“Personalizing” (Luke 3:19)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2026 8:43 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                      Focus:  “Personalizing”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                  Reference:  “Luke 3:19”

            Message of the verse:  “But when Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the wicked things which Herod had done,”

            As we been looking at John’s preaching we can see that his bold preaching has been directed to large audiences, but also to separate individuals.  Even Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee and also Pera, where John was ministering, did not escape being reprimanded by him.  Antipas was a son of Herod the Great.  His long reign from 4 B.C. to A.D. 39 encompassed the entire ministry of Jesus Christ. Now with the exception of the birth narratives seen in Matthew 2:1-19; and Luke 1:5, Antipas is the Herod who appears in the gospel accounts.  He was actually not a Jew; his father, Herod the Great, was an Idumean (Edomite) and his mother, Malthace, was a Samaritan.  That he was descended from the despised Edomites and Samaritans did not endear Antipas to his Jewish subjects as the did not like either of them.  Neither did his actions as ruler, in particular building Tiberias, his capital city, on the site of a Jewish cemetery.  Now because they considered the site to be defiled, Antipas had a hard time persuading any Jews to settle there.  It was Herod Antipas’s father who was really a ruthless man who if memory serves me correctly killed many of his son because he thought that they would take over his kingdom.  Bad blood line for sure!

            One might thing that it would be wrong to rebuke a ruler of Herod’s status, John was not deterred.  MacArthur writes “The verb translated reprimanded is a present passive participle, indicating continuous action.  John continually challenged the moral character of this ruler because of all the wicked things which Herod had done.”  Now as we have been looking at the different challenges that John the Baptist has been speaking to different people groups, it is no wonder that he challenged Herod on this matter.

            MacArthur goes on to write “Of all of Herod’s sins, one glaring one stood out publicly: his illicit marriage toe Herodias, his brother’s wife.  This sordid story was nothing less than a first-century soap opera.  Marital problems were nothing new to the Herod’s; Antipas’s father, Herod the Great, for example, had ten wives.  Antipas had married the daughter of Aretas, the king of Nabates, a region located just south of Perea.  While on a journey to Rome, Antipas visited his half brother Philip (Not Philip the tetrarch mentioned in 3:1).  While staying with him, Antipas became infatuated with Philip’s wife Herodias (who was also Antipas’s niece, the daughter of another of his half brothers).  The ambitious Herodias was eager to be wife of a tetrarch (Her husband, Philip, was a private citizen) and agreed to marry Antipas on the condition that he divorce Aretas’s daughter. Aretas was outraged over his insult, and his smoldering resentment later led to war between him and Antipas.  Antipas was defeated by Aretas and saved from disaster only by Romen intervention.

            “Herodias would ultimately prove to be Herod’s downfall.   After Emperor Caligula granted Herodias’s brother Agrippa I (Acts 12:1) the title of king, she demanded that Herod go to Rome and obtain the same title.  (The gospel references to him as king [Matt. 14:9; Mark 6:14, 22] reflect informal popular usage of the term.)  But before Herod and Herodias reached Rome, a messenger from Agrippa accused Herod of wrong-doing.  As a result, Caligula deposed Herod who, accompanied by Herodias. Was banished  permanently to a city in what is now France. 

            “Antipas and Herodias are reminiscent of another ill-fated couple, Ahab and Jezebel.  ‘Like Ahab,’ writes D. A. Carson, ‘Antipas was wicked but weak, and Herodias, like Jezebel, wicked and ruthless’ (Matthew, in Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., The Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984], 8:338).  Antipas’s weakness coupled with Herodias’s ruthlessness ensured that eventually their sins could only bring disastrous consequences.”  There is an old saying that many times comes true:  “What goes around comes around” and this is certainly true in this case.

4/28/2026 9:20 PM

“Preaching” (Luke 3:18)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2026 8:55 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                            Focus:  “Preaching”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                       Reference:  Luke 3:18

            Message of the verse:  “So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people.”

            There are many things going on in my life today as I have to go to the hospital to get a test, which they must put me to sleep.  Due to her cancer my wife is in pain this morning and is suppose to drive me home, so we are praying that she will be able to do that.

