SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/10/2021 8:42 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-5 “A Disciple Confesses the Lord”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:32-33
Message of the verses: “32 "Therefore
everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father
who is in heaven. 33 “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him
before My Father who is in heaven.”
I have been mentioning throughout the entire time
that Jesus is instructing His Apostles to go out on this short term missions
trip that what He is saying telescopes into the future, as the things that He
is talking about did not happen to the Apostles while they were on this
missions trip. With that in mind I want
to talk about some things that will happen at the end of the tribulation as
seen in Matthew chapter 13 where Jesus talks about the sower, of the wheat and tares,
then later on talks about the parable of the dragnet. All three of which illustrate distinctions
between true and false faith. He
pictured the judgment of the nations at the end of the tribulation as the
separation of believing sheep which go to His right and unbelieving goats which
go to his left. “Then the King will say
to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34).
MacArthur
writes “The sheep are those who not only identify themselves with Him but who,
by their public confession of Him and their daily obedience to His will,
reflect His own love and compassion by serving others in His name (vv. 35-36,
40). They confess Christ by their words
and their actions, by loving as He loved, reaching out as He reached out,
caring as He cared. The all-essential
hallmark of being a true disciple of Christ—and therefore of truly confessing
Christ—is to be like Christ, our Teacher and Master.”
MacArthur
goes on to talk move about the story of the sheep and the goats: “In the story of the sheep and goats, Jesus
went on to say, ‘Then He [the King] will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart
from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil
and his angels’’ (Matt. 25:41). Although
pagans, agnostics, atheists, and every other kind of unbeliever will face the
same eternal fire, Jesus was not talking about such people in this
illustration. He was speaking of those
who claimed to be followers and who will say to Him on the day of judgment, ‘Lord,
when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in
prison, and did not take care of you?’ (V-44).
Like Judas, they professed Him but they did not genuinely confess
Him. They claimed Him as Lord but they
never belonged to Him; they had not trusted in Him or obeyed Him.”
Very
early in our study of Matthew chapter ten we went over a profile of the twelve
Apostles, and spent considerable time looking at Judas. The thing that really spoke to me concerning
Judas was that Jesus spent time with him loving him even though He knew what
Judas was going to do to Him. Jesus knew
that Judas was a professor who is not a confessor, but Jesus loved him while He
was on earth.
MacArthur
concludes this section by writing: “Every
conscientious pastor at times becomes anxious that some people in his
congregation may not truly know the Lord and will wake up in eternal damnation,
although they may be active in church activities and live moral and seemingly
selfless lives.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Learning more about how our Lord treated
Judas has been something that I don’t know that I could have done, and I
suppose that is because I have a sin nature.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to rely on the new nature so that I
can do things for the glory of God.
11/10/2021 9:24 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment