JEAN'S BIBLE STUDY COM

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1-10 "Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 "For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. 3 "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? 5 "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. 6 "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. 7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 "Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 "Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 

Mat 7,1-5

(17m) Sin >> Unrighteous judgment >> Discerning by the flesh >> Judging the sins of others that you practice -- False judgment is ghoulish behavior. That itself would not be such a problem except for its prevalence in society. Unfortunately it is a very common thing that is highly suggestive of demonic activity, and it should not be an aspect of the Christian's life. False judgment is a form of witchcraft to those who would like to wield God's judgment. The only right that God has given is the gift of discernment, but those who pass judgment with evil intent invariably practice the same sins that they are judging. This is extremely destructive behavior, especially when the people guilty of this think they are serving God. 

(178i) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Hypocrisy >> Hypocrisy of the Church is rebuked >> The Church is rebuked for making false judgments – If we judge people with unrighteous judgment, how can the things we accuse them be true? Even when people do us wrong, we are not to judge them. It is inevitable that some of our judgments accurately reflect the circumstances and people involved, but what does not change is the fact that our judgment is false in the eyes of God. We consider injustice to be one of the worst possible fates. No one enjoys being falsely accused or shamefully treated. No matter how we accuse our oppressors we are wrong in the eyes of God, in that He has previously commanded us to love our enemies; but if we are busy accusing them of sins they committed against us, then we have deferred our love for justice instead. What is Jesus’ remedy for this? We are to view our enemies as sinning against God and not against us. Regardless of how they have treated us, we are not to judge them but to love them. If we condemn our enemies, we are condemning gospel that teaches we are no better than they if we retaliate. God wants His people to be free from sin. He doesn’t want us picking fights and making ourselves equal with His enemies. If we lower ourselves to their behavior, we will bear their image, though we have been called to bear the image of Christ. If we want to appeal to God’s grace and mercy we must be victims of our enemies and not their judges.

(11g) Servant >> God’s standard is in proportion to our output

(37a) Judgment Of God (Key verse for the entire chapter) – The Bible does not view God's judgment as a negative thing, but as a positive attribute of His divine nature. The Bible depicts God judging the sin of the world through the purification of Christ's sufferings to qualify Him as a prince and judge of mankind. This chapter will help the reader understand the symbiotic relationship between God's judgment and His mercy through the cross, as the instrument God will use to forgive those who seek His favor and as an instrument to judge those who reject His grace.

(48d) Levels Of Judgment (Key verse)

(48g) Judgment >> Levels of judgment >> Judged according to your standard of measure – If we insist on being judgmental, God will in turn judge us according to our own standard of measure by which we judge others. This means we have some control of how much God judges us. It is an act of mercy that God should judge us now, rather than getting it after we die, after it is too late to show we can do better.

Mat 7,3-5

(169d) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world is blind to God >> Blinded by Satan’s thoughts >> Blinded by false judgments -- Those who see a speck in our eye and want to help us extract it cannot see past the log in their own eye. Likewise, if we pass false judgment, God sees us as the one with the log in our eye. Paying more attention to other people's sins than to our own has a blinding effect, so we cannot see ourselves in a right frame of mind. If we are the children of God, and if we view those who oppress us as ignorant sinners, then we should expect them to oppress us, since darkness is naturally in conflict with light, as it is written, “Prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world” (Phi 2-15). Darkness hates the light; so worldly people have further reason to hate us. God is in the background watching everything that happens and weighing the motives, and if we do His will to become an anchor in the world as we live our faith in the presence of our enemies, God will be able to use us to change the circumstances in His favor, so others may see the light that is in us and become attracted to God and be saved, that the Kingdom of God may grow and overtake darkness.