            John MacArthur writes:  “As noted in the previous chapter of this volume, John ministered for many months in the Judean wilderness near the Jordan River.  Large crowds flocked to hear him, and speculation was rampant that he might be Israel’s long-awaited Messiah.  John was not the Messiah, but he preached the gospel to the people, calling them to repent and baptizing those who did so in preparation for the Messiah’s coming.  His exhortation exposed the wickedness of their hearts, condemned heir reliance on ritual and their Abrahamic heritage for salvation, and warned them that they would face God’s wrath and judgment if they did not truly  and evidently repent. His message was not confined to the Jewish people, however, as his condemnation of Herod, a non-Jew, indicates.

            “John’s ministry overlapped that of Jesus, continuing for as long as six months after he baptized Him.  But as Jesus came to the forefront, His ministry eclipsed John’s.  In John 3:22-36, the apostle John recorded John the Baptist’s final testimony to Jesus, as his ministry wound down to its conclusion.  Verses 22-23 not that both Jesus (through His disciples; cf.4:2) and John were baptizing, indicating the overlap in their ministries from Christ’s temptation to John’s imprisonment.  John’s gospel supplements the account of the Synoptic Gospels by revealing what took place between those two events.

            “Disturbed by their master’s declining popularity, John’s disciples ‘said to him, ‘Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him’”(v.26).  Though his disciples may have lost sight of the purpose of John’s ministry, which was to point Israel to the Messiah, John had not.  ‘A man can receive nothing,’ he reminded them, ‘unless it has been given him from heaven.  You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him’’(vv. 27-28).  John saw Jesus’ increasing popularity not as a threat to his ministry, but as its fulfillment.  To make his point perfectly clear, John told his disciples, ‘He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease’ (v. 30).  Then in verses 31-36 John gave six reasons why Jesus was superior to him.

            “First, Jesus had a heavenly origin.  He is the one ‘who comes from above [and] is above all’ (v. 31; cf. 6:33, 38-50-51, 58; 8:42; 13:3; 16:28; 17:8; 1 Cor. 15:47; Eph. 4:10), which affirms His deity.

            “Second, Jesus is omniscient.  His teaching is superior to anyone else’s because He is the source of divine revelation.  ‘What He has seen and heard’ in the heavenly realm, of that He testifies’ (v. 32).

            “Third, what Jesus said was always in complete harmony with God the Father, so that ‘he who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true’ (v.33).  Conversely, to reject Jesus is to call God a liar (1 John 5:10).

            “Forth, Jesus experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in an unlimited way; God gave Jesus ‘the Spirit without measure’ (v. 34).  That is in contrast to all others who spoke for God, even the prophets and the inspired writers of Scripture.  Their ability to receive the Spirit’s power was limited by their sinful, fallen human natures.  But since in Christ ‘all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form ‘(Col. 2:9), there was no limits on the Spirit’s power working in Him.

            “Fifth, Jesus has received all authority from the Father, who ‘has given all things into His hand (v. 35).  The Father’s granting Him supreme authority over everything in heaven and earth.  (Matt. 11:27; 28:18; 1 Cor. 15:27; Eph. 1:22; Phil. 2:9-11; Heb. 1:2; 1 Peter 3:22) is a clear testimony to the Son’s deity.

            “Finally, Jesus alone is the Savior (Acts 4:12), and ‘he who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him’ (36).  Since in Isaiah 43:11 God declared, ‘I, even I, am the Lord and there is no savior besides Me,’ to say that Jesus is Savior is to say that He is God.

            “Having given this final testimony to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, John faded from the scene.  The work of the great prophet was over.”

4/28/2026 9:40 AM

 

PT-2 Intro. To “The Boldness of John the Baptist”

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2026 7:15 PM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  Introduction to Luke 3:18-20

My Worship Time                                Focus: PT-2 Intro. To “The Boldness of John the Baptist”

            Message of the verses:  “So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people.  But when Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the wicked things Herod had done, Herod also added this to them all: he locked John up in prison.” 

            It is my desire to complete John MacArthur’s introduction to these verses above.

            “Among the hundreds of  Protestants martyred in England during the reign of Mary Tudor (‘Bloody Mary’) was the great preacher Hugh Latimer.  As he was about to be burned at the stake along with fellow reformer Nicolas Ridley, Latimer said to him, ‘Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as I trust.

            “In modern times many faithful preachers of God’s Word have faced persecution or martyrdom in such places as China, the Middle East, parts of Africa and India, and elsewhere.  Nevertheless, as Paul wrote during his own imprisonment for the cause of Christ, ‘the word of God is not imprisoned’ (2 Tim. 2:9).

            “The first of many through the ages who would be martyred for faithfully testifying to Christ was His forerunner, John the Baptist.  By human standards, John’s career does not appear to have been very successful.  His brief ministry of about a year was spent in the Judean wilderness, and ended with a long stretch in prison followed by his being beheaded.

            “But such an evaluation of John’s career is misguided.  The truth is, he was eminently used by God to accomplish the task for which he was born (Luke 1:13-17, 76)—so much so that Jesus said of him, ‘Truly I say to you, among those born of women there was not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist!’(Matt. 11:11).  John accomplished precisely what God purposed him to.

            “Having given examples of his preaching and interacting with the crowds in verses 7-17, Luke closed out the story of John the Baptist with this brief summary of his ministry.  It should be noted that Luke’s insertion of this  section here was not chronological, but thematic.  John was not actually imprisoned until later in Jesus’ ministry, but Luke pulls his imprisonment back to this point to conclude his account of John’s ministry and set Jesus on center stage.  For the rest of Luke’s gospel John appears only in reference to Him.

            “Three Words, ‘preaching,’ ‘personalizing ,’ and ‘persecution,’ help unfold John’s impact.”

4/27/2026 7:27 PM

 

PT-1 Intro. To “The Boldness of John the Baptist” (Luke 3:18-20)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2026 9:55 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  Introduction to Luke 3:18-20

My Worship Time                                Focus: PT-1 Intro. To “The Boldness of John the Baptist”

            Message of the verses:  “So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the people.  But when Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the wicked things Herod had done, Herod also added this to them all: he locked John up in prison.” 

            The following introduction to these verses comes from the pen of John MacArthur:  “Throughout redemptive history fearless preachers have paid the price of boldly confronting sin.  It should come as no surprise then that the Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest preacher who ever lived (John 7:46; cf. Matt. 7:28-29), was executed by His enemies.” 

(John 7:46; cf. Matt. 7:28-29)

“46  The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!””

“28  And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29  for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”

“According to traditions (of varying reliability) handed down from the early church, the same fate befell all of the apostles except for John, who was exiled to Patmos.  Peter was crucified (upside down, at his request, because he felt unworthy to be crucified as his Lord had been [Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, ILL, 1]). His brother Andrew reportedly was also crucified; tied instead of nailed to the cross to prolong his suffering.  James the brother of John is the only apostle whose death is recorded in Scripture’s he was executed by Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:1-2).  Philip was said to have been stoned to death in Asia Minor, but not before multitudes came to faith in Christ through his preaching.  The traditions vary concerning how Philip’s close companion Nathanael (Bartholomew) died.  Matthew may have been burned at the stake.  Thomas likely reached India, where some traditions say he was killed with a spear.  According to the apocryphal Martyrdom of James, James the son of Alphaeus was stoned to death by the Jews for preaching Christ.  Simon the Zealot, according to some traditions, preached the gospel in Egypt, North Africa, and Persia, where he was martyred by being sawn in to.  Other traditions place his ministry in Britan, where he was eventually crucified by the Romans.  Thaddeus (also known as Judas the son of James [Luke 6:16) reportedly took the gospel message to what is now modern Turkey, where he was clubbed to death.  Paul was likely beheaded at Rome during Nero’s persecution of the church.  The New Testament also records the martyrdoms of the fearless evangelist Stephen (Acts. 7:58-60) and Antipas, a faithful pastor of the church at Smyrna (Rev. 2:13).

            “In the postapostolic era faithful preachers continued to face martyrdom, Ignatius was martyred at Rome early in the second century.  Diligently carrying out his ministry to the end, he wrote a series of letters to various churches while he was being taken to Rome for execution, exhorting them to stand firm in the faith.  Polycarp, martyrdom at Smyrna in the middle of the second century, refused to renounce Christ.  ‘Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury’ he replied.  ‘How then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?’  When the proconsul threatened to burn him alive Polycarp fearlessly replied, ‘You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but are ignorant of the fire of coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly.  But why tarry you? Bring forth what you will.’

            John Chrysostom, fourth-century bishop of Constantinople, was perhaps the greatest preacher of the early church (the nickname Chrysostom means ‘golden-mouthed’).  He was exiled when his bold, uncompromising preaching offended many of the rich and powerful in Constantinople (especially the vain Empress Eudoxia).  No longer able to preach, Chrysostom turned to writing.  So powerful and effective was his continuing ministry that he was banished to a more remote location.  Treated harshly by the soldiers escorting him, Chrysostom became ill and died along the way.  Historian Justo Gonzalez describes the scene: ‘When he perceived that death was near, he asked to be taken to a small church by the roadside.  There he took communion, bid farewell to those around him, and preached his briefest but most eloquent sermon: ‘In all things, glory to God. Amen’’ (The Story of Christianity [Peabody, Mass.” Prince, 1999), 1:199-200).

            “Two notable medieval forerunners to the Reformation were John Wycliffe and Jan Huss.  Wycliffe (1339-1384) sometimes called the ‘Morning Star of the Reformation,’ was an English reformer who affirmed the Bible to be the only authority in matters of doctrine and practice.  He sought to translate it into English, so more people could read it.  Wycliffe taught that Christ, not the pope, was the head of the church, denied the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation and (like Luther later would) opposed the granting of indulgences (remissions of some or all of the punishments of purgatory, often sold in the Middle Ages to raise money for the Catholic Church).  Wycliffe and his followers, the Lollards, helped pave the way for the Reformation in England.  For his bold opposition to the false teaching of his day, Wycliffe was condemned and forced to leave his position at Oxford. 

            “Wycliffe’s younger contemporary, the Czech reformer Jan Huss (1373-1415) paid a steeper price for opposing some of the false teaching of the Roman church.  Huss, like Wycliffe, taught that the Bible, not the pope, was the supreme authority.  He also rejected indulgences.  When the pope, was issued a decree that forbade preaching in chapels such as the one Huss preached in, Huss ignored it and continued to preach.  For doing so, he was excommunicated.  Huss was summoned to appear before the Council of Constance (1415) and was promised safe conduct to and from the council by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.  But Huss was condemned and burned at the stake, the emperor’s guarantee of safe conduct notwithstanding.”

Spiritual Meaning for My Life today:  I am thankful to the Lord to be able to have the freedom in our country to be able to study the Word of God, to go to the church of my choice, and to be able to write my Spiritual Diaries, and put them onto the internet so the Holy Spirit  of God will then send them around the world to use for the glory of Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today.  To continue to write my Spiritual Diaries each day so that the Lord can use them to bring glory to my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

4/27/2026 10:46 AM   

“TRUE REPENTERS RECEIVE THE MESSIAH” (Luke 3:15-17)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2026 8:51 PM

My Worship Time                       Focus:  “TRUE REPENTERS RECEIVE THE MESSIAH”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                 Reference:  Luke 3:15-17

            Message of the verses:  “¹⁵ Now while the people were in a state of expectation and they all were thinking carefully in their hearts about John, whether he himself perhaps was the Christ, ¹⁶ John responded to them all, saying, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but He is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the straps of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’”

            This will be the last Spiritual Diary in this 18^th chapter of John MacArthur’s commentary, something that I rely on in order to write these Spiritual Diaries.

            As mentioned this is the final point and it moves beyond the things that accompany salvation to the One who alone can save, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.  John’s words are very powerful and so they attest that the coming one, the Messiah, is God, since He does things only that God can do.  This should be something that people are involved in any kind of cult or even in the Roman Catholic church because it seems their Pope tries to act like He is the Messiah.

            Now for centuries the Jewish people had longed for and eagerly anticipated the coming of the Messiah, but now is seems that the people were in a heightened state of expectation because of John’s ministry, as some thought he was the Messiah.  Their speculation as to whether he was the Christ, though understandable, was misguided, and John would tell them that.  It is true that John was a prophet as seen in Luke 20:6, and the greatest man who had ever lived up to his time as seen in Matthew 11:11.  However John was not the Messiah, look at John 1:6-8), nor did he ever claim to be.  On the contrary, “When the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ [John] confessed and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ’” (John 1:19-20; cf. 3:28).” “John 3:28 “28  You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’”

            John’s disclaimer, As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the throng of His sandals not only made it clear that he was not the Messiah, but also that he was inferior to Him.  John baptized them in the water of the Jordan River as an outward confession of their repentance.  However the Messiah, the one who is coming, or “the Expected One’ (Luke 7:19-20) is mightier than John.  So superior is the Messiah that John deemed himself that he was unfit even to untie the thong of His sandals—a menial task that was performed by the lowliest of the slaves as John points out in John 1:27.  The Messiah would baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire.  Now that demonstrates the Messiah’s superiority to John, for those two supernatural acts can only be performed by God.  It is God and God alone who dispenses the Holy Spirit to those who repent and judgment to those who do not.

