of his gracious purpose be accomplished. Here Christ suffered; here he will triumph; here he will reign forever and ever.
"To the land where the Saviour of sinners once trod, Where he labored, and languished, and bled; Where he triumphed o'er death, and ascended to God, As he captive captivity led."
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