By What We Do

[Sue J Love]

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 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. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11-15 NASB1995)

Understanding The Last Days

I am no Bible scholar. I am just a woman of God who loves the Lord, and who walks in his ways, and who follows his leading, and who shares with others what I am getting out of the Scriptures each day as I spend time with the Lord in his word, and as I listen to his instructions and I follow them to the best of my understanding. So, there are things taught in the Scriptures about these last days which I do not fully comprehend, but I am learning.

And what I understand is that, in these last days before the return of Christ, there will be, and may currently be in process, a time of tribulation that will be worse than any this world has ever known before. And a “beast” will rule the earth, and the majority of the people of the earth will take the mark of the beast. But a remnant of those who are of genuine faith in Jesus Christ will refuse this mark and suffer persecution for our faith in the Lord Jesus.

After this time of great tribulation there is supposed to be a thousand year period of time in which Satan is bound and the saints of God who were beheaded during the tribulation, for their testimony for Jesus Christ, will reign with Christ for a thousand years. And once the thousand years are completed, Satan is to be let loose for a short period of time, and he will deceive the nations, but at the end the devil will be in torment forever.

Understanding The Gospel of Christ

I do not understand all of that (above), and I know there are many different viewpoints on what that means. But me understanding all that is not critical to my walk of faith in the Lord Jesus and to me sharing the truth of the gospel of our salvation, which is a life and death situation. For one day we are all going to stand before the Lord, and he is going to judge each one of us according to our works. And lip service only is not going to do it.

For no outward professions of faith in Jesus Christ are going to assure us salvation from sin and eternal life with God in heaven. What matters is what we do in love and heart response to God, to Jesus Christ, in denying self, dying with him to sin, and walking in his ways in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living, by the grace of God, and empowered by God. For that is what faith, which saves, looks like. It is shown by our deeds.

And this is critical that we understand what this is saying, for the masses today, at least here in American (USA), are buying into a cheapened and altered gospel message which makes no requirements of God for us to deny self, die with him to sin (not just once, but daily), and walk in obedience to his commands. They are teaching that a mere profession of faith assures them of forgiveness of all sins, and heaven, but regardless of how they live.

Now, does this mean that we have to live absolutely perfect lives or we are not saved, and heaven is not promised us? No! (1 John 2:1-2) But we must not be those who make sin our practice, and not obedience to God, who are still living to please the flesh, and for selfish desires, who ignore God and the teachings of the Scriptures, and who chart our own course without consulting the Lord, and who do what we want instead of what God wants.

For this does matter for eternity that we get this. We may not comprehend everything that is taught in the book of Revelation or in other books of the Bible where they talk about the last days, and the things which will take place, but what we need to understand and believe is that God is going to judge us all by our deeds, by how we live, and by the things that we do with regard to what his word teaches should be our action response to God.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

Seek the Lord

An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Musical Instrumentation by Mark Bradley
Based off Isaiah 55

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”

By What We Do
An Original Work / June 1, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

[Dave M]

I do not understand all of that (above), and I know there are many different viewpoints on what that means. But me understanding all that is not critical to my walk of faith in the Lord Jesus

I live by that I do not NEED to understand that is what faith is !!! believing with out understanding !!! Praise Jesus it is him I trust, it is him I have faith in, it is him I love, it is him who knows what is best for me !!

 

[Dave M]

And this is critical that we understand what this is saying, for the masses today, at least here in American (USA), are buying into a cheapened and altered gospel message which makes no requirements of God for us to deny self, die with him to sin (not just once, but daily), and walk in obedience to his commands. They are teaching that a mere profession of faith assures them of forgiveness of all sins, and heaven, but regardless of how they live.

Now, does this mean that we have to live absolutely perfect lives or we are not saved, and heaven is not promised us? No! (1 John 2:1-2) But we must not be those who make sin our practice, and not obedience to God, who are still living to please the flesh, and for selfish desires, who ignore God and the teachings of the Scriptures, and who chart our own course without consulting the Lord, and who do what we want instead of what God wants.

Praise God, God power is real and transformational, and if you have not seen evidence of this, you may not be saved, not yet, seek God with all heart mind and should and he will change you, seek him half hearted and you may never change. He requires 100% commitment, he should be on our minds most of all the time

 

[Sue J Love]

Praise God, God power is real and transformational, and if you have not seen evidence of this, you may not be saved, not yet, seek God with all heart mind and should and he will change you, seek him half hearted and you may never change. He requires 100% commitment, he should be on our minds most of all the time

Thank you. Glory to God!

 

[Sue J Love]

I live by that I do not NEED to understand that is what faith is !!! believing with out understanding !!! Praise Jesus it is him I trust, it is him I have faith in, it is him I love, it is him who knows what is best for me !!

Walk by faith, not by sight.

 

[B-A-C]

Matt 16:27 "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.

John 5:28 "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice,
John 5:29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

Rom 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
Rom 2:6 who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS:
Rom 2:7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life;
Rom 2:8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.
Rom 2:9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek,

2Cor 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Not only do we receive rewards for what good things we did. There will be punishment for the bad things people have done.

1Jn 3:12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous.

Rev 2:5 'Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
You already mentioned this passage, but I think it bears repeating.

Rev 20:12 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.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.

Don't you think it's interesting, there are all these passages about people being judged by their "deeds" or "works", but not a single passage about people being judged by what they believe.

 

[Sue J Love]

Matt 16:27 "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.

John 5:28 "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice,
John 5:29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

Rom 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
Rom 2:6 who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS:
Rom 2:7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life;
Rom 2:8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.
Rom 2:9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek,

2Cor 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Not only do we receive rewards for what good things we did. There will be punishment for the bad things people have done.

1Jn 3:12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous.

Rev 2:5 'Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
You already mentioned this passage, but I think it bears repeating.

Rev 20:12 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.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.

Don't you think it's interesting, there are all these passages about people being judged by their "deeds" or "works", but not a single passage about people being judged by what they believe.

What we truly believe will be reflected in the things that we do, for faith to believe in Jesus comes from God and it is persuaded of God and it is gifted to us by God and it is not of our own doing, not of the will nor of the flesh of man. And so genuine faith will result in what is of God, not of the flesh. And the Scriptures teach such faith as this as = Obedience, and disobedience as = unbelief. So, what we truly believe will be evidenced by our actions.