SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/3/2021 11:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Empty
Words”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
7:21-23
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.’”
We
can see from the highlighted words that there are some whom Jesus is talking
about are true believers and this can be seen by the words “Not everyone”, and
then He uses the word “Many” and this refers to those who are on the broad
path, those who think they can make it to heaven on their own by doing the
works that are described here. Believers
are to do good works, but those good works come after they realize that those
good works do not nor can they ever save them.
Notice Ephesians 2:8-10 “8 For by grace you have been saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a
result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in
them.” Verses 8-9 show us how a
person is saved, and then verse 10 shows us what a true believer does after he
is saved, and I have said many times that I believe that the Lord has planned
for these works to be done by believers in eternity past, as you notice the
highlighted words from verse 10.
Now
we want to discuss what time Jesus is talking about in verses 21-23, and
MacArthur thinks that this is “The Great White Throne Judgment” seen in the 20th
chapter of Revelation. He writes “If
Jesus is speaking about the great white throne judgment, many professing
believers who are not genuine will already have spent centuries in hell
awaiting their final judgment (see Luke 16:23-26; Acts 1:25). Because they were so zealous and active and
diligent in religious work—in the Lord’s own ‘name’—they are incredulous that
they are even standing before Christ to be judged. Even at that time they will address Christ as
‘Lord’ and speak to Him in desperation with the greatest respect and
sincerity. Their words and their works
will seem impressive to them, but their lives will not support the claim of
their lips. In Luke 6:46 Jesus said, ‘Why
do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?’”
We
can see also from the highlighted words in verse 21 that it is not the one who
simply claims the Lord, but the one “who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” he is the one
who is saved! So what is the issue? The issue is obedience to the Word of
God. You cannot make up your own rules;
you have to follow what the Word of God tells you to do. John 8:31 says “So Jesus was saying to those
Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you
are truly disciples of Mine.” Now there
are other verses that are similar which I will just name and not quote: John 6:66-69; Matt. 24:13; Col. 1:22-23; 1
Timothy 4:16; Heb. 3:14; 10:38-39; 1 John 2:19. Please pay attention to the
following sentence. “Salvation and
obedience to the will of God are inseparable, as the writer of Hebrews makes
clear: ‘He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation’
(Heb. 5:9) Compare Rom. 1:5; 6:16; 15:18; 16:19, 26; 1 Pet. 1:2, 22.”
3/3/2021
12:05 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment