SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/6/2020 8:26 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to Matthew 5:33-37
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
5:33-37
Message of the verses: “33 "Again,
you have heard that the ancients were told, ’YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT
SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.’ 34 "But I say to you, make no oath at all,
either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is the footstool of
His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 36 “Nor shall
you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37
“But let your statement be, ’Yes, yes’ or ’No, no’; anything beyond
these is of evil.”
I
begin with stating that the name of this section in MacArthur’s commentary is “The
Spiritual Credibility Gap.”
Credibility
Gap is not a new term, but according to a couple of dictionaries that I read it
seemed to start in the Lyndon Johnson era in this country: “Credibility gap is a political term that came into
wide use during the 1960s and 1970s. At the time, it was most frequently used
to describe public skepticism about the Lyndon B. Johnson administration's
statements and policies on the Vietnam War. Today, it is used more generally to
describe almost any "gap" between the reality of a situation and what
politicians and government agencies say about it.”
John MacArthur states that
credibility gaps “have existed since the Fall and have continually been one of
the major marks of the world system.
Satan is the prince of this world, and since he not only is a liar
himself but also ‘the father of lies’ (John 8:44), it should not be surprising
that the system he heads is characterized by lying. Because all men are born in sin, all men are
born liars (see Ps. 58:3; 62:4; Jer. 9:3-5).”
I would suppose that I would agree
with both the dictionary and with John MacArthur that credibility gaps are most
prevalent in politics today, especially living in the United States in
2020. All one has to do is look at
advertizing and you will also find this true.
Google and Facebook, along with other social media are certainly involved
in this too.
Since we are looking at this SD and
the ones that will follow we will be focusing in on the time period in which
Jesus came to earth, but we can see also that all of this started before the
birth of Christ, centered on the false religious system set up by the Jews.
We have been studying the fifth
chapter of Matthew since the 12th of March and have learned that in
this chapter and then in chapters 6-7 compose “The Sermon on the Mount,” and
one of the things that Jesus is pointing out is the fact that the Scribes and
the Pharisees did not get things right when it came to the true worship of
God. Unfortunately some of the same
things are going on in our world today and have been all through the church
age. Let me state this: “You can’t really get right with God until
you realize that you are a lost sinner going to hell. You can’t do it on your own as you must admit
that you are a lost sinner on your way to hell before you come to the
realization that Jesus paid it all and all you have to do is to confess that
you are a lost sinner on your way to hell and then accept what Jesus did for
you on the cross so that you will one day go to heaven.
MacArthur concludes this
introduction by writing “The Jews of Jesus’ day revered the idea of truth in
principle, but in practice it was buried under their system of tradition, which
over the centuries had continually cut God’s law down to fit their own sinful
perspectives and purposes. In Matthew
5:33-37 the Lord proceeds to expose their convenient distortion and
contradiction of the divine revelation they claimed to love and teach. In these five verses Jesus sets forth the original
Mosaic teaching, the traditional perversion of that teaching, and His own
reemphasis of what God’s standard for truth has always been.” With this statement we have the outline that
we will be looking at over the next several days. Lord willing we will begin with “The Principle
of Mosaic Law” in our SD for tomorrow.
We will now continue to look at the fifth part of “The Third Battle is
the Battle of the P:romised Seed,” which comes from the booklet “The Battle of
the Ages.”
“5. There was a fifth and final
attempt to prevent the incarnation of Christ.
This was seen in Haman’s Plot
to Exterminate the Jewish Nation. The plot of Haman is described in the Book of
Ester. The Jews now exiled from their
land were scattered throughout the world empire of Medo-Persia. The dominion of this empire was
universal. ‘Ahasuerus reigned from India
even upto Ethiopia, over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces,’ comprising
the whole known world. This wicked Haman—another
seed of the serpent—‘sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout all
the kingdom of Ahasuerus.’ He obtained
from the king a decree for the extermination of every man, woman and child of
the Jewish race throughout the world. It
was the law of the Medes and Persians that no decree could ever be
revoked. The devil knew his
business. It was a dastardly attempt to
exterminate the entire chosen race, But,
‘Standeth God within the shadows
Keeping watch above His own.’
And we know how
this plot also failed. Haman was hanged
upon the gallows of his own making, just as the one who inspired him shall meet
his judgment at the gallows he himself shall build upon Golgotha.
“And so the Battle of the Promised
Seed was a victory for the Word of God.
Praise God the Scriptures cannot be broken. For four thousand years the powers of hell
were concentrated in an effort to break one single promise. And although it took all heaven to frustrate
the designs of hell, the issues never was in doubt, for God’s Word standeth
sure. Every attack upon the promise has
failed and in the fulness of time the seed of the woman appears.”
9/6/2020 9:04 PM
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