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The Keys To The Kingdom of Heaven – Part 4

“All… Things… Are Yours”

1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Introduction

Having just answered an e-mail with the question, “How do we say ‘the Lord’s table is contemptible?” I was reminded that very few Christians would confess that they have ever said, “The Lord’s table is contemptible.” The way most Christians understand that verse of scripture (Mal 1:7) is to place that sin upon only the Jews of Malachi’s day and time, or someone else who is evil enough to say ‘the Lord’s table is contemptible’. Many Christians would emphatically deny that such a statement was theirs or that “all things are yours” would include such a sin against our Lord.

That statement comes from:

Mal 1:7  Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.

Christ made it clear that the food on His table is the doctrines which He came to give to us:

Luk 24:40  And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.
Luk 24:41  And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
Luk 24:42  And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
Luk 24:43  And he took it, and did eat before them.
Luk 24:44  And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luk 24:45  Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Of course others have polluted the Lord’s table, but it is a rare person indeed who is brought to see that everything he or she has been taught to believe, and everything we have always taught as the doctrines on the Lord’s table, are in fact the very doctrines which are “polluted bread upon [the Lord’s] table”. When we offer false doctrine as “polluted bread upon [the Lord’s] table” that is how we say, “The Lord’s table is contemptible.” When we teach that we should hate our enemies while Christ’s doctrine is ‘love your enemies’, we are saying, “The table of the Lord is contemptible.” Any and all who “offer polluted bread upon [the Lord’s] altar” have not yet been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven and are not capable of ‘binding on earth that which has been bound in heaven or loosing on earth that which has been loosed in heaven’.

Mat 18:18  Positively, I say to you, whatever [things] you bind on the earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever [things] you loose on the earth will have been loosed in heaven.  (ALT)

“All things are yours”

On the other hand, anyone who understands that “all things are yours” is to be applied personally and inwardly has one of the keys to the kingdom of heaven and will, by using that key, understand how all the rest of the scriptures apply to all who have been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. This key of the kingdom of heaven is in complete accord with our previous key, which taught us that we must live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God. Just how all inclusive is this phrase “all things”? It will serve us well to have eyes that see or ears that hear the depth of the spiritual meaning of “all things are yours”.

So let’s take the time to analyze the truths revealed in this verse of scripture:

1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Now ‘Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas…  or life’ does not sound all that bad, but “the world… or death, or things present, or things to come” are all filled with evil, and are not all that pleasant to contemplate as being ours. So let’s take this verse one step at a time and see how this key opens up to us the kingdom of heaven.

I am of Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas

The apostle Paul has already twice chastened these Corinthian brothers for their childish angel worship. This is one of the first problems he addresses in this epistle:

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 
1Co 1:11  For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
1Co 1:12  Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
1Co 1:13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? 

Such respect of persons is not the fruit of a maturing Christ. So Paul explains in the second chapter that he could not speak to the Corinthians of dying with Christ. Instead he spoke only of Christ and Him crucified, which he explains would be understood by those who are maturing in its much more mature sense as a spiritual type of the spiritual crucifixion within all who are maturing in Christ.

1Co 2:1  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1Co 2:2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and  him crucified. 

If indeed all things are ours, then “all things”  must surely include the fruit of this angel worship part of “all things” that are ours. Lo and behold, that is exactly what Paul tells us of ourselves at the beginning of our walk. Just as angel worship is condemned twice in the book of Revelation (Rev 19:10, Rev 22:8-9), so here in 1 Corinthians Paul also twice condemns this part of “all things are ours”.

Here is his second admonition against this immature, divisive and destructive spirit which afflicted the church at Corinth as it afflicts all of us at our own appointed time:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 

For those who have been given eyes that see and ears that hear, which is just another way of saying they have been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven, Paul is again posing the question, “Is Christ divided?” He has already answered his own rhetorical question when admonishing the Corinthians and you and me, “That ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” That is our goal, and we certainly will not condone those who would divide the body of Christ and actually do so in the name of tolerance and unity. That is a perfect example of each of us offering polluted bread upon the Lord’s altar and saying “The table of the Lord is contemptible”.

Mal 1:6  A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
Mal 1:7  Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.

Those who do not have the keys to the kingdom of heaven have not been given eyes that see and ears that hear “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 13:10-13) will say, “Lord you know it is not possible to keep your words in 1Corinthians 1.”

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Those who do not possess the keys to the kingdom of heaven will argue, “Come on, Lord! You know the best we can even hope for is ‘agreement in the essentials, tolerance in the non essentials, and love in all things’.”

