We have been working through the closing warnings that our Lord gives here, at the end
of His Sermon on the Mount. Last time, we considered the second of these four warnings, which was to "Beware of False Prophets." This morning, we move on to consider the third warning, which is to beware of putting your stock in a false conversion.
Those of you who are familiar with Facebook know that people often post various questions on
their walls, soliciting the opinions of their Facebook friends over any given number of issues. Well, recently, I can recall an individual who asked the question, "What Bible verse terrifies you the most?" And I thought, "This is an interesting question, let me open up the thread and see what people are saying." One of the first verses that I came across was the one found in this text, where our Lord says, "I never knew you; depart from Me..." And immediately, I thought to
myself, "Yup, that would be the one!" Because, I honestly can't imagine any more terrifying
reality than dying and standing before the Lord with a sense of anticipating His favor, only to
hear that I am not one of His! Throw me in a pit of snakes, cast me in a shark tank, electrocute
me, burn me alive, behead me, bury me alive...whatever is necessary, but let it never be the case that such words from My Lord would ever enter my ears!
Suffice it to say that this is definitely one of the most frightening texts in all of Scripture. And yet, brethren, it is so, so, good that we find it in the Scriptures, because it compels us to examine ourselves now, in the present, before it is too late, so that we don't get so comfortable
that we over-presume upon the grace of God. |
