Losing The Inheritance Of Christ's Kingdom Part 1

Losing The Inheritance Of Christ’s Kingdom I. The church of Jesus Christ is God’s kingdom in this world. MAT 16:18-19. A. It is a spiritual kingdom ruled by the Holy Spirit’s operation in the heart and by His revelation to the apostles of Jesus Christ. LUK 17:20-21; JOH 14:15-17 c/w 1JO 4:6. B. It has an inheritance of spiritual wisdom and understanding, spiritual comfort, love, peace, joy and fellowship with God, conformity to the perfect image of Jesus Christ, a state dinner honoring its Living Head (the Lord’s Supper), and hope for a deliverance unto a perfected state when the King returns. 1CO 15:23-24. C. It has laws of prescriptive and proscriptive nature: This DO and This FORBID. 1. Its body of law is Christ’s New Testament/Covenant, ratified by His blood. 1CO 11:24-25. 2. Many laws from the Old Testament are also in the New Testament but we are not under law to Moses, but to Christ. 1CO 9:21. D. Disobedience to Christ’s Laws by His Spirit jeopardizes a believer’s spiritual inheritance. 1. The jeopardy begins within by quenching/grieving the Spirit. EPH 4:30; 1TH 5:19. 2. If this quenching/grieving of the Spirit is not arrested by humble repentance, the Spirit begins to withdraw His influence in the soul, turning one over to further delusion and sin’s captivity. GAL 5:17-18 c/w ROM 8:5-6; 2TI 2:24-26. 3. Before any public action of the church to discipline a known offender, God has already passed judgment on such, letting sin take over. One may yet be in the church but not even cognizant of the fact that the Lord has departed from him. c/w JDG 16:20. 4. A church member can squander much of his spiritual inheritance before God’s justice catches up with him bringing him to public exposure and loss of membership and a place at Christ’s table. 1CO 4:5; 5:1-13. a. At that point, one is delivered from Christ’s kingdom of spiritual light unto Satan’s kingdom of spiritual darkness that he might hopefully learn repentance. 1CO 5:4-5 c/w 1TI 1:19-20. b. Only when one is utterly ashamed of his rebellious attitude and conduct will the possibility of spiritual healing and recovery be possible. JOB 42:6; LUK 15:18-19; PSA 51:3-12. c. NOTE: Pride not only goes before destruction (PRO 16:18), it holds one in destruction. II. God required Israel to have a complete review of the Law every seven years. DEU 31:9-13. A. Human nature, changing faces and circumstances, etc. tend to make us forget the law. The gospel only saves those who remember its laws. 1CO 15:1-2 c/w JAM 1:25. B. It is still a good work of wisdom to remind God’s people of the laws of their kingdom. 2PE 1:12-15; 3:1; 1CO 4:17; JUDE 1:5. C. Saints have the Holy Spirit, His law-book and every positive incentive to personally acquaint themselves with the knowledge of right and wrong so they can concur with PSA 119:109, 153. D. This is definitely an area where you can save yourselves. 1TI 4:16. III. Following is an alphabetical list of defined sins which Christ forbids in His kingdom and which imperil one’s spiritual inheritance and place in His kingdom. Losing The Inheritance Of Christ’s Kingdom 1-11-26 Page 1 Abusers of selves with mankind (1CO 6:9). Specifically homosexuality (sodomy) or lesbianism. See LEV 18:22; ROM 1:26-27; 1TI 1:9-10. Adultery (1CO 6:9; GAL 5:19). “Violation of the marriage bed; the voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with one of the opposite sex, whether unmarried, or married to another.” See LEV 20:10; HEB 13:4. Backbite (ROM 1:30). “To detract from the character of, to slander, traduce, speak ill of: a person absent.” Slander: The utterance or dissemination of false statements or reports concerning a person, or malicious misrepresentation of his actions, in order to defame or injure him; calumny, defamation. NOTE: Should be countered by an angry countenance (PRO 25:23). Blasphemy (2TI 3:2). “Profane speaking of God or sacred things; impious irreverence.” See 2KI 18:32-35 c/w 19:3. Boaster (2TI 3:2). “To speak vaingloriously, extol oneself; to vaunt, brag, to brag of, about, glory in.” See also Pride. Covenantbreaker (ROM 1:31). Covenant: A mutual agreement between two or more persons to do or refrain from doing certain acts; a compact, contract, bargains, sometimes the undertaking, pledge, or promise of one of the parties. For example, consider King Saul's error against the Gibeonites (JOS 9 c/w 2KI 21:1-2), or Laban's treachery with Jacob (GEN 29:18-25; 31:41). Marital infidelity even in the heart is a breach of the covenant of marriage. JOB 31:1; MAT 5:28-29. Covetous (ROM 1:29; 1CO 5:11; 6:10; 2TI 3:2). “Culpably or inordinately desirous of gaining wealth or possessions; esp. of that which belongs to another or to which one has no right; greedy, grasping, avaricious.” NOTE: Covetousness is a form of idolatry (COL 3:5). The negative sense of covetousness is obviously that which is censured. There is godly coveting (1CO 12:31; 14:39). Debate (ROM 1:29). “Strife, contention, dissension, quarrelling, wrangling; a quarrel.” NOTE: There is a positive aspect to debate (PRO 25:9; ACT 15:2, 7; 19:9). Differentiate between debating to discover truth and debating against the truth or debating solely out of a desire for contention. Deceit (ROM 1:29). “The action or practice of deceiving; concealment of the truth in order to mislead; deception, fraud, cheating, false dealing.” See 2CO 11:3; MAT 24:11; EPH 4:14. 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