SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2019
10:45 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-3 “Depraved in Mind”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 4:17-19
Message of the verses: “17 So this I say,
and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles
also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their
understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is
in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become
callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every
kind of impurity with greediness.”
The
commentary from John MacArthur was written in 1986, however the preaching that
he did to his congregation was done earlier than 1986, and so as I quote from
his commentary from an article that he read in Forbes magazine from September
18, 1978 the data from it is now over 41 years old, and I might say that what
they were writing about then is much, much worse today than back then. “An article in Forbes Magazine (Sept. 18, 1978, pp. 81-92) entitled ‘The X-Rated
Economy’ began by stating the obvious—pornography is no longer and illegal
business. The market for pornography is
not confined to perverts or other emotional cripples. To the contrary, the largest part of the
market is middle class people. In an
increasingly permissive society those who enjoy pornography are free to revel
in it. The surprising revelation was
that , according to one official estimate, the nation’s pornographers do more
than four billion dollars worth of business a year—more than the combined
incomes of the often supportive movie and music industries! Other estimate place the total pornographic
business—including a large segment of the burgeoning home video market—at three
times that much.
“Impurity
is inseparable from greediness. Plenexia
(‘greediness’) is unbound covetousness, uninhibited lust for that which is
wanted. Immorality has no part in love,
and anything the sensual person does under the guise of caring and helpfulness
is but a ruse for exploitation. The
world of sensuality and impurity is the world of greediness. The person given over to godlessness and immorality
greedily takes whatever he can from those around him. He evaluates life only in material terms
(Luke 12:15), uses other people to his advantage (1 Thess. 2:5; 2 Pet. 2:3),
and turns his back on God in order to fulfill his own evil desires (Rom. 1:29). And greediness is no less than idolatry (Col.
3:5).” “Therefore consider the members
of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and
greed, which amounts to idolatry” (Col. 3:5).
People
who are selfish and desire to do “their own thing” end up cutting themselves
off from God. Whenever that happens,
that person then cuts himself off from the truth which will result in spiritual
blindness thus having no standards of morality.
Without standards of morality, then immorality becomes a shameless and
calloused way of living one’s life. As
the person goes on in this way it will destroy their mind’s ability to
understand what is good from what is evil, and also truth from what is false,
and what is real from what is not real. The
result is that the godless life becomes the mindless life.
MacArthur
concludes this very long section that we have been looking at since April 16th
with these words: “That process
characterizes every unbeliever. It is
the direction that every ungodly person is headed, although some are further
along than others. ‘Evil men and
impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived’ (2 Tim.
3:13). That some people may not reach
the extremes Paul mentions in Ephesians 4:17-19 is due only to the protective
shield of God’s common grace that He showers both on the righteous and the unrighteous
(see Matt. 5:45) and to the preserving influence of the Holy Spirit (Job.
34:14-15) and of the church (Matt. 5:13).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I look back on what we have been learning
from these three verses it is the mind that is what comes to me, and that is
that as a believer in Jesus Christ I must protect my mind from thinking things
that are not pleasing to the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord to teach me more
about humility so that I can then live my life in a way that will be pleasing
to the Lord.
Today’s quotation and this one is from
Oswald Chambers who writes “Never compromise with those who water down the Word
of God to human experience.”
4/26/2019 11:16 AM
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