SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/8/2016 11:03 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Be Self-Righteous”
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 8:22
Message of the verses: “22 So the Jews were saying, "Surely He
will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ’Where I am going, you cannot
come’?’”
We said at
the end of our last SD that in our SD for today we will look at some difference
verses from both the OT and the NT that deal with self-righteousness.
John
MacArthur writes “The truth that salvation cannot be attained through
self-righteousness should have come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the
Old Testament. In Psalm 14:2-3 David
wrote ‘2 The LORD has looked down from
heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek
after God. 3 They have all turned aside,
together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.’ ‘All the ways of a man are clean in his own
sight, ‘ Solomon noted, ‘but the Lord weighs the motives’ (Prov. 16:2), while
in 20:9 he added, ‘Who can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from sin’? Proverbs 30:12 warns ‘There is a kind who is
pure in his own eyes, yet is not washed from his filthiness.’ ‘I will declare you [false, external]
righteousness and you deeds,’ God declared to wayward Israel, ‘but they will
not profit you’ (Isa. 57:12). A few
chapters later Isaiah expressed the utter inability of sinners to save
themselves: ‘We have sinned…and we need
to be saved. But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness
are like filthy rags’ (Isa. 64:5-6 NKJV).”
We will now
look at some verses from the New Testament as it also teaches that no one can
be saved by self-righteousness. Matthew
5:20 “20 "For I say to you that
unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will
not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Now if
anyone ever thought that their self-righteousness could save them it would have
been the Pharisees. Their problem was
that they thought that their external compliance to the Law could save them,
but in the first place they were making up their own laws in some cases adding
to the laws that were found in the OT. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21 “21 He made
Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him.” This verse
shows that salvation is an exchange that is that Christ became our sin and gave
us His righteousness, what a wonderful act of grace and mercy, but divine
truth.
There are
many other verses in the NT that show us that we can only be saved through the
shed blood of Jesus Christ and we will only look at a few more in this SD. John MacArthur writes “Jesus denounced the
Pharisees as ‘those who justify [themselves] in the sight of men, but God knows
[their] hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in
the sight of God’ (Luke 16:15). Later in
Luke’s gospel Jesus ‘told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves
that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 "Two men went up into the temple to
pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 “The Pharisee stood and
was praying this to himself: ’God, I thank You that I am not like other people:
swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 ’I fast
twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13 "But the tax collector, standing some
distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was
beating his breast, saying, ’God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather
than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles
himself will be exalted.’”
We will
conclude by looking at Galatians 3:6-14 “6 Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT
WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. 7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who
are of faith who are sons of Abraham. 8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God
would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham,
saying, "ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU." 9 So then those who
are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. 10 For as many as are of
the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS
EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO
PERFORM THEM." 11 Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is
evident; for, "THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." 12 However,
the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, "HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL
LIVE BY THEM." 13 Christ redeemed
us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us-for it is written,
"CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE"- 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of
Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the
Spirit through faith.”
MacArthur
concludes “The scribes and Pharisees were the epitome of self-righteous human
achievers. Those who follow their
example and trust in good works, morality, and religious activities to save
them; who refuse to admit their inability to contribute anything to saving
themselves and cry out ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ (Luke 18:13), will likewise die in their
sins. The self-righteous will never see
heaven.”
Spiritual meaning for my life: I am so thankful that the Lord has save me
through His work on the cross seeing that it is impossible for me to have done
anything on my own to be saved.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Psalm 119:27 “27 Make me
understand the way of Your precepts, So I will meditate on Your wonders.”
Memory verses for today:
2 Corinthians 12:7-9 “7. Because of the surpassing greatness of the
revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given
me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from
exalting myself. 8. Concerning this I
implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9. And He said, ‘My grace is sufficient for
you, for power is perfected in weakness,’ most gladly, therefore, I will rather
boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Bashan” (Numbers 21:33).
Today’s Bible question:
“At whose preaching did the men of Nineveh repent?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/8/2016 11:47 AM
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