(222a) Do Not Give What Is Holy To Dogs (Key verse)

(222b) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Do not give what is holy to dogs >> God does not entrust his treasures to dogs >> God retrieves his treasures when sheep revert to dogs – Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees in Mk 2-17, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” This statement Jesus made had a backward meaning, like doubletalk, like pointing in one direction and walking in another, like nodding “yes” and saying no. Jesus was never forthright with the Pharisees; He never spoke plainly to them, simply because they didn’t deserve the truth or His respect. Psalm 18-25,26 says, “With the kind You show Yourself kind; with the blameless You show Yourself blameless; with the pure You show Yourself pure, and with the crooked You show Yourself astute.” Astute means: of keen penetration or discernment (Dictionary.com). What He meant was virtually the opposite of what he said. When He said “righteous”, He meant sinners, and when He said “sinners”, He meant those who would become righteous through faith in Him.

Mat 7,7-11

(35e) Gift of God >> God is willing to Give >> Ask to receive -- The process of receiving from God is simple, just ask. Putting ourselves in a right state of mind and body so we can receive from Him is the hard part.

(83b) Thy kingdom come >> Receiving from God through prayer >> Ask and it shall be given

(227a) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Rewards of heaven >> God rewards us for obeying Him >> God rewards what we do for Him in secret -- A large part of obeying Christ is seeking Him as the sole source of our daily needs (being that He is the true source of everything). There is a firm foundation already laid in the hearts of those who trust God in this way. There are many people who ask God for things but don't expect to receive from Him, because a lack of faith. Remember, Jesus' analogy was about a father and his son. The implication was that the son had a relationship with his father. That is why the son felt confident he would receive what he asked. His relationship with his father also helped him pick things that he thought his father would like him to have, increasing his confidence that he would receive his request. 

Mat 7,9-12

(208g) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >> Being the friend of God >> Father & son relationship

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11-14 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! 12 "In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. 

Mat 7-11

(16b) Sin >> Man’s nature is instinctively evil >> Man is an enemy of God – Jesus made an assumption that everyone present at His hearing was evil. He knew every man and would know whether they were evil or not, but what would be the odds that every man, woman and child present was evil, unless there was a spiritual law stating that all mankind is evil? To say that there are some evil people and some good people, and that only evil people were there listening to Jesus would be very unlikely, especially when we wonder where all the good people were who would have wanted to be with Christ? The only way to make sense of verse 11 is to declare all mankind evil. That is, everyone present was evil because there are no "good people," only faithful.

(16d) Sin >> Man’s evil nature >> Disobedient to the will of God

(83b) Thy kingdom come >> Receiving from God through prayer >> Ask and it shall be given

Mat 7-12

(124e) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Love >> Acts of love >> Do to others as you would have them do to you

Mat 7-13,14

(47d) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is a place of destruction – Jesus used the word “destruction” here, and then in Mk 9-44 He said, “Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” Although it is a place of destruction, it is not a place of extermination or extinction. Rather, it is a place of perpetual destruction, a place where people continually die forever, meaning that body and soul will continuously ebb closer to death without ever dying. Here on earth we have bad situations and we eventually grow accustom to them, but in hell there will be no accommodating the conditions. Someone on his deathbed might take six months to die, and they keep getting worse and worse until they finally expire, but in hell the same thing happens, only they just keep dying, which is really a hellish thought. This continuous process of death may be a bodily condition, or it may reflect their conscience continually tormented with memories of their past life regarding things they have said and done to other people, or it might just be the permanence of hell that will become a continuous revelation and a deepening reality that this will never end, so in a billion years it will be a more terrifying experience than when they first arrived.

(91l) The Narrow Way (Key verse)

(92g) Thy kingdom come >> The narrow way >> What kind of trail is this? >> Gate is small and few are those who find it -- It is easy to weave into the ways of the world, but it is much harder to find our way in the will of God. All of His commandments require us to put our flesh under subjection, except the very first commandment in Genesis, where God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. That commandment has been hardwired into our bodies, so it just comes naturally. The rest of His commandments unfortunately oppose our sinful nature. For example, the greatest commandment is love, which is intrinsically selfless; but this requirement flies in the face of our natural predisposition for selfishness. Most people simply follow the tendencies of their flesh, which inherently leads them away from the will of God. Therefore, if we want a relationship with Christ, we will have to swim upstream against the current of our own fleshly inclinations. Since the vast majority of the world makes the decision to swim downstream (according to what Jesus said in these verses), we will also have to swim upstream against the current of the world.

