Obedient Children Inherit Heaven
An all-creatures Bible Message

Obedient Children Inherit Heaven
 
A Sermon Delivered to
The Compassion Internet Church
 
22 November 2015
 
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor

Scripture References

Genesis 1:26-31
2 Samuel 23:1-7
Ephesians 2:1-3

Obedient children inherit heaven is another way of saying that the Lord will take all the children of God with Him to heaven.
 
Or we could say that the children of God receive the kingdom of God as their inheritance.
 
But what about the others who are not obedient; what happens to them?
 
They are left out of God’s presence and heaven.
 
Obedient children are the ones who follow God’s heavenly will and peacefully fight against the corrupt ways of this world and do their best to free the whole of creation from its present corruption.
 
But one of the main problems we have encountered in the world is that most of the people seriously misinterpret a verse in the first chapter of Genesis, or even worse, they are taught to believe in this misinterpretation by clergy who will face a greater judgement because they should have known better.
 
Let’s take a look at this verse: Genesis 1:26…

26. Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
NASB

This verse does not give us license to treat animals in any cruel way we want.
 
This verse does not give us license to kill and eat animals or wear their skins and fur.
 
What this verse teaches us is that we are to be caretakers of God’s creation including all the animals, and part if this caretaking is to protect these animals from the evil against them that is so prevalent in the world today.
 
And if you don’t believe this, take a look at what we are told in the remaining portion of this Bible paragraph and chapter.
 
Genesis 1:27-31

27. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God’s image is the spiritual image of our Father who is in heaven.

28. And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

We are not to subdue the animals; we are to subdue the earth, or more specifically the evil that could come upon the earth, which our early ancestors failed to do, and as most people fail to do today, which is evidenced by the rampant evil that is all over the earth, and causes the suffering and death of millions of human beings and billions of animals every year.
 
And just in case any of you are still having any doubts, note what we are told next.

29. Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;
 
30. and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so.
 
31. And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
NASB

Think about what we have been told; we are to eat only plant foods, just like the animals were to do.
 
And if we do this, then we would not be killing and eating animals, which is against the creation and heavenly will of God.
 
And God verified the truth of this by saying that everything He had done was very good.
 
Nothing was wrong with anything that God did.
 
It has only been the evil done by the ungodly people of this world who have corrupted creation that are causing so much pain, suffering, bloodshed, and death.
 
And, they are being encouraged by the people that go along with the evil they cause, and by those who know the truth but keep silent.
 
However, the relatively few obedient children remain faithful and do everything in their power to help free creation from its present corruption.
 
Let’s now take a look at 2 Samuel 23:1-7, which is about David who knew that obedient children inherit heaven; and he wanted to be one of them even though he did many evil things in his life, as most of us have done.

1. Now these are the last words of David.
David the son of Jesse declares,
And the man who was raised on high declares,
The anointed of the God of Jacob,
And the sweet psalmist of Israel,
 
2. "The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me,
And His word was on my tongue.

David is speaking of himself as a redeemed sinner, though we do wish that he had mentioned this about himself in these parting words, for there can be some confusion between what he says here and the many things he did wrong.
 
When we say that obedient children inherit heaven, we have to also understand that a vital quality of these children is that they have a repentant spirit, a spirit that is immediately sorry for anything they have done against God’s heavenly will, and ask the Lord for forgiveness.
 
With this in mind, let’s read the rest of David’s comments.

3. "The God of Israel said,
The Rock of Israel spoke to me,
'He who rules over men righteously,
Who rules in the fear of God,
 
4. Is as the light of the morning when the sun rises,
A morning without clouds,
When the tender grass springs out of the earth,
Through sunshine after rain.'

When we think about fearing God, we would be better off thinking about reverencing God, which is really being obedient children; for they listen to and follow everything their heavenly Father desires them to do.

5. "Truly is not my house so with God?
For He has made an everlasting covenant with me,
Ordered in all things, and secured;
For all my salvation and all my desire,
Will He not indeed make it grow?

Yes, David’s house led to Jesus, but along the way there were many evil acts, things that obedient children are not supposed to do.

6. "But the worthless, every one of them will be thrust away like thorns,
Because they cannot be taken in hand;

The reason for this is that they were not obedient children and did not possess a repentant spirit.
 
And the evil from associating with these people can be contagious and infect many other people, which is the reason that there is so much violence in the world today against human beings and other animals.
 
The proof of this is observing the death that they eat and support, just as we are told next.

7. But the man who touches them
Must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear,
And they will be completely burned with fire in their place." 
NASB

We are not to be like these evil people; we are not to associate with them; we are not to listen to them; we are to understand and remember that only obedient children inherit heaven.
 
Paul also writes about these things in other words in his letter to the Ephesians 2:1-3…

1. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
 
2. in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

The prince that Paul is writing about is the devil.
 
Paul is calling attention to the ways of the evil people of this world who do not possess a repentant spirit, but thanks be to God that His grace and mercy was extended to all believers who desire to repent and live in His heavenly will as His obedient children.
 
And Paul understands that we all came from the ways of the world.

3. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
NASB

We are no longer to be like the corrupt people of this world, but we are to always remember the way we were and the grace God bestowed upon us so that we would always shun the evil and corrupt ways of this world and do everything in our power, along with that of the Holy Spirit, to remain God’s obedient children.
 
Every one of us can eliminate the evil and corrupt ways of this world from our own lives, even if we cannot eliminate all of them in the world.
 
However, we should always be a witness against the corrupt people and their evil ways in the world around us, and that we are standing firm as God’s obedient children who live upon this earth in His heavenly will, and do everything in our power to peacefully free the whole of creation from its present corruption.
 
Remember, only God’s obedient children inherit heaven.
 
Amen.

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