I’ve claimed to know and love God our Father and Jesus His Son my whole life. I was dedicated to The Lord as a baby. I was raised in church and knew right from wrong. I was confirmed at age 12. I prayed the sinner’s prayer. I was active in youth group. I sang in church, I prayed often, and I thought I was covered — even in the midst of my repetitive, high-handed, deliberate sins.
Y’all, take it from me – ignorance is only temporary bliss.
I didn’t truly belong to The Lord as I had proclaimed; I wasn’t really saved. I didn’t obey Yahweh’s laws and listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit; I was willfully disobedient. I was a worker of “lawlessness” according to Yah’s Word, but I didn’t know that because I was not READING His Word.
And for that, I have no excuse.
It wasn’t until I began reading His WHOLE Word for myself, from the beginning, that I truly realized the full weight of my sinful depravity. My eyes have now been flung open by His Words, and I have discovered that there is no such thing as a secondhand relationship with God.
Yes, Grace covers a multitude of sins. But we are not supposed to be willfully disobedient in living our own lives apart from Yahweh, ignoring His laws and taking wrongful advantage of His Grace. That is not true repentance.
Yahweh is compassionate but not condoning of sin. He brings conviction and change to humble hearts. He loves us with an everlasting love; but He hates sin.
Hear these warnings, spoken by our Messiah:
The Parable of the Banquet
(recorded in Matthew 22:1-14 and Luke 14:15–24)
Once again, Jesus spoke to them in parables: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to call those he had invited to the banquet, but they refused to come. (They all had different excuses as to why they couldn’t come.)
Again, he sent other servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
But they paid no attention (to the servants’ invitation) and went away, one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged, and he sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the crossroads and invite to the banquet as many as you can find.’
So the servants went out into the streets and gathered everyone they could find, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to see the guests, he spotted a man who was not dressed in wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’
But the man was speechless.
Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Another stern warning from the Messiah:
(Matthew 7:21-23)
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’
These warnings tell us that even some people who KNOW Who Jesus is, and who expect to be welcomed at the wedding feast, will instead be ejected from The Lord’s presence and cast into hell. What a sobering reality for all of us.
But why are believers surprised by this? If we’re reading His Word, throughout scripture we see that even satan and his demons know Who Jesus is and shudder in His presence. They have to flee at His command. But this obedience is forced; they are not willingly following Yahweh’s commands out of love.
Friends, for the majority of my life, I thought I was one of the 99 sheep that was safely grazing on the hill. But I was the one Yahweh had to come after. I was lost. And I only discovered this by reading His Word for myself, rather than relying on others to read it for me and then relay the meaning (which is pretty dangerous, especially considering the number of false prophets running rampant in these last days).
If you don’t currently have a Bible study plan, I highly recommend seekingscripture.com. Christy Jordan does a beautiful job of leading this study on the whole Word of God in such a loving way. Yahweh is calling His Remnant to come home to Him in these last days. Seek Him through His Word, and enter into His everlasting and perfect Peace. Fall at His feet and be FREE!
Blessings!
Emily