SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/28/2021 9:31 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3Intro to
Matt. 7:21-29
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
7:21-29
Message of the verses: “21 "Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many
will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and
in Your
name cast out demons, and in Your name
perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you;
DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ 24 "Therefore everyone who
hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who
built his house on the rock. 25 “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and
the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall,
for it had been founded on the rock. 26 “Everyone who hears these words of Mine
and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the
sand. 27 “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed
against that house; and it fell — and great was its fall." 28
When
Jesus had finished these words, the
crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one
having authority, and not as their scribes.”
We
are talking about or at least trying to answer what lulls people into such deception,
that is deception into not realizing the true meaning of salvation, and we
looked at the first reason yesterday, and now we want to look at the second
contributor to self-deception, and that is the failure of
self-examination. The heart of this deception
is that there are many people who believe that they are truly born-again
believers, but have the issue of being oblivious to and unconcerned about their
sins. Paul writes in the last chapter of
2 Corinthians the following “Test yourselves to see if you are in the
faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that
Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Cor. 13:5). I can also think for what David wrote at the
end of Psalm 130:23-24 “23 Search me, O
God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And
lead me in the everlasting way.” I have
just read a book about revival and in that book the author said that the word
search can mean “to ransack” which means a very inclusive search.
Of
course we need to understand what John has to say in 1 John 1:8-9 “8 If we say
that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
John
MacArthur writes “When a couple lives together without being married, when a
person practices homosexuality, is deceptive and dishonest in business, is
hateful and vengeful, or habitually practices any sin without remorse or
repentance, such persons cannot be Christian—no matter what sort of experience
they claim to have had or what sort of testimony they now make. God’s Word is explicit: ‘Do you not know that the unrighteous shall
not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not
be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God’ (1 Cor.
6:9-10). Again Paul warns, ‘For this you
know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is
an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for
because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience’
(Eph. 5:5-6). In each of those extremely
somber warnings Paul pleads with his readers not to be deceived.
“The
person who professes to be a Christian but who habitually and unrepentantly continues
in known sin makes out God to be liar, because His Word expressly denies that
any such person belongs to Him (1 John 3:6-10).” “6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who
sins has seen Him or knows Him. 7 Little children, make sure no one deceives
you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the
beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of
the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides
in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children
of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God,
nor the one who does not love his brother.”
2/28/2021
9:56 PM
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