SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/4/2021 8:44 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “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 continue looking at “Empty Words” from our verses in
Matthew and as we do we can say that Jesus’ word to the disobedient claimers
will be, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” Every one of their words of respect and honor
and also all their works of dedication and devotion will be declared empty and
worthless. They may have had God’s name
that they spoke in their mouths, but rebellion was in all of their hearts.
John MacArthur writes the following: “His saying, ‘I never knew you,’ does not, of
course, mean that Jesus was unaware of their identity. He knows quite will who these persons are;
they are deceived professing Christians whose lives were spent in the ‘practice’
[of] ‘lawlessness.’”
He goes on to explain what the words “to know” are all
about. “To Know’ was a Hebrew idiom that
represented intimate relations. It was
frequently used of marital intimacy (see Gen. 4:1, 17; etc., where ‘had
relations’ is literally ‘knew’ as in the KJV).
It was also used of God’s special intimacy with his chosen people Israel
and with all of those who trust in Him.
In a unique and beautiful way the Lord ‘knows those who take refuge in
Him’ (Nah. 1:7). The Good Shepherd knows
His sheep intimately (John 10:1-14).”
This quotation is a very important one for all to understand otherwise
they will miss the meaning of what Jesus is talking about when He says “I never
knew you.”
Jesus is saying this to the ones who claimed to know Him,
but who never trusted Him as their Savior and Lord. It is easy to say the word where one thinks
that they become a believer, but afterwards one must then show the works that go
along with being a believer in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:10). Now because Jesus did not know them to be a
part of “My kingdom” He will then say to them “Depart from Me,” and this is the
resulting final sentence to hell, and is identical in thought to the judgment
of Matthew seen in verse 25:41. This of
course, will happen at the Lord’s return:
“Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared
for the devil and his angels.” What is
awaiting them is the lake of fire as this verse from Revelation 20:15 shows
us.
One more quotation from MacArthur about the Geek language
and we will be done with this SD. “Practice
lawlessness’ is a present participle in the Greek, indicating continuous, regular
action, and identifies the unforgiven sin and unrighteous life patterns of
those claimers of salvation. ‘You’ continually and habitually ‘practice
lawlessness’ is the idea. Profession of
Christ and ‘practice’ of ‘lawlessness’ are totally incompatible. A good tree cannot bear that sort of fruit
(Matt. 7:18; John 3:4-10).”
3/4/2021 9:06 AM
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