Those “mysteries” of heaven of Matthew 13 concern the King of that kingdom, and the King is still the King even when we fail to know who He is. Here is how Christ reacted to those who failed to recognize him as the King of the kingdom of heaven:

Joh 5:39  You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!
Joh 5:40  Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can give you this eternal life.
Joh 5:41  Your approval or disapproval means nothing to me,
Joh 5:42   because I know you don’t have God’s love within you.
Joh 5:43   For I have come to you representing my Father, and you refuse to welcome me, even though you readily accept others who represent only themselves. 
Joh 5:44  No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from God alone. (NLT)

But “all things are yours”, and all things are mine, and you and I have been, and some of us may at this moment be, guilty of angel worship and may still be followers of certain ministers within the body of Christ. We are all guilty of our own angel worship, and we may not even be aware of how divisive such a spirit is. Because “all things are ours” that includes 1Corinthians 1:12-13 and 1Corinthians 3:1-4, and “all things are [ours]” includes these verses in Revelation:

Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Rev 22:8  And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9  Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

In time we mature to the point that we, too, realize:

1Co 3:5  Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
1Co 3:7  So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
1Co 3:8  Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
1Co 3:9  For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

Until we are given eyes to see the Truth that is revealed in these verses, we are just like Catholics and Protestants and every other religion in the world; we are indeed divided. However, Christ is not divided, and He is neither a Catholic nor a Protestant. The factions and sects of all religions who reject the doctrines of Christ, including all Christendom, testify against all of her daughters that they really are of their mother “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of abominations of the world”. It is this harlot, which harlot is all religions whose doctrines are in opposition to the doctrines of Christ, of whom we must all “come out”:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

The spirit of this harlot is the divisive spirit which would sow discord among us by saying “I am of Paul [or], I am of Cephas [or] I am of Apollos”. It takes a miracle from God to keep the daughters of that great harlot, liberal and conservative Catholics, and liberal and conservative Protestants, from seeing themselves as the divided Christ Paul spoke of when He asked, “Is Christ divided?” They are all held together by the false doctrine within their corrupting mantra of “unity in the essentials, tolerance in the nonessentials, but love in all things.” God’s Word has no “nonessentials”, and anyone who thinks it does has no concept of the Biblical definition of ‘love’, which is:

1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

All things really are ours, and there are no ‘nonessential’ words of Christ, and Christ is not divided. Knowing this Truth is one of the many keys to the kingdom of God which is within us:

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

All of Christ’s ministers are ours, and all of His Words are ours.

“The world”

“The world?” Is “the world” really ours? How can that be if we are Christ’s? How does “…the world is [yours]” accord with:

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

How can those words possibly accord with:

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Living in a world which has been under the influence of “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots” and being raised up under the false doctrines of that great harlot, which limits God’s sovereignty to only “every good and perfect gift”, explains why those two verses appear to many to contradict each other.

Jas 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

The fact that every good gift is from God does not deny God also sends evil spirits to trouble us, or that He even “creates evil”:

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

The doctrines of the great harlot and almost all of her harlot daughters blatantly deny the Biblical truths which are found in these verses:

Gen 45:8  So now it was not you [Joseph’s brothers, who sold him into Egyptian slavery] that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Those are just three of literally dozens of verses of scripture which declare plainly that God is sovereign over all things good and all things evil, and that there is not one evil deed done in the city which was not “made… for Himself”, as the  scriptures plainly declare:

Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 

The truth of the scriptures is that mankind is not capable of making anything happen of his own will. The truth of the scriptures is that God had all of our decisions written in His book of each of us before we were ever born:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

Pro 20:24  Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. 

The New Testament accords with the Old:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” tells us that we are not even capable of sinning except the Lord has ordained that man must first be a hopeless sinner, desperately in need of a Savior.

That is how “the world… is [ours]”, and that is how the truth of 1Corinthians 3:21-22 in no way contradicts the Truth of 1John 2:15:

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Here in very clear language is what God is in the process of doing in the lives of all men of all time:

Psa 90:3  Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

So yes, “all things are [ours, including] the world, [and] the love of the world”, before we are then “dragged to God” by His spirit:

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 6:65  And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

All things are yours, whether… life or death

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Life is ours? Well, if we are enjoying life that is fine. We all want to enjoy life, but how or why would we be told that death is ours? Especially in the light of these words of our Lord to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, just minutes before He raised up Lazarus from the dead:

