NO INHERITANCE IN THE KINGDOM
Thursday – February 9, 2017
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ from The Three Minute Word publication. Looks like winter in Maine don’t you think. You can almost feel the cold emanating from the picture. Well, let’s delve right back into our Bible Study from the fifth chapter of Ephesians.
Ephesians 5:5-7 (KJV)
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
Let’s look at the Amplified translation to hopefully anchor this in our souls, for these things are to have no place with us.
Ephesians 5:5-7 (AMP)
5 For be sure of this: that no person practicing sexual vice or impurity in thought or in life, or one who is covetous [who has lustful desire for the property of others and is greedy for gain]—for he [in effect] is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (Bold added by Dr. Wood)
6 Let no one delude and deceive you with empty excuses and groundless arguments [for these sins], for through these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of rebellion and disobedience.
7 So do not associate or be sharers with them.
An idol is anything (idea, object, and person) that we put in front of or higher than God in our lives. Just think about this, any sin is idolatry, it is something we wanted to do more than obey God, and we put it before God.
Exodus 20:3-6 (KJV)
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
The first thing that flashes into most of our minds with mention of the word idol is a physical statue of some sort. The first commandment is to have no other gods before Jehovah and the second dives into the graven image thing and talks about the consequences of having another god or submitting to images of created things and not the Creator Himself. Again, anything that takes preeminence over the Word of God is an idol. As each of us go through our day today and every day we must examine our ideas, our words, and our actions to see if those are in harmony with the Word of God and are subject to the Word of God. Are we tossing the Word of God aside to accommodate an idea, a way of speaking, association with a person(s) with whom we should not, or do we have ways of acting which are ungodly?
Now we come to a phrase that should bring great introspection and seriousness to our heart; “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God”. Please focus on the portion I have underlined. Any of us who persist in idolatry have chosen another god, a god who offers no redemption from sin and entry into Heaven. As a result Heaven is not going to be our home. You do not have to read very far in the Bible to find out that God, the Creator God, has a very low tolerance for idolatry, the placing of anything before Him. Adam chose the serpent as his (their) god and look how good that all turned out. An inheritance is something one is given full possession of according to the will of another (in this case God).
There are those who believe the false devilish doctrine of ‘once saved always saved’. The argument is that if it should turn out that a person does not make it to Heaven they were not saved in the first place. Of course this is true on its face for there is some number of persons in Church that are playing Church and are not among the redeemed never having made Jesus Lord. The question is this, if a person genuinely receives Jesus as Lord, and perhaps is even filled with the Holy Ghost, and perhaps was a part of Five-Fold Ministry, can they be lost in the end? The short answer is YES. To say that the correct answer is NO would violate the God given spiritual law of free-will or self-determination. Perhaps those of you who have further questions can get further clarity by reviewing the Book of Jude. I will pick up here tomorrow moving into verse six.
Ephesians 5:6 (KJV)
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
