Inheritance.

 An inheritance. How many expected inheritances do you imagine are never inherited by those expecting them? Most of the people I know do not have any inheritances of any great worth. I live among the people who mostly live paycheck to paycheck, with very little if any savings, with retirement funds very low if existing at all, and so when I think of inheritances I tend to think of the wealthy. When my own mother passed and her five children inherited her possessions, we didn't have anything to haggle over. There were no lawyers involved when we divided what people consider the assets of a deceased person. My sisters and I sat in a room among all her boxes and storage bins and over the course of a few days, all was said and done- except for a very few things here and there. The money she left behind was divided as per her wishes, and that was that.  That is the only inheritance I have any firsthand partaking of.  Because there wasn't a substantial inheritance there was no thought of it throughout my life. I didn't grow up with the expectation of any inheritance as some children do when they have wealthy or very wealthy parents or grandparents. I imagine most people are like me and not like the wealthy because the poorer people vastly outweigh the wealthy in our world.

So, why all the talk about inheritance? Because there IS an inheritance we ALL have equal opportunity to be a part of should we choose to be.

Like any inheritance it is NOT something fully realized until after the death of the one you are inheriting from.

In this case, the death we await is literally the death of our current world, the death of all of evil humanity. Our inheritance is to be the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus, God's only begotten Son ministered upon earth He taught that He wasn't there to make the current world better. He wasn't there to remove all pain, anguish, heartache, sickness, misery that makes up a lot of our existence. He came to preach the Kingdom of God, a future, an inheritance!  We would suffer now and suffer until the day of redemption.

Jesus said this-- 

Joh 17:1  These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 

Joh 17:2  As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 

Joh 17:4  I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 

Joh 17:5  And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. 

Joh 17:6  I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. 

Joh 17:7  Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 

Joh 17:8  For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. 

Joh 17:9  I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. 

Joh 17:10  And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. 

Joh 17:11  And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 

Joh 17:12  While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. 

Joh 17:13  And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 

Joh 17:14  I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 

Joh 17:15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 

Joh 17:16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 

Joh 17:18  As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 

Joh 17:19  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 

Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 

Joh 17:21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 

Joh 17:22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 

Joh 17:23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 

Joh 17:24  Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 

Joh 17:25  O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. 

Joh 17:26  And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. 

Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 

Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 

Mat 6:11  Give us this day our daily bread. 

Mat 6:12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

Mat 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. 

Mat 6:14  For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 

Mat 6:15  But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses

Act 1:11  Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. 

2Th 1:7  And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 

2Th 1:8  In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 

2Th 1:9  Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; 

2Th 1:10  When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. 

Joh_14:2  In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

Joh_14:3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

He went to prepare a place for us in the Father's kingdom- our inheritance after the destruction, after the death of all evil humanity. 

There is a very real inheritance waiting for us all, an inheritance worth more than any earthly inheritance in existence. Jesus came to offer us all a chance in the kingdom to come, may we be with Him in the kingdom and may that kingdom come soon.

Even so, come Lord Jesus, come!

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CHAPTER IX. HEIRS OF THE KINGDOM

"And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." Dan. 2:44.

Here is presented a strong contrast between this kingdom and its predecessors. The Babylonian empire was mighty and magnificent. Its capital has never been equaled by any city on the earth. But it became exceedingly wicked, and the same Being who gave this dominion to Nebuchadnezzar, declared that it should be utterly destroyed. Belshazzar and his thousand lords, and his hosts of mighty ones, laughed to scorn the efforts of their invaders; they mocked and insulted the true and living God. But the sure word of prophecy was spoken against Babylon, and that word has never failed--it cannot fail. To show how wonderfully the prophecies of God are fulfilled, we will give quotations from two prophets in regard to the destruction of Babylon.

Isaiah spoke of this in the year 712 b. c. This was just about one hundred years before Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Jerusalem, when Babylon was the rising power of the earth. It was one hundred and seventy years before its conquest by Cyrus. Thus said the prophet:--

"And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the island shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged." Isa. 13:19-22. 

When we consider that the city was then becoming the glory of the Chaldees' excellency, exceedingly strong, that the situation was desirable, and the land very productive, it seemed highly improbable that it should ever become so utterly desolate--even a place to be avoided--as the prophet said. But every word has been literally fulfilled. Generation after generation has passed, and the place of the glorious city continues in the very condition described by the prophet. And very wonderful are the words of Jeremiah, spoken in the year 595 b. c. This was eleven years after Daniel was carried captive into Babylon; eight years after the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. Therefore the solemn words of this prophecy were sent of God when this mighty monarch was reigning in the greatest pride of his glory. It was fifty-seven years before Babylon fell. The following are a part of the words of this prophecy:-- 

"Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. And the land shall tremble and sorrow; for every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their holds; their might hath failed, they became as women; they have burned her dwelling places, her bars are broken. One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end.

"And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant. 

 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captain, and her rulers, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary." Jer. 51:28-31, 37, 57, 58. 

No one can intelligently read the words of the prophets without becoming convinced of the correctness of the apostle Peter's statement, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." 2 Peter 1:19.

Babylon fell, and the kingdom passed into the hands of the Persians. In like manner was it transferred to the Grecians and then to the Romans. These "masters of the world" thought they had secured a sure supremacy; but they were as vicious as they were powerful, and a rude people became their conquerors. One generation after another passes away, and wars change the boundaries of the kingdoms of the earth. But of the fifth kingdom the word stands sure: It shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. They who possess it shall possess it forever and ever.

Considering that the very intention to make man was connected with the gift of a dominion, and the first gift to man was a dominion, we cannot be surprised that the restoration of the kingdom becomes especially prominent in the promises of God to man. Nor need we be surprised if he who was instrumental in robbing man of his first dominion, puts forth every effort to obscure and pervert this great and important truth. As to its importance and interest, we notice:--

1. The first proclamation of the forerunner of Christ, was concerning the coming kingdom: "Repent ye for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Matt. 3:1, 2.

2. The beginning of the preaching of Jesus Christ was the same proclamation: "Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe the gospel." Mark 1:14, 15.

3. The first of the beatitudes pronounced by the Saviour in the sermon on the mount, was concerning the kingdom: "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." Matt. 5:3.

4. The first petition of the Lord's prayer was for the coming of the kingdom: "Thy kingdom come." Matt. 6:10.

5. When Jesus sent forth his disciples to preach the gospel, this was the burden of their commission: "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Matt. 10:7.

6. Jesus said: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matt. 24:14. The object of the present dispensation is the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom to prepare a people to inherit it when it shall be set up.

7. And finally, when the Saviour comes in his glory, for the full redemption of his people, then will he say to the saints: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matt. 25:34.  

Some have showed their firm belief in the theory that the kingdom has already come,-by saying the Lord's prayer is not appropriate for this dispensation; it was given to the disciples before he had set up his kingdom, but now it is unfitting to pray that his kingdom may come. But as the subject of the prophecy of Daniel 2, and of the promises, it certainly has not come. Nothing has yet come, or been set up, which has restored the first dominion; which has caused the meek to inherit the earth; which has restored the kingdom and the throne of David. The promises remain to be fulfilled. Neither Abraham nor his seed has inherited the earth. Neither David nor his seed has seen the promised restoration and everlasting triumph of his reign. But the question will perhaps be asked: Is not Jesus, the son of David, already exalted to a throne? Is he not on a throne at the present time? Truly, he is; but not as the son of David, because he is not on the throne of David. We must bear in mind that there are two thrones and two kingdoms.

To be continued…