(93m) Thy kingdom come >> Following Jesus >> Exception >> Following evil along the broad way – This is probably the one verse in all the Bible that really puts perspective on just who goes to heaven and who doesn’t. Many people confess Jesus as their savior. They pile into church every week, and they seem destined for heaven, but Jesus said the way is broad that leads to destruction and many are those who enter by it, and the way is narrow that leads to life and few are those who find it. Was Jesus talking about the few people who go to church, or was He talking about fewer people than that? Many people who go to church every week still don’t have a relationship with Christ or have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. They figure they are meeting their social needs and at the same time going to heaven when they die because they regularly attended church. Although going to church is a good thing, it is not how we get to heaven. 2Pet 1-10 says, “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.” Paul said it too, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you-unless indeed you fail the test?” (2Cor 13-5).

(208d) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Salvation verses >> The expectations of God >> God expects us to follow Him – It is easy to find our way to the world, but it is much harder to find our way to God. The narrow way has faith on one side and works on the other, and we need to balance ourselves, not going too far to the left where we trust in our faith with no works, or going too far to the right where we go through the motions of Christianity without believing in Jesus. Walking on that narrow way is both about believing and behaving as a Christian. If we do that Peter said, “In this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you” (2Pet 1-11). Salvation is like traversing a vast ocean; if we have been paying attention and diligently watching the sun by day and reading the stars by night, even if we run into a squall, we will find the milestones on the other side that we would expect to see, in this case a gate that is open wide to us. However, there are many people who start from a distant harbor, and they don’t pay attention to where they are going; they are crossing the ocean any which way, and if they get to the other side, there is no gate that is open wide to them. 

15-20 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 "So then, you will know them by their fruits. 

Mat 7,15-23

(180d) Works of the devil >> Practicing witchcraft >> Wolves >> Be shrewd as wolves and more innocent than they appear >> Wolves in sheep’s clothing -- Beware of the works of the devil, which manifests through practicing the religion of witchcraft, performed by wolves and reprobates, who live as tares among the wheat, being zealous without knowledge through the wisdom of the world, which they use to excuse their sinful nature. Therefore, be shrewd as wolves and more innocent than they appear, who try to operate the Spirit without the word, because they are unwilling to obey the revelation from heaven or walk in God's ability. They are wolves in sheep's clothing, talkers among the walkers, who have resolution without relationship. They have a religion not to serve God, but in a vain do they try to avoid hell.

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Mat 7,15-20

(128m) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Bearing fruit >> Evidence of your fruit >> Good fruit is proof that God is working in you -- People can argue our theology, but it is hard to argue with fruit. They might argue about the source, but good fruit is proof that something good is in us. A disciple of Jesus who has a sincere heart cannot produce bad fruit. That doesn’t mean he never sins, but in a way, that is what John was saying in his epistle, “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1Jn 3-9). Even a righteous man who loves God sins occasionally, but he doesn’t practice sin. Plants practice a certain fruit from year to year and never deviate from it. The apple tree produces apples and not cherries or grapefruit. A healthy cherry tree produces healthy cherries, but will occasionally produce an inedible one, representing the occasional sin, but all the rest of his works are righteous before God, which represents the vast majority of his fruit. However, none of the fruit of a false prophet is good, “for the bad tree produces bad fruit.” A good tree can produces an occasional bad apple, but a bad tree cannot produce an occasional good apple.

