FBC Daily Devotional – Feb. 11, 2021

Well, a good Thursday to you. I hope your week has gone well thus far. You got over the hump. You're heading in the downstretch for the rest of this week and looking forward to what lies ahead today. Well, reading in Matthew chapter 13 today, I was reminded of just what a skewed perception that many people have of Jesus.

Jesus and the Warning of Eternal Judgment

When they think of Jesus, what do they think about? They think of a you know, a kindly man who has a bunch of good positive messages for people, lifting people up, just being just being wholly accepting of anybody and everybody, whatever the case, and never saying anything negative, always doing good things for people, and He is all of those things.

He did all of those things. He did great things, incredible things for people, and was incredibly kind and gracious to people on this earth in His public ministry. And there were many, many, many things He said that were very positive and uplifting and encouraging.

However, there's more to Jesus than just that, and it comes out in one passage, the section of the passage in Matthew 13, that we read today. Remember, He's in the middle of telling a bunch of parables, and He tells the parable of the net being cast into the sea and pulling in, in that net, a whole host of fishes.

And He says the kingdom of heaven is like that net, pulling in a whole host of fishes. But at the end of the age, He said, it's going to be like the angels of heaven open up that net, and they take the good fish and keep them and put them in containers to be kept and so forth.

And the bad fish are thrown away. But listen to what, listen to how He puts it. He says, at the end of the age, the angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them, the evil, into the fiery furnace.

In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So to think of Jesus as only talking about positive messages, lifting people up, doing good things, and so forth, but ignoring the sobering warnings about coming judgment.

Indeed, He gives. He gives these sobering warnings that evil fish, evil people, will be called out from the righteous and cast into a fiery furnace of eternal misery. And He doesn't talk, Jesus doesn't talk about annihilationism.

That is the idea that, you know, once we die, you know, that's it. We just cease to exist. And if we're good people and we've done enough good stuff, then we'll go to heaven. But if we've been bad, you know, and the bad outweighs the good, then, you know, we just go in the grave and we cease to exist.

No, Jesus doesn't talk about that. Jesus doesn't teach annihilationism. He speaks of eternal judgment of an eternal fiery misery, where, as he puts it, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's a pretty sobering thing to keep in mind.

And I trust, by the grace of God, that you are one of those good fish, and that you are truly in the kingdom of heaven, and that you are a follower of Christ, and that by God's grace, Jesus has saved you from that eternal judgment, that eternal fire, that eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Herod, John the Baptist, and a Guilty Conscience

Well, if not, trust Him today. Trust Him today. Otherwise, you might end up finding yourself living out your days like this poor pitiful creature Herod that we read of as the passage continues. We go on into chapter 14.

He is such a sad creature, isn't he? I mean, on the one hand, he hated John's message, John preaching righteousness to him, and Herod hated that message of righteousness, and emotionally, he wanted to kill him.

He wanted to get rid of him. He didn't want to hear that message. But on the other hand, he wanted to spare him because he feared the people. He wanted to hear John, because he entertained him, and he wanted to protect him from execution.

But then he hated him for what he had to say. Well, then along comes his stepdaughter, his, and dances the dance before him. And when all is said and done, he's so overcome with whatever, that he says, whatever you want, I'll give it to you.

Whatever you want, I'll give it to you. Little did he know that he, that his daughter, his stepdaughter Herodias, his daughter, had conspired with Herod's wife to ask for the head of John the Baptist to be executed.

So she says, I want the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Well, now here Herod's put in a pickle again. He's just made the promise, whatever you want, I'll give it to you. And then she asks for Herod's head.

Well, he doesn't really want to do that, because he fears the people. What a pitiful creature this is. Well, in the end, he had John killed, and he suffered interminably, again, from a guilty conscience.

Remember yesterday's devotional, The Plague of a Guilty Conscience? Here's a man plagued by a guilty conscience. Oh, what a cruel taskmaster is our sin. It will plague our conscience, and if we're not repentant and trusting in Jesus as our Savior, it will take us to eternal perdition.

Oh, turn from it. May we turn from it. May we be delivered from it. Not only have clear consciences, but have eternal salvation. Our Father and our God, we thank you for these sobering warnings from this passage in Matthew 13, a passage that warns of eternal judgment, and then the life of this man just plagued by his sin.

Oh, Lord, deliver us, we pray, from that plague. This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, we'll have a good rest of your Thursday, and I trust that God, in his grace, will richly bless you in it. Have a good day.