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11-28-2021 Weekly Message

Meditation of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: Psalm 17:14-15

Word Title: Those who receive their portion in this life VS those who receive their portion in the world to come (millennial kingdom)

          Although King David was in the most glorious position in the world at that time, he asked God to save his soul. He prayed to save himself from those who are the hands of the Lord and those who have received their portion in this life.

         He spoke to God of those who received their portion in this life saying, ”  Whose belly thou fillest with thy hid {treasure}: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their {substance} to their babes.”(v14)

        They were people who only hoped for the blessings they would receive in this world, God had compassion on them, and God gave them many riches while they were alive. And they pile up their treasure to inherit to their children when they leave the world.

        However, King David confessed to God that it was not his goal to enjoy glory in his earthly life. He knew that the life in the earth,  seventy years or eighty if strong, is labor and sorrow, and that when it is soon cut off, he flies away (Psalm 90:10). He had not set up himself in the present world and lived only in the hopes of being transformed into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ when he is be resurrected in the day of Christ:

“As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. ” (Psalm 17:15).

        God, who gave free will to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, also gave free will to all people born into the world. Those who live according to their lusts as they please in this life, gather wealth by any means and methods, have many children to be treated by them, and when they die, they inherit all their possessions to their children, and even after death they  hope to be respected by their children. There are so-called two kinds of people who, like king David realize themselves as sinners, and  have their sins forgiven through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to be washed with the blood of Christ, and live in righteousness, and only hope that they shall be transformed into the image of Christ when Christ appears.

       King David received the honor of being transferred to heaven one day, a thousand years after his death, in the blessing of being resurrected with Christ. Apostle Matthew witnessed and testified of the resurrection of many Old Testament saints, definitely including King David:

“Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; 52And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

53And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. ” (Matthew 27:50-53).

        Apostle John testified to the saints living in the same hope as King David:

”  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3).

         Asaph, a Levite, who had a singing job in the temple of God, saw those who had received their portion in this life and envy them. He finally repented  confessing to God the sin of hating them:

“ Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. 2But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.

6Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.

7Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. 8They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.

9They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. 10Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. 11And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? 12Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

13Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. 14For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. 15If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.” (Psalm 73:1-15).

         Asaph’s confession is that today’s Christians sometimes think and struggle with their hearts, but like Asaph, they finally realize their sins and repent:

 “When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;

17Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. 18Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.

19How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.

20As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

21Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. 22So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee. .” (Psalm 73:16-22)

         Jesus gave the promise to his disciples who would forsake every portion of their lifeto follow him:

“Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,

30But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. 31But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.” (Mark 10:29-31).

        When Jesus spoke of  “the world to come”, he was referring to his Millennial Kingdom  that he would establish in the earth  in the future. These are the words of promise not only to the disciples who followed the Lord without taking up their portion in the short-lived world, but also to all those who follow Jesus Christ looking forward to the day of Christ like King David. The prophet Ezekiel prophesied that at the coming of the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ, King David would be resurrected and reign over Israel:

“And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. 24And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it..” (Ezekiel 34:23-24)

       When the Bible speaks of those who have the portion in this life and those who shall receive the portion in the world to come, it says that those who receive the portion in the world to come are those who have the portion through the first resurrection, and others are those who have  their portion through the second resurrection. Regarding those who have portion  in the first resurrection, Apostle John testified:

“4And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” (Rev 20:4-6)

          Regarding the first resurrection that appears three times in the Bible, the first one  is the resurrection of the Old Testament saints, the second is the resurrection of the New Testament Christians who are to be resurrected before the Great Tribulation and are raptured, and the third one is the the saints in the Great Tribulation not receiving the mark of the beast at the end of the great tribulation. It is the resurrection of the Tribulation Saints who are resurrected after death.

        Those who receive their portion in this world and die without believing in Jesus Christ are those who participate in the second resurrection after the Millennial Kingdom, and they are those who are resurrected to receive the second death, the lake of fire, in the judgment at the Great Throne of God.  Apostle John testified:

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.… And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire..” (Rev 20:11-12, 14-15)

          Apostle Paul delivered a message of comfort to the saints of Christ awaiting the first resurrection:

” If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. 24Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.” (1 Corinthians 15:19-24). Amen! Hallelujah!