Joh 11:26  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

What is Christ telling us through this conversation with Martha about her dead brother Lazarus? Is Christ telling us that if we are physically alive and we believe in Him, as Martha did, then she and we will never physically die? Is that what Christ means when He tells Martha, “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

Considering that Christ Himself died shortly after making this statement, it should be obvious that the death and the life under consideration in the mind of Christ when He made that statement was more in line with these verses of scripture which reveal the spiritual life and the spiritual death that are ours as part of this key to the understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom of God within us:

Luk 9:59  And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Luk 9:60  Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

Luk 20:37  Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Luk 20:38  For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

There it is! All things are ours. That is one more key of “the keys to the kingdom of heaven”. Physical life, without Christ within us, is nothing more than the walking dead to Christ. On the other hand, it is a great key to understanding the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven within us if we also understand that physical death is not death at all to a God to whom all live even though their physical bodies have long ago returned to the dust from whence they came.

Mat 9:24  He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.

Joh 11:11  These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

Having a better understanding of this “all things are yours” key to the kingdom of heaven, let’s read again how Christ answered His apostles when they asked why He spoke to the multitudes in parable:

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because… [the keys to the kingdom of heaven are] given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [those keys are] not given. 
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Let’s also remember where Christ tells us that kingdom is at this time:

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. 

If Christ takes up His abode within us while we are in these clay vessels, then “now are we the sons of God [and we] shall never die… for all live unto him.” If Christ is living His life within us while we are yet in these clay vessels, we will be raised up from among the dead at the beginning of the thousand-year reign of Christ to judge this world during that time, and then to judge angels in the lake of fire which will follow the thousand years of the rule and reign of “the Lord and… His Christ”:

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. [Greek: aions of the aions]

All of this is already done from God’s perspective. Knowing that perspective is one of the keys to the kingdom of heaven within us. ‘Whether life or death, all things [are ours]” to live and to know, but in the end, “all live unto him” (Luk 20:38).

“…or things present, or things to come; all are yours;”

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

What an incredible statement! Which “things present” are ours? The answer is repeated: “For all things are yours… [and then again], all are yours”. Which “things to come” are ours? The answer is the same “… all things are [ours]… whether… things present or things to come; all are yours”.

Most of what is present and most of what is to come in “this present evil age” is just that – ‘evil’. How is it that all the evil of this age is ours? Here is the answer to that question directly out of the mouth of our Lord Himself, connecting this very principle of “all things are [ours]” to “the key of knowledge”, which is the same as “the keys to the kingdom of heaven”.

Luk 11:47  Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
Luk 11:48  Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
Luk 11:49  Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 
Luk 11:51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. 
Luk 11:52  Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

Conclusion

There we have it. We can now add ‘things past are ours’ without adding to the Word of God. All the daughters of the great harlot who persecuted and killed the prophets and the apostles, and who then “build their sepulchres”, also have a day on the calendar on which to honor Him whom their fathers have slain. In doing so, according to Christ they are doing nothing less than “allowing the deeds of [their] fathers”. These words are just as applicable to us today as they were to the church of Christ’s day.

Rom 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures [including “all things are [ours]”] might have hope.
Rom 15:5  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
Rom 15:6  That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Will those words in Luke 11, right out of the mouth of our Lord Himself, make that great harlot, or any of her harlot daughters, repent and change their ways in this age? The answer is, absolutely not! Only those who “come out of her” will repent and be delivered from the bondage of the days, months, times and years, which make up the “traditions of men”, who continue to build the sepulchres and celebrate the works of men, past and present.

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Those who have not been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven are those who cannot possibly accept the plain statement here in 1 Corinthians 3 that even “the world [and] death” are ours, and that we must all live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, including “yes, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Pro 16:4) in each of us. Those who have taken away the key of knowledge of how to enter into the kingdom of heaven, will never agree that “all things are yours” really means “all things… the world, death, things present and thing to come”. And those who refuse this key to the kingdom of heaven also go as far as to hinder those who are entering into the kingdom of heaven. “…Ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.” (Luk 11:52) Even those sad words are “in me that is in my flesh” (Rom 7:18).

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

This is the apostle Paul speaking, and he is simply acknowledging that ‘all things are his’. All that is in Adam was in Paul’s flesh, and all that is in Adam… all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” is in all of us, and that is how “all things are [ours]”. That is a key to the doors of the kingdom of heaven. When we use that key, the mind of Christ becomes our mind:

1Co 2:16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Lord willing, in our next study we will examine the fourteen times the key to the kingdom of heaven of the “is, was, and is to come” nature of Christ and His doctrines and His Words are repeated.

Rev 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

[Part five can be found here.]