From the desk of Pastor Ben
Warning About His Return – Part 3

“He will then repay every man according to his deeds.”     (Matthew 16:27b)

For unbelievers this truth is a dire warning, because at Christ’s judgment they will have no acceptable deeds to present to the Lord as evidence of salvation. Many professing Christians will say 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. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:22-23).

For unbelievers, this will be a day of unending fear as they finally realize the good works they relied on to make them right with God were nothing more than filthy garments (Isaiah 64:6) that leave them totally unfit to stand before the righteous King and Judge. At Jesus’ second coming, Paul warns, He will hand out “retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).

There will be a day of reckoning for all people. For the cross-bearing, obedient Christian it will be a day of great rejoicing and glory, because he will have evidence that the life of God is within him by faith in Jesus Christ. But for the unrepentant, Christ-rejecting sinner, it will be a day of great terror and torment, because they will have no evidence of the life of God that the believer has.

Ask Yourself:
When you think of those whose carefully built defenses will be exposed before God’s holy fire at judgment, how seriously does this make you want to take your responsibility for personal evangelism? What keeps you from being more deliberate in sharing what you know?