SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/16/2021 9:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Ending Comments
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
7:28-29
Message of the verses: “28 When Jesus had finished
these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching
them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”
What
we are going to do in this SD is gives some quotations from a number of people
other than John MacArthur, which we will look at tomorrow, on what is said
about these last two very important verses in the 7th chapter of
Matthew.
I
want to begin with a quote from Warren Wiersbe:
“The congregation was astonished at this sermon. Why?
Because Jesus spoke with divine authority. The scribes and Pharisees spoke ‘from
authorities,’ always quoting the various rabbis and experts of the Law. Jesus needed no human teacher to add
authority to His words; for He spoke as the Son of God. We cannot lightly dismiss this sermon, for it
is God who gave it to us! We must either
bow before Him and submit to His authority, or we will be condemned.”
One more quote and this is from Charles
Spurgeon: “The sermon is over, what has
come of it? Never was there so great a Preacher, and never did he deliver a
greater discourse: how many were the penitents? How many the converts? We do
not hear of any. Divine truth, even when preached to perfection, will not of
itself affect the heart to conversion. The most overpowering authority produces
no obedience unless the Holy Ghost subdue the hearer’s heart.
"The
people were astonished": was this all? It is to be feared it was. Two
things surprised them, the substance of his teaching, and the manner of it.
They had never heard such doctrine before, the precepts which he had given were
quite new to their thoughts. But their main astonishment was at his manner:
there was a certainly a power, a weight about it, such as they had never seen
in the ordinary professional instructors. He did not raise questions, nor speak
with hesitation, neither did he cite authorities, and hide his own
responsibility behind great names. "He taught them as one having
authority." He spoke royally: the truth itself was it’s own argument and
demonstration. He taught prophetically, as one inspired from above: men felt
that he spake after the manner of one sent of God. It was no fault on their
part to be astonished, but it was a grave crime to be astonished and nothing
more.
My Savior, this was a poor reward for
thy right royal discourse — "The people were astonished."
Grant to me that I may not care to astonish people, but may I be enabled to win
them for thee: and if, with my utmost endeavors. I do astonish them, and
nothing more, may I never complain, for how should the disciple be above his
Lord? Not quoting Rabbi so-and-so, to show how well he was acquainted with his
writings, but speaking as one who knew what he had to say, and who spoke, out
of the fullness of his heart, truth that was evidently inspired; and his
hearers felt the force of the solemn message which he thus delivered.
There was a force and power about what
Jesus said, he spoke from the heart, he spoke with the accent of conviction;
whereas the scribes and Pharisees only spoke magisterially and officially, with
no heart in their utterance, and there was therefore no power about it. God
give to all of us the grace to know the power of the words of Christ! Amen.
There was a charm about his preaching,
not that he modified his doctrine, or that he cut down his precepts; he spoke
very plainly, very searchingly, and yet the people came to hear him. There is a
something in the conscience of man that makes him turn away from that which flatters
him, and makes him hear, almost against his liking, that which searches him.
3/16/2021 9:38 AM
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