SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/9/2022 9:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Principle”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
13:49
Message of the verse: “49 “So it will be
at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from
among the righteous.”
I mentioned at the end of our last SD that as we
look at this parable we will see that Jesus is not giving a full description of
the last days but is concentrating on the judgment of unbelievers. Jesus is actually speaking of judgment in
general, with special focus on what is referred to as the final judgment at the
great white throne that is seen in Revelation 20:11-15. I am going to quote these verses at this
time: “11 Then I saw a great white
throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away,
and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the
small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the
book of life; and the
dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to
their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death
and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of
them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the
book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” The reason that I quoted these verses is
because they are very sobering, and they will all come true at the end of the
age. This will happen after the rapture
has taken place, after the tribulation period has taken place, after the
millennial kingdom has taken place and after the world and all the planets have
been destroyed as seen in 2 Peter 3:10. This
is the judgment of all the things found in the dragnet that was not good
fish. If a person at this time does not
know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord this is where they will end
up, and as the books are opened all of what the unbelievers will think are good
deeds will not keep them out of hell for there is no good deed that a person
can do in order to get them into heaven.
The only way into heaven is through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ who died in our place, and in believing on Him you will be saved, and
not believing on him you will be lost for all eternity.
John
MacArthur writes “As already mentioned in the interpretation of the wheat and
tares parable (v. 41), and declared in many other New Testament passages (e. g.
Matt. 24:31; 25:31-32; Rev. 14:19; 15:5-16:21), angels are the Lord’s
instruments of separation and execution of sentence. The separation will include all persons who
are then living and all who have died—‘those who did the good deeds to a
resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of
judgment’ (John 5:29).”
There
are some who have wondered why Jesus repeats almost word for word what He had
just said at the end of His explanation of the wheat and tares as seen in Matt.
13:41. John MacArthur explains “For one
thing, the emphasis here is exclusively on the aspect of separation of
believers from unbelievers , whereas in the other parable the major emphasis is
on their coexistence. For another, it is
such a vitally important truth that it bears frequent repetition.” I totally agree that it is needed to be
repeated often so people can truly understand their fate if they refuse to
trust Christ as their Savior and Lord.
I
have stated in earlier SD’s that I read a book written by Erwin Lutizer
entitled “One Minute After You Die” and in that book, towards the end of it he
explains that there is actually no one in hell at this time, but in a place
called sheol, or hades. For sure the
place is hot and very uncomfortable to be in, but as we see in our quotation
form Revelation 20: 14 Then
death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death,
the lake of fire. 15 And
if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into
the lake of fire.” For one thing
unbelievers will have to be resurrected in order to be at the Great White
Throne Judgment, and at that time they will receive a resurrected body that
will not burn up. Verse 14 tells us that
“death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.”
MacArthur
concludes by writing “God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezek.
18:23) and does not desire that anyone perish (2 Pet. 3:9). The Lord wept over Jerusalem because the
people would not come to Him and be saved (Luke 19:41). He warned about hell not to put people in
agony but to save them from it. Hell was
not even created for men but for the devil and his fallen angels (Matt. 25:41).
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is not pleasant to write about what will
happen to unbelievers but necessary for them to understand what will happen if
they refuse the Savior.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord will use my Spiritual
Diaries to cause some to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, as that is
one of the reasons I write them.
5/9/2022
10:28 AM
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