(157g) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of being hell-bound >> Deceiving and being deceived >> Deceiving

(179f) Works of the devil >> Practicing witchcraft >> Wolves >> False prophets >> False prophets preach works and deny Christ – What makes someone a false prophet? Jesus said that it is not what they say but what they do; for what they do guarantees that they have nothing to say that we need to know. Most people maintain the criterion that if a person prophesies falsely, he is a false prophet, but Jesus didn’t mention the words of a false prophet; He spoke about his works. Jesus did not give us the daunting task of trying to discriminate between true prophets and false prophets, but gave us the very simple task of inspecting their fruit. Visually inspecting the apple, squeezing the orange, tapping on the melon and the false prophet is exposed. He could easily prophesy things that come to pass, but his unbecoming behavior nullifies his title as a prophet and reduces his fortune-telling to a good guesser. People are very clever with their words. It is not that hard to study Scripture and become proficient in the language of “church people,” but they cannot hide their works from us; they have no choice but to parade them for all to see. They try to fake good fruit; they put on their best clothes, shine their smile and shake people’s hand and try to make sure everything they say is kosher by religious standards, but when they go home, they set their religiosity on a shelf and become themselves again, and they can be very abusive and mean spirited.

Mat 7,15-17

(76h) Thy kingdom come >> Motives >> Living by a double standard – Even if false prophets tell us the truth, we should not listen to them. They act like our friends, but we should not trust them, because inwardly they are scheming ways of taking advantage of us. Notice that Jesus used thorn bushes and thistles in his analogy of false prophets, plants that have prickers on them. If we get too close, they will draw blood, being often painful to keep their company. With the raspberry, for example, their fruit invites us to approach, while their needles send the opposite message not to come near. Therefore, the so-called fruit of the false prophet representing their words act like bait, while their thorns are what they do to us. We often leave with less blood in our veins. These are professionals, who know better than us how to manipulate people so we always lose in the exchange, the bigger the promises the greater the losses.

(179c) Wolves (Key verse) – Wolves infiltrate the flock appearing to be sheep, but beneath their woolen façade they are “full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Mat 23-27). Even in the safety of the flock there is danger just by virtue of being a defenseless, tasty sheep. Therefore, we must beware of imposters and those who call themselves Christians (Rev 3-9). In the fold of the sheep with the shepherd overseeing us, we still cannot let down our guard but must always remain vigilant. What is the motive of a false brother who would enter the doors of the Church posing as a sheep of God’s pasture? Their only motive is control. They hope to obtain leadership positions so they can edit the doctrines and teach the people not to be wary of them, and make them believe they are true Christians who love the Lord, based on their doctrines. Eventually and ultimately a wolf’s goal is financial gain. They want to make a living at being a wolf.

Mat 7,16-20

(156a) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Evidence of salvation >> You will know them by their fruits >> You will know them by their productivity -- See verses 15-20 for commentary. 

Mat 7,19-23

(209c) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >> Counterfeit relationship through religion >> I never knew you

Mat 7-19

(47b) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is a place of sorrow >> It is a great fire prepared for the devil and his angels >> burning site where people are thrown away

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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 will enter.

Mat 7,21-23

(40a) Judgment >> Jesus is the judge >> Jesus judges the world’s unbelief – This is a passage about Jesus judging the world, though it seems unlikely anyone from the world would use this defense: “Did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” It sounds like something a Christian would say; either way, Jesus’ verdict was, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” We know that the Church will always be with the Lord (1The 4-17), and by this we know that these people were not Christians. Jesus is depicting worldly leaders in the Church claiming to be prophets, exorcists and miracle workers, but in reality they were confidence men, charlatans and frauds. They were convinced they were miracle worers, yet knowing they were hucksters.

