SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/20/2020
10:21 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-5 “The Condemnation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
3:8-10
Message of the verses: “8 "Therefore
bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can
say to yourselves, ’We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you, that God
is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 “And the axe is
already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
John
says in verse eight “Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance” is
what he was saying to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but also to the
crowds. However John was wanting the
Pharisees and Sadducees to show that there was evidence that they truly had
repented of their sins and once this was done then there would be evidence of
their repentance. You cannot just say
you repented and then go on as if nothing happened in your life.
John
MacArthur tells a story in his commentary:
“Some years ago a well-known man in public ministry openly and
repeatedly ridiculed a fellow minister.
After many months of criticism, the first man decided that he was wrong
in what he had done and went to the other minister asking his forgiveness. It was reported that the one who had been
criticized replied, ‘You attacked me publicly and you should apologize
publicly. When you do I will forgive
you.’
“There
is no reason to believe that John the Baptist intended to humiliate the
Pharisees and Sadducees or demand some sort of public demonstration of their
sincerity. But he insisted on seeing
valid evidence of true repentance and would not be party to their using him to promote
their own selfish and ungodly purposes.”
John
had a pretty good idea of what these men were thinking for what he said to them
was probably pretty common belief in those days and perhaps may even under
differences today people have the same beliefs.
John said to them “9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ’We
have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you, that God is able from these
stones to raise up children to Abraham.”
Abraham was not a passport to heaven.
In today’s world some may say that I have been baptized and therefore I
will go to heaven one day. I suppose
that there were other things that people can say in similar fashion, but the
truth is that we have all been born with a sinful nature and there is nothing
we can do on our own to change that. We
have to realize that truth that there is nothing we can do about it on our
own. When the Spirit of God convicts
your heart that you are sinful and convicts your heart that the only way for
you to ever enter into heaven is to admit that you are sinful, that you sin and
that Jesus took your place on the cross and then accept His forgiveness so you
can be saved. We have been talking a lot
about repentance and that is what a person must do in order to be saved, and
then we can talk about sanctification which means that once you have been saved
you are sanctified, and as you live your life you are being sanctified, and
then once you get to heaven you will be fully sanctified. That process of sanctification while on earth
shows that your repentance was sure.
Jews
and Gentiles today still have the same issue that the Pharisees and the
Sadducees had in John the Baptist’s day and John’s message to them back then is
still something that is needed today and that is that you can’t be a true
believer just because you were born a Jew or because you did some other work
such as baptism. Baptism comes after you
are a true believer, and not before thinking that it makes you a believer.
Israel
had a chance to accept their Messiah when He came preaching and teaching them
and showing them that He was their Messiah, but they turned Him down. Latter on in Matthew’s gospel we see that
they chose a murder and a thief to be released by instead of Jesus, their
Messiah. They also said “And all the
people said, "His blood shall be on us and on our children!’” Because of this
we see that Israel would experience a foretaste of God’s judgment in the
ravaging of Jerusalem and in the destruction of the Temple in 70 A. D. some
forty years after John the Baptist lived and preached. 10 “And the axe is already laid at the root
of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown into the fire.”
John
MacArthur comments on verse ten: “At the
end of every harvest season the farmer would go through his vineyard or orchard
looking for plants that had borne no good fruit. These would be talking nutrients from the
soil that were needed by the good plants.
A fruitless tree was a worthless and useless tree, fit only to be ‘cut
down and thrown into the fire.’ Jesus
used a similar figure in describing false disciples. ‘If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown
away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them and cast them into the
fire, and they are burned’ (John 15:6).
Fruitless repentance is worthless and useless; it means absolutely
nothing to God.”
John
may have been talking to the fruitless Pharisees and Sadducees, but his message
is to everyone, even to people today.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Repentance is not just for salvation, but it
is also in this sanctification process that we are going through as believers
and that is why John speaks of this in his first epistle when he says “If we
confess our sins He is faith and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleans us
from all unrighteousness.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to
keep a short list with the Lord, and pray that He will keep my humble, and that
He will bring joy to me as I study His Word.
1/20/2020 11:14 AM
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