SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/29/2020 8:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 5:20
Message of the verse: “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.”
In
our SD for this morning we will be looking briefly at the next main section which
is listed in the “focus” portion of this SD, and then we will move to the first
sub-section after that.
Now
we have written about the kind of righteousness that the Scribes and the
Pharisees promoted in their beliefs and it surely is not like the kind of
righteousness that is taught in the Word of God, by the God of the Word, as it
differed in several important ways. Here
is a list that MacArthur mentions in his commentary: God’s righteousness is 1) eternal, 2)
practical, 3) redefined, and 4) self-centered.
Eternal
As we look at the righteousness of the Scribes and
Pharisees we find that they concerned themselves entirely with observances of
the law and tradition. What they did not
pay attention with were motives or attitudes.
For instances no matter how much that they hated a person, if they did
not kill him then they were not guilty of breaking the commandment, and it did
not matter how much that they lusted after a woman that they were not guilty of
that commandment either, the commandment of adultery or fornication.
Let
us look at Matthew 23:25 where we will find that our Lord gives a graphic
picture of the external character of that religion “"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.” So we see that they had nothing wrong with
evil thoughts as long as they did not carry out those thoughts externally. When you think about this you can figure out
that all sin begins in the mind, eternal.
Jesus
states that that is precisely that sort of “righteousness” to be the worst
sort, as He condemned such externalism for the reason that those who practiced
it were really thieves, that they were self-indulgent, unclean, that they were
lawless, and also murderous and enemies of God.
“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. 27 “Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on
the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and
all uncleanness. 28 “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but
inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 "Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and
adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ’If we had been living
in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding
the blood of the prophets.’ 31 “So you testify against yourselves, that you are
sons of those who murdered the prophets” (Matt. 23:25-31). As Jesus moved on in His sermon we find that
His next teachings show that God first concern is with the heart as He deals
with such things as anger, hatred and lust, not just with their outward
manifestations in murder or adultery as seen in Matthew 5:22, 27-28. “22 "But I say to you that everyone who is
angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to
his brother, ’You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court;
and whoever says, ’You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the
fiery hell. 27 "You have heard that
it was said, ’YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a
woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
As
we move onto God’s concern about religious ceremony we find that it is the
same. Matthew 6:5-18 is where we will
find that teaching. I will not quote
those verses at this time but will when we get to that section later on, Lord
willing.
Another
external thing that the Scribes and Pharisees were proud of was that according
to Matthew 23:2 “1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, 2
saying: "The scribes
and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses.” This means that they were the custodians and
teachers of the law that God gave to Moses, “3 therefore all that they tell
you, do and observe, but
do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them” (Matthew 23:3). Jesus speaks of their ungodly system of works
righteousness later on in 23:13 “13 ¶ "But woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people;
for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to
go in.” We find that in another occasion
that Jesus told the Pharisees ““You are those who justify yourselves in the
sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed
among men is detestable in the sight of God.”
Lord
willing we will continue to look at the sub-sections of “Partial, and Redefined”
in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I remember a long time ago, back in the 1970’s
that I was listening to Hal Lindsey giving his testimony and he mentioned this
section stating that after reading that his righteousness must succeed the
Scribes and the Pharisees that he thought that they were pretty good and
wondered how his righteous would be better than theirs.
I
surely don’t want to fall into the trap of trying to do things for the Lord on
my own, but I desire to do the things that the Spirit of God leads me to do. Col 2:6 Therefore as you have received Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk
in Him.” My walk has to be the same way
that I was saved, by faith through grace.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Colossians 2:6.
7/29/2020 9:09 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment