Gospel Light
The year was 1977, and my wife and I had just begun to attend Elohim Bible Institute. Our neighbors were the girl's dorm parents for the school, entertaining an old friend, Tony, a fellow graduate and alums. He was a minister of the Gospel, a magician, and one who loved to play practical jokes. After introductions were made, he told a story from years past about him and an old friend named George.
They were good friends and he used to sneak up behind six-foot-six-inch George and slap him on the back to see him get all flustered. He just thought it was hysterical, and he never got the least bit upset because he was such a good-natured person. On one occasion, he saw George walking on the main street, so he snuck up behind him and gave the biggest slap on his massive back.
The man turned around ever so slowly, and it wasn't George. The man with a very stern face said to the practical joker, "I don't know you." To which he replied, "I don't know you eigher." He then quickly explained the mix-up and the misunderstanding and apologized most sincerely. The large man understood, and they each went their way. When he arrived home, he closed the door behind him and, leaning on the door, said to himself, "I will never do that again."
A day is coming when people from all of history will be before God for judgment. "Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them" Revelation 20:11. There will be no standing room because there will be no standing. Talk about having the rug pulled out from under you. Judgment will be according to God and as follows. "And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds" Revelation 20:12.
When God makes the final judgment, it will not matter what your station in life has been, great or small; the only thing on the table is what God has to say. The terms of our judgment will not be words but deeds. Words are usually cheap in our present world, and people are accustomed to lying about everything. Nevertheless, in that hour, our deeds will be displayed. "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter" Matthew 7:21. Our Lord warned, " ...for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it" Matthew 7:13.
Just the way that George's look-alike turned to Tony and said, "I don't know you," Jesus will turn to those upon whom He never placed the knowledge of His love and say, 'I never knew you; Leave Me, you who practice lawlessness'" Matthew 7:23. For three years twelve men walked, talked, beheld, and befriended Jesus the Son of the living God. On the last night before His betrayal and death, He told them, one of you will betray Me. In turn, each one of them said, Surely, it is not I, Lord. When it got to Judas, he likewise said the same, except for one slight change. "Surely it is not I, Rabbi." There is a significant difference between seeing Jesus as merely a teacher and welcoming Him as Lord of your Life, in a master-slave relationship. The authentic Christian moves from I am the captain of my life to Jesus says, and I do.
The Lordship controversy was no small matter back in the 70s, and it remains the leading reason why the Gospel is not preached as it should today. When Jesus saves a soul, He places His predetermined love upon them and His heart within them. In this way, it is whom Jesus knows that He saves. If this is not your experience, expect to hear, "I never knew you." May God save you from such an hour.
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