SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/11/2020 9:12 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Perspective of Divine Truth”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
5:34-47
Message of the verses: “34 “But I say to
you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 "nor
by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of
the great King. 36 “Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make
one hair white or black. 37 “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’
For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”
I
want to mention a couple of things this morning before we begin this SD. First of all this will be a short SD because
there is one more sub-point from our 4th section in “The Battle of
the Ages,” and that is fairly long and it is the last section from this
insightful booklet. Second thing I want
to mention is that my wife and I hosted an “Evangelism Explosion” meeting last
night and had our neighbor attending. I
will say that it was very emotional for all of us and I truly believe that God
was given glory through this meeting so all I can say is Praise the Lord.
Now
we have been talking about what the Pharisees had said about the law which was
not exactly what the law said as they changed it to fit their needs and now we
will be looking at what the Lord has to say, and we will be looking at this for
several days. What the Pharisees had
misconstrued and made perverted by their tradition was “make no oath at all.” MacArthur writes “Oaths are to be used only
on important occasions and are to be given only in the name of the Lord. Though the Greek construction here is and
unconditional negative (me…holds),
that does not preclude all oaths.
Commentator William Hendriksen’s explanation is helpful: ‘What we have here in Matthew 5:33-37 (cf.
James 5:12) is the condemnation of the flippant, profane, uncalled for, and
often hypocritical oath, used in order to make an impression or to spice daily
conversation. Over against that evil
Jesus commends simple truthfulness in thought, word and deed.’”
Now
we will move to that last quotation from “The Battle of the Ages.”
5
“The Battle of Calvary was the final
battle of the Incarnation. It was a last
attempt to slay Jesus Christ and this time it succeeded—thank God! ‘The Devil
having put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Him.’
Jesus
is dying at Calvary. There is a crown of
thorns upon His head. These are the
thorns the first Adam brought into this world.
These thorns are the emblem of the curse. Christ shall carry them shortly to the grace
and the curse shall be buried with Him.
A crown of thorns. Yes, He is the
King, the Conqueror of the curse.
“But
did Satan succeed? Was the Battle of
Calvary lost? What is that cry, ‘It is
finished’? That does not sound like a
wail of despair, is sounds like a shout of triumph. What is the angelic announcement, ‘He is not
here, He is risen’? What does it
mean? That shout from the cross is Satan’s
death-knell. As Haman was hanged on his
own gallows, so Satan has met his judgment at the cross. ‘Now shall the prince of this world be cast
out.’ It is by means of the cross that
the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. Jesus Christ has entered the realm of death
that ‘through death He might destroy him that hath the power of death, that is
the Devil.’ Our heavenly Samson has grappled with the lion, that He might break
the lion’s jaw. He has entered the grave
that He might rob it of its terrors. He
has taken the serpent’s sting into His breast, that He might empty its venom
upon Himself. And now we can cry, ‘O
death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory?’
“My
brother, the Battle of Calvary was your battle and mine. It was for you the Warrior Christ bowed His head
in death. That cross is our hope, that defeat
is our victory, that death is our life.
Is it possible, that aft er that awful conflict four your sake you have
not thanked Him for it? Is it possible
that you have dared to affront God by refusing and despising such love? I do not condemn you, but if you are unsaved I
tremble because you are bringing condemnation upon yourself. If you do not let Christ on the cross carry
away your sins, your sins will carry you away.
“What
will you do with this victory, bought for you at such awful cost, and wrought
out for you through all those ages of conflict?
Will you let Christ be born in your heart by faith? He waits to enter now. God has promised to keep safely to the end
all who receive this gift of eternal, indestructible life. The same power that preserved the Edenic
promise inviolate against all attacks of the serpent will keep secure that
promise of eternal life to you. If God be for you, what can be against
you? Will you let the Victor Christ come
into your heart now, with His salvation and His victory?”
I pray that the answer to that last question is yes!
9/11/2020 9:44 AM
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