(172f) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Tares among the wheat >> Hypocrites among the just >> Talkers among the walkers

(173c) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Scripture that contradicts the catholic faith >> Catholic doctrine versus the Bible

(176h) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Zeal without knowledge (Spirit w/o the word) >> Resolution without relationship

(181i) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Self deception >> Imaginary perception of self >> Pretending to be someone you’re not – Many will believe they are Christians based on the things Jesus mentioned, meaning they will base their faith on their own deceptions. They claimed to have performed many miracles, such as putting a perfectly healthy person in a wheelchair and having her stand among a throng of witnesses, and then used such examples in their defense at the White Throne Judgment, proving they were self-deceived. Deceiving one's self is actually easy to do. It seems difficult if not impossible to convince ourselves of something when we know it’s fake, yet people do it all the time; in fact the world itself represents a mere interpretation of reality. People are very adept at convincing themselves that their lies are true; all it takes is motive, and presto, what was once a figment of their imagination is now truth, and they live by these lies. It is spooky, and what is spookier, this is not a rare occurrence. If it were rare, Jesus would not have mentioned it, but it found a place in Scripture because it is common, and if common, then possible it is happening to us. If we are not diligently monitoring our hearts, our imaginations can take on flesh and look just like us. The fact that these are most likely leaders in the Church means that they had ulterior motives. There is a popular saying, ‘The best way to lie to someone is to believe it yourself.’ These are swindlers and scam artists deceiving those in the Church for fame and fortune. Paul said in 2Tim 3-13, “Evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” The fact that they were trying to deceive Jesus at their judgment says what they didn’t know about God, acting as a measure of their self-deception, that they were deceived to the very core of their being. They thought, ‘This is just another guy, we schmoozed hundreds of people throughout our lives; we can schmooze Him too,’ but it didn’t work.

(186a) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> Blasphemy >> Unwilling to obey the revelation from heaven >> Unwilling to walk in God’s ability

(195j) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Idolatry >> Lord, Lord >> Lip service

(201c) Denying Christ >> Whoever is not with Jesus is against him >> You are against Christ when your unbelief materializes >> If your heart is not with Him your deeds are against Him

(208j) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >> Being married to God >> Knowing God >> Sharing intimacy with Him – Jesus answered them, “I never knew you;” they didn’t expect that answer; they didn’t know what it meant. Meanwhile they were being ushered from the presence of Christ by strong angels, being dragged from court and thrown into the abyss. The words they heard from the last sane individual they will ever meet will forever ring in their ears, “I never knew you,” so now they get to spend the rest of eternity thinking about what that means. What does it mean for Jesus to have never known them? He did not know them in the sense that they were not His children; that is, He didn't intimately know them. The Church is called the bride of Christ; this level of intimacy goes to the point of spiritual intercourse. Jesus was saying, ‘I never had spiritual intercourse with you. You are not a member of My wife’s body.’ This is the relationship that God has with His people. God created man and woman so that people could understand the relationship He wants with His people in eternity.

(217h) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> I never knew you >> Because you never did His will -- People can hide in the Church and go unnoticed for years. They might go to every church meeting and be on the board of directors and "talk the talk." They might believe certain things about God, but they don't actually believe in God. Some unbelievers are genuinely nice people and no one doubts their faith, while others have faith, along with bondage and hang-ups, which make them appear that they don't believe, but God knows those who are His (2Tim 2-19). We know that God is omniscient, yet Jesus is saying “I never knew you,” which suggests a type of knowledge that is different from knowing all things. He is saying, ‘I never had a relationship with you,’ another way of putting it is on a sexual level, “I never knew you,” like a man knows a woman. The Bible says that God places His Spirit in us, even as a man deposits his seed in a woman during sexual intercourse, which her body uses to conceive and bear children, so God places His seed in us that we might bear fruit for Him (1Pet 1-23).

(223i) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Miss God >> Missing the mark >> Miss heaven

22&23 "Many will say to Me 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?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

(67f) Authority >> Jesus delegates authority >> Name of Jesus >> Performing miracles in Jesus’ name – There is a world of difference between what the Bible says about the name of Jesus and what many people believe about His name. Before we lay hands on somebody and start screaming the name of Jesus and making fools of ourselves in the eyes of the world, which has already grown intolerant of the Church’s lack of knowledge, we need to understand that the power of God is in the person of Christ, not in His name. So long as everyone knows that we are casting out demons or healing diseases through the power of Christ and not through some other entity, it is not necessary to reiterate His name with loud vocal gestures. Many use the name of Jesus as it were a hammer or a weapon, trying to exorcize the demons “in the name of Jesus” and expecting them to flee in fear, as though the name of Jesus held the power of God in itself, but what does Heb 1-3 say? “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” The Bible speaks about the word of His power, not the ‘power of His word.’ To put the cart before the horse linguistically in this manner is to demonstrate our lack of knowledge of God’s truth. If the name of Jesus had intrinsic power, people would have destroyed themselves with it long ago. His name does not have power as though the letters and phonemes that compose His name produce the power of God when put together; rather, it is the person of Jesus Christ Himself who is the repository of God’s infinite power.

(154a) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> God bears witness against the world >> No excuse >> There is no excuse for rejecting Christ

(217g) I Never Knew You (Key verse)

Mat 7-22

(166d) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Wisdom of the world >> Man’s wisdom excuses his sinful nature >> Have a religion to avoid hell

Mat 7-23

(20e) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Having a hardened heart – Some people have hearts of stone resembling a children’s game called “Living Statues.” The game is played with a leader in the middle with eyes shut and all the players dancing around her, until she cries “Stop!” Then all the players must stop in whatever position that instant. According to the game, Christ is our leader and we are all dancing around Him, and on the day of our death we stop dancing and become like living statues, unable to change. After this comes judgment. The wicked can say they are willing to mend their ways, but their life-choices have become an eternal decision they cannot change, and they will have to live forever in that state of rebellion against God that was their reality on the day of their death.

(47i) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is the absence of God – Those in attendance at the White Throne Judgment will understand that if they don’t make it to heaven, there will be no place for them. Hell has many descriptions and one of them is being outside the Kingdom of God (Rev 22-15) or outside His presence. How much outside is there? It continues indefinitely outside our house; therefore, outside the presence of God is nowhere. The Kingdom of Heaven continues forever and ever. Hell is a place where all sinners are gathered, and “these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2The 1-9). Hell is God’s statement to the wicked, ‘If you don’t want me to rule over you, then I will give you a kingdom of your own without a single attribute of Me in it.’ That might sound exactly what they wanted, until they get there and discover their kingdom with every aspect of God extracted from it defining the parameters of hell. Then they will come to the realization that every good thing they ever enjoyed in this life came from the hand of God (Jm 1-17), and then they will come to the realization that heaven must be a wonderful place, except that God is there. Then the residence of hell will discover the true meaning of angst, a short word for anxiety but is more than that. Angst is a state of depression that will never be resolved. They wouldn’t be happy in heaven and they won’t be happy in hell. Sin has no place in God’s creation anywhere. Hell is a place of great mourning and misery, but at least they got their way and maybe that will make it all worth it for them. If so then hell will prove rebellion far more potent and without a cure than anyone could have imagined.

(64a) Paradox >> Anomalies >> Limits of God >> God cannot tolerate sin >> He cannot allow unbelief in His presence – Many think that eternal suffering in hell is just too severe a sentence for God to impose on anybody, but what else is God supposed to do with those who hate Him? Some say that the damned should be exterminated from existence, but God originally created man in His image, eternal. Although hell is indeed a judgment from God, it is not something He institutionalized as much as it was a mere consequence of God removing Himself from an environment that He designated for the wicked. Therefore, to make a place for them apart from His presence by definition implies sorrow, anguish and horror. People who go to hell have chosen not to be a part of God’s kingdom, not to live under His authority. They have chosen instead to live by their own authority. The wicked who stand before Christ at the White Throne Judgment may voice that they are sorry for their rebellion and are willing to mend their ways and be part of God’s kingdom, but they will discover that rebellion is an eternal disease. They cannot repent of it and God cannot remove it for them without also removing their free will, which He is unwilling to do. That simply would not fit God’s vision of a people He created to freely love Him.

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24&25 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 

Mat 7,24-27

(106h) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> Means of hearing from God >> Through His Son – All who hear the words of Jesus and act upon them, as Jesus said and as James said, are blessed in what they do (Jm 1,22-25). We can’t fault people for reading their Bibles and trying to lead a good life if bad things happen to them, since God never promised a life devoid of adversity to those who serve Him. He said of trials and tribulations that He would walk with us through them, so when they come against us, we have God’s promise that we will emerge on the other side spiritually unscathed. However, when a person falls away from the faith, this is a different story. Tribulation is one thing and the house that falls as a result of it is another. What must we do to avoid falling away from our faith? It is good that we spend time in the Bible, but we need to understand that the Bible is like raw material. The real product is Truth that God imparts in us from heaven. That is, there is a difference between reading the Bible and understanding God’s heavenly Truth, like Paul intimated about the word of God lifting off the page and into our hearts. “You are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2Cor 3-3).

(114a) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Obeying the Holy Spirit >> Believing the Father by obeying the Son >> Obeying Jesus’ word – This is the reason people are afraid to interact with God, because they doubt they would obey Him, and they instinctively know they would be safer at a distance. They are afraid to mature in the things of God, because in their hearts they know if they ever heard His voice, they would not obey Him. To hear His voice and not obey Him is spiritual suicide. There are many people who know themselves that they would never obey the Holy Spirit. God may have spoken to them many times, yet they have never acknowledged Him to evade accountability, but this does not protect them from God, for He will judge them for avoiding Him as much as for disobeying Him. It is like someone who turns off the light and then stumbles over the furniture and blames the darkness. We cannot omit disobedience or willful ignorance, and we cannot deny the voice of God without lying to the Holy Spirit, because God knows we heard Him. These are the things that destroy our faith. A person who is truly committed to God would never make these mistakes; they live for hearing the Holy Spirit in their hearts. They will do whatever He says, and it makes them feel secure. Paul and all the other examples in the New Testament lived and walked by the Spirit, but we know many examples in our time, whose faith collapsed, and we wonder what happened to them. Jesus explained it to us. They rejected the voice of the Holy Spirit and they suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.

(137b) Temple >> Building the temple (with hands) >> Jesus is the foundation >> Jesus is the rock of the Church’s foundation – Jesus promised that if we established our lives upon the rock of obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit, our faith would not be moved. In contrast, those who read their Bibles and even hear the voice of God but discount Him, say that they could not be sure it was Him, that they could not commit their lives to something so nebulous as an inaudible voice, though it thundered in their hearts when He spoke. They had the experience, but they doubted and ultimately denied that these things actually happened, because they don’t believe in the ways of God. His standpoint is this: they knew in their hearts it was He who spoke to them, because nobody else can speak to them the way He speaks. No other voice sounds like His. The devil is a counterfeiter, but He cannot counterfeit the voice of God, because he is not allowed to speak such things, and Jesus said that His sheep know His voice. The devil would never tell us what God would tell us. When Satan goes through the trouble of counterfeiting God, he says things that God would never tell us.

(190da) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Masochism (Self-made martyr) >> Spiritual suicide

(207g) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Salvation verses >> The Kingdom of God >> Investing in the Kingdom of God -- When Jesus referred to building your house on the rock, He was referring to making a life decision to follow Him, committing ourselves wholeheartedly, sparing nothing but investing all. We can weather any storm if we do this, but if we don't, He promised the next storm will wipe out whatever we build on a half-hearted faith. 

