SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/6/2021 7:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-5 “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.’
It
is my desire to finish this section in today’s SD and then begin looking at the
remaining verses in the 7th chapter of Matthew’s gospel in our next
SD.
We
have already discussed the term “not everyone” from verse 21 stating that there
will actually be believer’s that Jesus is talking about. Now because Jesus does not question the
factualness of the claims, it is possible that actual prophecies were made,
demons cast out, and some kind of miracles performed even by those who were not
genuine believers. How do we understand
this?
John
MacArthur writes “There are three possible explanations for the claim of false
believers. It may be that they were
allowed to do those amazing works by God’s power. God put words in Balaam’s mouth, even though
that prophet was false and wicked (Num. 23:5).
King Saul, after he became apostate, had the ‘Spirit of God [come] upon
him mightily, so that he prophesied’ (1 Sam. 10:10). The wicked high priest Caiaphas unwittingly
and unintentionally ‘prophesied that Jesus was going to die for a nation’ (John
11:51).” I would like to add another
person to this list and that would be Judas for we see in the gospels that
Jesus sent his disciples out to heal people and I have to believe that Judas
was one of them who went out doing these miracles.
Now
we want to look at a second possibility:
“is that those amazing acts were accomplished by Satan’s power. Jesus predicted that ‘false Christs and false
prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if
possible, even the elect’ (Matt. 24:24).
The unbelieving sons of Sceva, for example, were Jewish exorcists, who
made their living casting out demons (Acts 19:13-14). Mark 9:38-40 tells of someone outside the
apostles casting out demons. Paul
promises false signs in the last days, lying wonders, of Satan (2 Thess.
2:8-10). Acts 8:11 describes the work of
a satanic sorcerer. Today there are
miracle workers, healers, and exorcist who claim to work for Jesus Christ but
are satanic deceivers.” I remember a man
who had cancer and was close to dying but before he would die he went to a
person who told him to go and see a faith healer and that he would receive good
news. He got the good news, but he still
died a short time later because the good news did not last very long.
MacArthur
speaks of “A third possibility is that some of the claims were simply
false. The prophecies, exorcisms, and
miracles were fake and contrived. No
doubt all three will be represented.”
It
makes no difference whether or not the works were done in God’s power or were
not done in God’s power, the people who did them did not belong to Him and thus
did not truly recognize Him as Lord, despite their profession. These false prophets and believers had no
part in His kingdom, or not in His righteousness, so those works, even if
genuine or not, done by God or were satanic, would stand them in no good stead
before the time when these would stand at the “great white throne judgment
seat.”
We
conclude with the following words that are engraved from the cathedral of
Lubeck, Germany, as they beautifully reflect our Lord’s teaching here:
“Thus speaketh Christ our
Lord to us, You call Me master and obey Me not, you call Me light and see Me
not, you call Me the way and walk Me not, you call Me life and live Me not, you
call Me wise and follow Me not, you call Me fair and love Me not, you call Me
rich and ask Me not, you call Me eternal and seek Me not, if I condemn they,
blame Me not.”
3/6/2021 8:18 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment