SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/12/2022 6:06 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The Warning”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
16:27b
Message of the verse: “and will then recompense every man according to his deeds.”
We
continue to talk about our Lord’s second coming as we look at this part of
verse 27, and at His second coming Jesus “he will repay
every man for what he has done” (Phillips).
Here is the thing to which needs to be paid attention too, and that is that the
believer is looking forward to the second coming in the hope of sharing His
Lord’s glory, whereas the unbeliever can look forward to it only in the fear of
being condemned under the Lord’s judgment.
So “Every man” here is comprehensive!
I
think that we can come to the conclusion that in light of that twofold
prospect, the Lord’s return is bittersweet for believers who are sensitive and
loving. It has been awhile since we've look at Revelation 10:10 which helps make the point about bittersweet: “I took the little book out of the angel’s
hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten
it, my stomach was made bitter.” The
bitter part that John is talking about here is judgment, but as we said the
sweet part is for believers. Now we have
to understand that when the Lord returns, which is seen in Revelation chapter
19 that He will be coming back with angels who will be a part of the judgment
and also all of the raptured saints, and those who have been saved during the
tribulation period are the ones who will be a part of a sweet reunion with
their Lord.
John
MacArthur writes “In speaking here of His recompensing every man according to
his deeds, Jesus was speaking in general terms about the second coming, not
about a specific event or element within it.
He was simply pointing out that it will be a time of glory and reward
for those who belong to Him and a time of judgment and punishment for those who
do not, His coming will resolve the destiny of every man (cf. John 5:25-29).” Hopefully the explanation that I gave in the
above paragraph will shed some light on His second coming.
Now when we see the word deeds we have to understand that deeds, (righteous deeds) are not what will get anyone to heaven. I have mentioned Ephesians 2:8-10 in many of my SD’s which speaks of how a person was saved and then after they're saved, they will do deeds which were planned for them in eternity past as a result of their salvation, and not getting a person saved. Going along with that thought Jesus said in Matthew 7:21 “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.” Then Paul tells the Corinthians in his first letter to them (3:13) “Each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.” Paul goes on in his second letter (5:10) “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” One more reference, and this comes from Revelation 2:23 as Jesus speaks to the church at Thyatira where the Lord declared, “I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.” Revelation 20:13 is similar “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.”
Now as we begin this new paragraph we want to look
at the last words of Scripture which is Jesus’ declaration, “Behold, I am
coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to
what he has done” (Rev. 22:12). The New
Testament has much to say about rewards and judgments. “So then each one of us will give an account
of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).” I
have to say that as we think about these different verses we can actually
become frightened as to what the Lord will say to us when we meet Him at the
judgment seat of Christ. One of the
things that I have been learning in my teaching through Hebrews, especially in
the 11th chapter where there are many OT saints that the writer is
writing about, and that is that you do not see one of the sins that any of
these OT saints did as seen in the Old Testament, and the reason is that Christ
had died for those sins so there is no need to mention them. Again, as I repeat myself in talking about
Ephesians 2:10, it is my belief that when a believer comes to the judgment seat
of Christ that one of the things that he will be judged on is how well he did
the things that God had planned for him to do for the cause of Christ back in
eternity past.
10/12/2022 6:37 PM
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