SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/18/2020
12:28 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 “The
Meaning”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:8
Message of the
verse: ““Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God.”
Purity in your heart is
more than sincerity. If we have a motive
it can be sincere, however it can lead to worthless and sinful things. If we look at the pagan priests that went up
against Elijah we can see that the truly demonstrated sincerity of heart, as
they cut themselves so that they could induce Baal to send fire down to burn up
their sacrifices as seen in 1 Kings 18:28 “So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves
according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on
them.” Yes that is sincerity, but their
sincerity did not produce the desired results that they were looking for. God did not allow Satan to burn up those
sacrifices, and I have to believe that he was probably chomping at the bit to
do it. There are people today that do
similar things like walking on nails in bear feet as they try to prove their
spiritual power. Some even crawl on
their knees for a long distance bleeding and grimacing in pain as they try to
show their devotion to a saint or to a shrine.
The problem is their sincere devotion is sincerely wrong and is
completely worthless before God.
As
one reads through the gospels they can see the Pharisees doing similar things
to try and show others how spiritual they were, but again their sincere
devotion was sincerely wrong as what they were doing had to do with traditions
and not things that were taught in the Word of God. They even went to the extreme of tithing
things like “mint and dill and cummin” however “they neglected the weightier
provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” as seen in Matthew
23:23. To them it is all about the
outside and nothing really like what happens in the inside of a person like
their hearts. As mentioned before Warren
Wiersbe said “The problem with the heart is the heart of the problem.” Let us continue to look at the 23rd
chapter of Matthew to see what Jesus continued to say: “25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside
they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 “You blind Pharisee, first
clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may
become clean also” (verses 25-26).
Thomas
Watson states “Morality can drown a man as fast as vice,” and “A vessel may
sink with gold or with dung.” MacArthur
adds “Though we may be extremely religious and constantly engaged in doing good
things, we cannot please God unless our hearts are right with Him.”
Jesus
talks about the ultimate standard for purity of the heart as being perfection
of heart in Matthew 5:48 “"Therefore you are to be perfect, as your
heavenly Father is perfect.” I wonder
what some of the people who were there listening to Jesus thought about once
Jesus made that statement. Perhaps the
Pharisees thought they had it made, but perhaps others who wanted to go to
heaven thought that this was an impossible fate, which of course it was and
still is. Paul would later write the
following to the Romans in Romans 5:20 “The Law came in so that the
transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the
more.”
Man
has a problem in that many times a person would judge themselves by other
people, and usually chose people who were less successful in doing things that
he is doing. Look at the Pharisees for
example in this story: “9 And He also
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.’”
God’s
standard for men is Himself, and that is a problem for many people. Humans cannot be fully pleasing to God until
they are pure, until they are holy as God is holy and also perfect as God is
perfect. Only those who are pure in
heart can enter the kingdom and David talks about this in Psalm 24:3-4 “3 Who may ascend into the hill of
the LORD? And who
may stand in His holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul
to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully.” David knew the answer to the problem all
people have when they are born, and that is how can we get into heaven since we
are all sinful people?
Lord
willing in our next SD we will continue to look at purity.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The lost Pharisees looked down at other
people, and it is my desire not to do like they do to any believer for we are
all called to do something for the cause of Christ as Ephesians 2:10 tells us,
and that is that we are to do what God planned for us to do in eternity past.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will continue to teach me
contentment, humility and give me joy as I study His Word each day.
5/18/2020 1:08 PM
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