Mat 7-24,25

(79h) Thy kingdom come >> Know the word >> Practice listening to God’s word so you can hear it – We must understand the Scriptures through the Spirit of God; if we don’t, the Bible is just another textbook. It may be a special textbook that the Holy Spirit inspired men to write, but it is a textbook just the same without the Holy Spirit giving life to it. Men who wrote the words of the Bible were inspired by the Holy Spirit, yet when they penned the words, the anointing could not be transferred to the page. If the Holy Spirit was involved on the writers’ end of the Bible, then He must also be involved on the readers’ end. When God gives grace to His word and we understand it by the Spirit, He is able to speak to us and reveal not only His word but also His will. Jesus then commanded us to obey Him. This is a frequently reiterated phrase within the Bible, “'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev 2-7,11,17,29; 3-6,13,22). This word was primarily given to those who would be alive during the fulfillment of endtime prophecy. If we obey Him, we will hear Him all the more.

Mat 7-25

(165i) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Hardship >> Circumstances caused by the devil – Some people think that because they believe in God, He should give them preferential treatment that He should throw out the red-carpet for them and lead them around all the obstacles and difficulties and troubles, so they can lead a simple and easy life, full of joy and happiness, but in fact Jesus promised just the opposite. The rains will come and the winds will blow and the floods will slam against our lives; there is no avoiding it. The question is not whether these things will happen or should happen; the question is whether we will stand victoriously against the forces of this life.

26-29 "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 "The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell -and great was its fall." 28 When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

(167k) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Do not conform to the world’s unbelief – We need to build our faith on a solid rock foundation, but if the structure itself is no good, it could still be destroyed in a violent storm. When Jesus spoke this parable, He assumed that the builders knew what they were doing. Anybody who would attempt to build a house would give it their best effort, because nobody wants to live in a shabby house, and why would anybody invest the time, trouble and expense of constructing on shifting sand an exquisite house full of rooms? If they knew so much about building a house, why didn’t they know the foundation needed to be sound? This is first thing all construction workers know, yet Jesus said that this is a very common mistake that people make, maybe not in the construction business, but in relation to God and His truth. People often dedicate their lives to a false religion, or else they dedicate themselves to a set of true doctrines, but never attain a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin.

(186c) The fool (Key verse)

(186d) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> Man’s role in becoming a reprobate >> The fool throws Jesus away for something better >> The world betrayed the Lord -- There are a number of ways to develop a reprobate mind (someone who cannot be saved). In this case the people to whom this analogy applies is more convinced by their own thoughts than they are by the words of Christ. These are often industrious people, but who never stopped and do any serious thinking about the things that really matter. They see life as one dimensional, physical, what you see is what there is. To them there is no spirit realm. They have tunnel vision and are locked into their own mindset. Everyone else who thinks unlike them is wrong; what matters is living and dying according to their pattern. Talk to someone like this about Jesus and you will be stonewalled.

(201b) Denying Christ >> Whoever is not with Jesus is against him >> You are against Christ when your unbelief materializes >> Our disobedience is against Christ 

(207e) Salvation >> God makes promises on His terms >> Eternal security? >> God Himself will tear you down – The voice of the Holy Spirit is something that reverberates in our hearts like an earthquake that causes structurally inferior buildings to collapse, and only those buildings that were properly constructed on the rock of Christ will remain. The voice of the Holy Spirit can have the same effect as the trials and tribulations of this world if we don’t obey Him. Disobeying the Holy Spirit can cause ill-constructed buildings to collapse, but those which are properly built on a solid foundation of obedience will stand against any force thrown at it. When the trials and tribulations come to test us, our faith has already been tested by the voice of God. If His voice does not destroy us, then all of Satan’s power could never touch us. Many people have heard the voice of God and it destroyed their lives, because “it was not united by faith in those who heard” (Heb 4-2). ‘What does not kill us makes us stronger.’

MATTHEW CHAPTER 8