After believing in the Lord, brothers and sisters all like singing the song “The Beloved Is Urgently Knocking on the Door Outside”: “The Beloved is urgently knocking on the door outside. His locks are filled with the drops of the night dew. Come on, get up to open the door for Him; don’t let our beloved walk away. …” Every time we sing it, we are very moved inside, and it has a great impact on us. We all want to keep the beloved, and be the first one to hear His voice and welcome Him when He knocks on our door. It can be said that, we believers in the Lord are all longing for it. But what does it mean that the Lord knocks on the door? And how should we welcome Him when He knocks on our door?
In the Age of Grace, when the Jesus Christ came to do the work of redemption, His deeds and His teachings spread all over Judea and His name also became well-known among the whole generation. For the people of that time, the Jesus Christ was knocking on their door when He preached the gospel everywhere with His disciples. The Lord Jesus said, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). The Lord wanted people to repent and confess before Him, so that they were forgiven their sins and were redeemed from the condemnation and curse of the law. At that time, many Jewish people saw the wonders performed by the Jesus Christ as well as the authority and power of His words, such as feeding five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish after giving thanks, calming the wind and sea with one word, resurrecting Lazarus with just a word, and so on. As the Lord Jesus spoke, things were fulfilled and accomplished. His words are just like the words spoken by the Creator when He created the heavens and earth and all things; they equally hold the authority and power. Besides, the words said by the Lord Jesus to teach man and rebuke the Pharisees cannot be said by us mankind. His words all reveal God’s disposition and being, and show forth the authority and power of God. Actually, whatever the Lord said and did struck everyone to the core of his being. It can be said that the Jewish people of that time had already heard the Lord’s knocking.
However, the Jewish chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees didn’t acknowledge that the Jesus Christ was the coming Messiah by notions and imaginations. They just abided by the letters of the prophecies in the Bible, and believed that the coming one was named Emmanuel or Messiah and moreover was born of a virgin. So when they saw that Mary had a husband, they just denied that the Lord Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin; they slandered the Jesus Christ by saying that He was the son of a carpenter, thereby denying and condemning Him; and moreover, they blasphemed that the Lord Jesus cast out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. Faced with the work and word of the Lord and the rumors and slanders of the Pharisees, most of the Jewish people listened to the Pharisees’ words instead of God’s gospel. They closed their hearts to the Lord while He knocked. Just as the Lord Jesus said, “And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which said, By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:14-15). The Lord hoped that people could hear His voice, know His deeds, and understand His will. When people open their heart to God to answer His knocking, He will guide them to recognize His voice and see His appearance. The Jewish people of that time, because of believing the rumors of the Pharisees, closed their heart to the Lord, refused to hear His voice to accept His redemption, so that they missed the chance of following the Jesus Christ. In consequence, they suffered the loss of their nation throughout generations for close to two thousand years because of resisting God. On the contrary, those disciples who followed the Jesus Christ, such as Peter, John, James, and so forth, listened to the Lord’s words, knew the Lord’s deeds, and recognized that the Jesus Christ was actually the coming Messiah. Hence, they followed the footsteps of the Lord and gained the Lord’s salvation.
Similarly, in the last days, we should be even more watchful and prepared, for the Lord will come again and knock on our door at any time. The Jesus Christ said, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches” (Revelation 2:7). “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). From these scriptures, we know that the Jesus Christ will speak again and do new work when He returns, which exactly means that the Lord will knock on our door. All those who are wise virgins will actively seek and carefully listen whether it is the voice of the Lord when hearing His utterances. Once they recognize the Lord’s voice, they will accept the Lord’s return. Our Lord is faithful. He will surely let those who yearn for and seek Him hear His voice when He speaks. Maybe He will tell us His return through the mouth of others, just as the Lord Jesus warned us, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). Maybe we will personally hear His voice, hear His words to the churches from some churches preaching the gospel about the Lord’s return, or on the internet, radio, or Facebook. But anyway, the Lord hopes we can be wise virgins, watch and listen to His voice at any moment. We shouldn’t treat the Lord’s knocking according to our conceptions and imaginations as the Jewish people did, much less should we blindly listen to the lies or rumors of the religious antichrists and thereby refuse the call of the Lord, missing the chance to welcome the return of the Jesus and be raptured into the kingdom of heaven. Instead, we should open the door for the Lord and welcome Him once hearing His voice. Only in this way can we be brought before God’s throne to attend the feast of the Lamb.
Know more:
What Is the Difference Between the Way of Repentance and the Way of Eternal Life?
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