SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/24/2020
10:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Intro
to Matt. 4:18-22
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
4:18-22
Message of the verses: “18 Now as Jesus
was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called
Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were
fishermen. 19 And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers
of men." 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. 21 Going on
from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John
his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He
called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed
Him.”
In
our Spiritual Diary from yesterday we looked at what we could say was a picture
of what happens to most churches after they begin. If one looks at the Spiritual Diaries that I
wrote about the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 you can see the
downfall of churches pretty much in order that they are presented in those two
chapters with the exception of Smyrna, and Philadelphia as our Lord had nothing
to say about these two churches that are bad or hurtful.
MacArthur
continues with his discussion about the history of the church: “What a striking
illustration of the history of the church.
Yet the work of evangelism, of spiritual lifesaving, is nonetheless the
purest, truest, noblest, and most essential work the church will ever do. The work of fishing men and women out of the
sea of sin, the work of rescuing people from the breakers of hell, is the
greatest work the church is called to do.
“Rescuing
men from sin is God’s great concern.
Evangelism has been called the sob of God. Concern for the lost caused Jesus to grieve
over unbelieving Jerusalem: ‘O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children
together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were
unwilling’ (Matt. 23:37).”
By
the way the title MacArthur gives to this section of verses is called “Fishing
for Men.” I think that is a great title
for these verses as Jesus calls those disciples who will be those who will be
fishing for the souls of men, probably as noted the greatest thing that the
church does.
A
part of God’s character and an attribute that He has is love, and love is why
God sent His Son to planet earth so that He could preach, die, and be raised
for the very purpose of saving men from sin as seen in probably the most
favorite verse in all the Bible, John 3:16 “"For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not
perish, but have eternal life.” John
3:17 goes on to say “"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the
world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” Let us look at Luke 19:10 “"For
the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." One more verse I want us to look at and that is
Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in
righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and
renewing by the Holy Spirit.” Now as you
look at these verses you can see that the whole Trinity is at work in the
ministry of saving mankind from sin. As
we at stated maybe not in these words, but words that were similar: “Evangelism
is the great concern of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
If
we go back to what happened in the Garden of Eden we can see from Genesis 3:15 that
God promised that one day sin would be destroyed and that Satan would be
bruised “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed
and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the
heel.’” As we move along in the book of
Genesis we see from 12:3 another promise given in a promise that God gave to
Abraham: “And I will bless those who
bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be
blessed.’” Notice the highlighted portion of this verse
that surely speaks of the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
As
we look through the Word of God we can see that there were many people who were
very concerned with the salvation of souls.
“"But now, if You will, forgive their sin-and if not, please
blot me out from Your book which You have written!’” This was written by Moses
who as we can see had a very tender heart for souls. “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of
life, And he who is wise wins souls,” writes Solomon in Proverbs 11:30. The Lord told Daniel in Daniel 12:3 “"Those
who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of
heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever
and ever.” I can think of what the
Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans “9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ
for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
We
will conclude this second section on the intro to Matthew 4:18-22 by talking
about what happened immediately after the gospel was given out in the second
chapter of the book of Acts, the day the church was born. We can see that after Peter’s great sermon on
the gospel that afterwards those who were saved began to tell others about what
happened to them. We read a number of
times in the book of Acts how many souls were saved until the number grew so
great that it was not given again, but nonetheless it was growing greatly. The church was to go into all the world to
seek and to save those who were lost, but it seems that the baby church in Jerusalem
was not willing to do that until persecution came upon them from especially
Saul. “Therefore, those who had been
scattered went about preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). This is what happened after that persecution.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I desire for the Lord to revive my heart so that
I can be used by Him to bring people to the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: As mentioned, to be revived to have the same
kind of heart that I had when the Lord saved me, to love the Lord like then, to
continue to learn humility, and to find joy in the study of His Word.
2/24/2020 10:57 AM
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