            MacArthur writes “The Jews were well aware that under the New covenant, God would send the Spirit to indwell those who repent (Ezekiel 36:27; 37:14). Nor does any human have the authority to immerse unrepentant sinners in the  fire of eternal judgment.  The Jews also knew that the Old Testament frequently associates fire with divine judgment (cf. Isaiah 29:6; 30:33; 31:9; 66:15-16; Ezek. 38:22; Zeph. 1:18; 3:8).  Malachi wrote that Messiah would come (3:1) bringing judgment, which caused the prophet to exclaim, ‘But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?  For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap’ (v. 2).  In 4:1, God used the metaphor of fire to picture future judgment:  ‘For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.’” The New Testament also uses fire in reference to diving judgment (Matt. 7:19; 13:40, 42, 50; 18:8; 25:41; Luke 9:54; 12:49; 17:29; John 15:6; 2 Thess. 1:7; Heb. 10:27; 2 Peter 3:7; Jude 7; Rev. 14:10; 19:20; 20:10, 14-15; 21:8).

            “John’s powerful call for true repentance is just as relevant and needed today as when he first gave it.  It is the duty of every true preacher of God’s Word to warn his hearers of the danger of false, shallow, non-saving repentance; repentance that is grounded in selfish regret over sin’s consequences instead of desire to be delivered from sin fails to subdue the love of sin and initiate a passion for holiness, leads to further sin in a hypocritical attempt to maintain the façade of self-righteousness, produces self-deception, leads to a deadly false security, and ultimately hardens the heart, and sears the conscience.”

            In tomorrow morning’s SD, Lord willing I will begin looking at chapter 19 of MacArthur’s first commentary on the gospel of Luke which is entitled “The Boldness of John the Baptist and this chapter will only cover three verses (3:18-20).

4/26/2026 9:27 PM

 

 

“The Repenters Renounce Ancestry” (Luke 3:8b)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2026 8:07 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus: “The Repenters Renounce Ancestry”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                       Reference:  Luke 3:8b

            Message of the verse:  “and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.”

            It seems to me that I have heard that people have said that they had a free ticket to heaven because they were a part of some organization and now we see here that the Jews thought that they also had a free ticket into heaven because they were children of Abraham.  Both are not true for God has no grandchildren, He only has children as each person who comes to the Lord for salvation is a child of God.  This includes all the Jewish people too.  Now I am not saying that the Jewish people are not special people for it is them who God used for many wonderful things including having the bloodline of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  These Jews said to Jesus in John 8:33 “We are Abraham’s descendants” and then again in verse 39 “Abraham is our father.”  One has to be a spiritual child of Abraham and not a physical child of Abraham to be a believer in Jesus Christ for salvation.

            John MacArthur writes “But salvation is individual, not corporate.  Jesus challenged those who claimed to be Abraham’s children, ‘If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham’ (John 8:39).  ‘For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly,’ Paul wrote, ‘but he is a Jew who is one inwardly’ (Rom. 2:28-29).  Later in the epistle he added, ‘For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but ‘Through Isaac your descendants will be named’’’(Rom 9:6-7).  To the Galatians he wrote, ‘Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham…And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise (Gal. 3:7, 29).  Being a descendant of Abraham is no defense against divine judgment, Jesus warned:

24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.25 Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin standing outside and knocking on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ and He then will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’26 Then you will begin saying, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets!’27 And yet He will say, ‘I do not know where you are from; leave Me, all you evildoers.’28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out”

“Nor was the rich man in the story of the rich man and Lazarus delivered from hell by claiming Abraham as his father (Luke 16:24-26).

            “In keeping with that biblical truth, John cautioned his hears not to begin to say to themselves, We have Abraham for our father.  Then John pointed out that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.  His caustic statement was a severe blow to their over-weening pride.  There was nothing worthy or deserving about them; God from repentance and salvation, their hearts were hearts of stone anyway (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26).”

(Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26)

“19  And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,”

“26  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

“John’s harsh tone, reminiscent of his earlier denunciation of them as snakes (v. 7), was warranted by the seriousness of the situation.  Those who trust in their ethnic or religious heritage for salvation are deceived and headed for the fire of eternal judgment.”

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  I am thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ saved me on the 26^th,  of January, 1974, after listening to several sermons by the late Hal Lindsey as he spoke about how the world was going to end which was a fear of mine, and then the Holy Spirit of God brought me to faith In Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord as this week may be the key to find out if better treatment can be given to my wife for her cancer.

4/26/2026 8:37 AM

PT-2 “True Repenters Reveal Spiritual Transformation” (Luke 3:8a-14)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2026 6:47 PM

My Worship Time     Focus:                  PT-2 “True Repenters Reveal Spiritual Transformation”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                  Reference:  Luke 3:8a-14

            Message of the verses:  “Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance…Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  And the crowds were questioning him, saying, “Then what shall we do?”  And he would answer and say to them, “The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise.” And some tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”  And he said to them, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.”  Some soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?”  And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.”

            I continue to look at this section that I began this morning, and will see how far I can get this evening.

            Picking up from where I left off this morning I can see that the judgement pictured here is on individuals, as the singular every tree  suggests.  However if enough individuals fail to repent, it becomes a national issue, and that is what is happening here in Israel at this time period when both John and Jesus began their ministries.  Most of the people during this time period of their preaching did not follow the message of salvation, and the reason was, at least one of the reasons is that they thought that they were ok because they were born Jews.  What happened after the Lord was crucified sometime around 30 A.D. was that the church age began, but because the Jewish people had rejected the Lord, and also rejected being a part of the church so much that they were persecuting the church, that the Lord brought the Romans into their country and they defeated them and tore their temple down and slaughtered thousands of Jewish people, who were cast into the fire of eternal damnation.  The same axe of divine judgment will fall on all who fail to repent, both Jew and Gentiles alike (cf. Joel 3:1-2, 12-14; Zeph. 3:8).

            John had a sobering message and it prompted at least some in the crowd to reflect on their sinful lives.  Wanting to know what specific actions they needed to take to manifest genuine repentance, they began questing him, saying, “Then what shall we do?”  John would habitually, and MacArthur then adds the following (as the imperfect tense of the verb translated say indicates) answer them by giving practical advice.  He told the crowds in general, ‘The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise.’  Though seemingly trivial, sharing such basic necessities as clothing and food with those in need fulfills the command to love one’s neighbor (10:27; cf. Lev. 19:18; Romans  13:8-10; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8)—which is second in importance only to the command to love God (Matt. 22:37-38).

            “Luke then recorded the questions of two specific groups.  When some tax collectors also came to be baptized and asked him, ‘Teacher, what shall we do?  John said to them, ‘Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.’  Tax collectors were hated vilified, and scorned because they collected taxes for the Roman oppressors.  Despised as traitors and robbers, they were cut off from Jewish religious life and forbidden to testify in court.  John did not order them to give up their jobs, since it is not wrong for a government to collect taxes (Matt. 22:17-21; Rom. 13:7).  But he did tell them not to collect any more than what they had been ordered to collect.  Tax collectors normally increased their profits by extorting exorbitant tools beyond what was mandated by Rome (Luke 19:8), and demanding kickbacks and bribes.  They could manifest true repentance by treating people fairly and honestly and not abusing their authority.  Some of the tax collectors took John’s message to heart and repented (Matt. 21:31-32; Luke 19:1-10).

            Soldiers were another group prone to abusing their authority for selfish gain.  These soldiers could have been under the authority of Herod Antipas or Rome and may also have included some members of the Judean police.  John gave them three ways to manifest genuine repentance.  First, they were not to take money from anyone by force.  The verb translated take money by force literally means ‘to shake violently.’ The soldiers were not, to use contemporary idiom, to shake people down for money through intimidation or force.  Nor were they to accuse anyone falsely.  They were not to abuse their authority to twist and pervert the evidence in any attempt to extort money from the innocent.  Finally, John charged the soldiers to be content with their wages, since failing to do so might motivate them to abuse their power.”

            MacArthur concludes this section by writing “By selecting tax collectors and soldiers as examples of those who repented, John was making the general point that true repentance produces a life that is transformed from being characterized by sin to being benchmarked by virtue.”

4/25/2026 7:17 PM