Sunday, September 6, 2020

Intro to Matt. 5:33-37

 

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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