SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/24/2021 9:47 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Creed”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
7:16-20
Message of the verses: “16 “You will know
them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs
from thistles, are they? 17 “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad
tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad
tree produce good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut
down and thrown into the fire. 20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits.”
We
have talked about the wide and the narrow gate in past SD’s and as we looked at
it we stated that the wide gate many could come through and many do come
through. Now as look at the “creed” or
perhaps “doctrine” of the false prophets we know that no one will come through
the narrow gate who continues to follow the false prophets’ doctrine. On the surface their message may sound to be
difficult and demanding, however it will always rest on the foundation of man’s
works and will therefore always be accomplishable by man’s own efforts,
something that will endeavor to give a person a guilty conscience they wonder
if they had done enough. The false
prophets will never reveal the depth or the danger of sin and depravity, thus
having a need for repentance, for forgiveness, and for submission to the Lord,
or even the destiny of judgment, condemnation, and eternal destruction for
those who are apart from God. People who
follow these false prophets will never be broken over their sin and will have
no longing for righteousness. The false
prophets have easy answers for small problems.
Jeremiah writes “"They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace” (6:14). In their teaching there is no humility, no
warning of judgment, and no call for repentance and a contrite heart of
obedience.
MacArthur
writes “They have a ready hearing among most people, because they say only what
people like to hear. Just as ancient
Israel in Jeremiah’s time, people today like it that way (Jer. 5:31).” “The prophets prophesy falsely, And the
priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what
will you do at the end of it?” “They
want to hear illusions, not truth. They
are enamored with pleasure and fantasy and resent being confronted with
anything disquieting and condemnatory. They want encouragement but not
correction, positive words but not negative truth. They will accept grace as long as it is cheap
grace and does not reflect against their own sinfulness, inadequacies, and
lostness.”
If
the false prophets do have a creed it he has any at all, it will be vague,
indefinite and also insubstantial. There will be no demanding truth that will
be absolute or clear-cut, and also every principle will be easy and
attractive. I have heard a statement
that in the past have not followed it as I should have, and that statement is
that if it is too good to be true it probably is, and that is the case of all
false prophets’ teachings.
MacArthur
again quotes Arthur Pink as he declares “Any preacher who rejects God’s law,
who denies repentance to be a condition of salvation, who assures the giddy and
godless that they are loved by God, who declares that saving faith is nothing
more than an act of the will which every person has the power to perform is a
false prophet and should be shunned as a deadly plague” (This quote like the other one from Pink in
yesterday’s SD came from his book “An exposition of the Sermon on the Mount”
from page 362.)
1.
In my prayer list that I use
most every day with the exception of Saturday when I pray for our Pastors I
have a section where I praise the Lord for His Attributes, and we will look at
this in a moment, but my point here is that false prophets do not talk much
about all the different attributes of God as they, like many people focus in on
“God is love.” Yes God is love, but
there is much more to God than love. “Praise the Lord
for His attributes, for who God is: God
is HOLY, good, glorious, pure, sovereign, gracious, merciful, long-suffering,
truth, measureless, omnipresence, omnipotent, omniscience, all wise, immutable,
eternal, God is wrath,
God pardons, God is
Jealous, faithful, God
is love and just.” MacArthur
concludes “Their message is a message of gaps, the greatest gap of which leaves
out the truth that saves.” Don’t miss
that or you will be going through the wide gate that leads to destruction.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Live my life in the truth of God’s Word, through
the power of the Holy Spirit so that the false prophets and teachers will not
affect me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to have a good meeting with
Pastor Odle on Friday as I talk to him about revival and other things.
2/24/2021 10:22 AM
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