SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/8/2020 9:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Principle of Mosaic Law”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt. 5:33
Spiritual meaning
of the verse: “34 “But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by
heaven, for it is God’s throne” (NKJV).
We
continue looking at this section, and as I said I want to look at times when
God made oaths, which He did on certain occasions. Let us look at Genesis 22:15-17 “15 Then the
angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16 and said,
"By Myself I have sworn,
declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not
withheld your son, your only son, 17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I
will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand
which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their
enemies.” Now we want to look at a
passage from the book of Hebrews that helps us understand why God said “By
Myself I have sworn.” “13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one
greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, "Surely blessing I will bless
you, and multiplying I will multiply you’ (NKJV).” Let us also look at verse 17 “17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly
to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath”
(NKJV). John MacArthur comments “Obviously
the Lord’s promises made with an oath were no more truthful or binding than
anything else He promised. It is not
that God makes an oath because His word would otherwise be questionable or unreliable,
but because He wishes to impress upon men a special importance or urgency
related to the promise.” (If you care to
look at some other oaths the Lord made look at Psalm 89:3, 49; 110:4; Jer.
11:5, and Luke 1:73.)
Now
we will look at some of the times when Jesus used the phrase “Truly I say to
You” in places like Matthew 5:18, 26; 6:2, 5, 16 and other places. Jesus did this also in John 1:51; 3:3, 5;
5:19, 24 and also other places to call attention to a teaching of special
importance. We will give an example from
John 1:51 “And He said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and
the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.’” This is similar
to God the Father’s oaths, as the words Jesus introduces with “truly” are no
more truthful than anything else He said, but emphasize the unique importance
of certain of His teachings. It is very important
to note that Jesus Himself swore an oath before Caiaphas that He was the
Christ, the Son of God as seen in Matthew 26:63-64 “63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest
answered and said to Him, "I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us
if You are the Christ, the Son of God!" 64 Jesus said to him, "It
is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son
of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of
heaven.”
We
can answer the question as to why God provided for proper oath-giving in His name. The answer is that He did this as an
accommodation to sinful human nature, as we have learned that a part of human
sinful nature is to tell lies as we are prone to deceit and lying. 16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and
an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute” (Hebrews 6:16). This verse in Hebrews helps us to answer this
question we have been asking.
We
will conclude this SD with another quote from John MacArthur as he writes about
the wedding vow: “To make the wedding
vow, with God as a witness, to love and cherish our mates for as long as we
both live is to recognize and make a firm commitment to honor the special
sanctity that God places on marriage.
The psalmist, in describing the kind of person who may enter God’s holy
presence, makes clear that one mandatory requirement is that such a person be
one who ‘swears to his own hurt, and does not change’ (Ps. 15:1, 4). His word is more important than his
welfare. Keeping oaths made to God is
the mark of a true worshiper. To put it
another way, true sons of the kingdom hate lies (Ps. 119:29, 163; 120:2).”
I
have to say that there are two vows that I have made with the Lord a very long
time ago and the first one happened when I was at a conference in October of
1980, and the speaker asked if people were willing to make a vow that they
would read the Bible at least five minutes a day, and because I was having
trouble staying in the Word I made that vow.
I have to say that I have missed it less than 10 times since October of
1980, but I also have to say that there were times when I really got little or
nothing from my reading of the Word.
After making that vow I made another on that I would pray at least five
minutes a day. I probably have missed
that one more than ten times since I made that vow, and again there are times
when I wished that I had not made either vow.
I almost made another vow that will remain nameless, and by the grace of
God a former Pastor of mine said some things to me that caused me to re-think
and not make that vow, and I am forever thankful to him and to the Lord for me
not making that vow.
We now continue to look at the second point
from the 4th section of “The Battle of the Incarnation.”
“2. “The
Battle of Temptation was the next stage in the conflict. It was a hand to hand struggle in the
wilderness between the serpent and the Saviour.
Mark these two facts in this Battle of Temptation. First, Christ met and defeated Satan as a man. The first word of the Saviour was, ‘Man shall
not live by bread alone.’ Jesus used no
weapon in His victory not as the hand of any man. Again, Christ met and defeated Satan in the place of the curse. A wilderness is a garden accursed—nature under
the blight of sin. Christ has come to
redeem both man and creation from the curse; therefore as man He contends, and
in the very place of the curse He conquers.”
9/8/2020 10:20 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment