SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/5/2021 9:47 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “Intro to Matt. 8:16-22”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
8:16-22
Message of the verses: “16 When evening
came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the
spirits with a word,
and healed all who were ill. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken
through Isaiah the prophet: "HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED
AWAY OUR DISEASES."
18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to
the other side of the sea. 19 Then a scribe came and said to Him,
"Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." 20 Jesus said to him,
"The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." 21 Another of the disciples said
to Him, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." 22 But
Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.’”
Once
again we begin with an important quotation from John MacArthur as we begin this
SD: “Those who claim that Christians
should never be sick because there is healing in the atonement should also
claim that Christians should never die, because Jesus also conquered death in
the atonement. The central message of
the gospel is deliverance from sin. It
is the good news about forgiveness, not health.
Christ was made sin, not disease, and He died on the cross for our sin,
not our sickness. As peter makes clear,
Christ’s wounds heal us from sin, not from disease. ‘He Himself bore our sins in His body on the
cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness’ (1 Pet. 2:24).” It
has been a while ago when I was working at my regular job at a foundry that I
got to know a nurse who had cancer in her foot.
She went to what is called a “charismatic” church and so she was under
the false impression that if her faith was strong enough that her foot would be
healed. She finally had to have it cut
off and I saw her when she came back to work and she told me that it was
because her “faith” was not strong enough that she had to have her foot cut
off. This is what he so called Pastor
told her. I have to say that if I would
have know this guy that I would have been tempted to punch him in the
nose. I think that you can understand
the frustration that this brought on me, as this woman could have lost her life
if she had not decided to have the operation.
Humaningly
speak it is hard to understand why people who were around Jesus and saw His
works would not have accepted Him as their Lord and Savior, for as the soldiers
said “never a man spoke like this.”
However people just loved the darkness more than coming into the light,
and still do today. These peoples of
Jesus day, the Jews as we see today from them that their unbelief and rejection
flew in the face of everything Christ said and did in their very midst. MacArthur writes “The proofs of His divinity,
His power, and His goodness were obvious and beyond contradiction. Yet, as the evidence increased, so did
resistance and rejection. At the
beginning of his gospel, John prepares us for that response, telling us that “He
came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him’ (John
1:11). From the beginning Jesus knew
that rejection would exceed acceptance, and He said to those who sought to kill
Him ‘You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom
He sent. You search the Scriptures,
because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear
witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life’
(John 5:38-40). Like the rebellious
citizens in one of Jesus’ parables about the kingdom, those who reject Christ
said, in effect, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14).
“Those
who rejected Jesus Christ even after witnessing His miracles were like a judge
or jury who, after hearing an open and shut case, makes a decision that is the
exact opposite of what the evidence calls for.
Jesus’ authority was evident, as the people recognized from the beginning
of His ministry (Matt. 7:28).” I have to
say that the same thing is going on in our country as what Paul wrote in the
first chapter of Romans is certainly true in our country today, and the result
will be that unless a great miracle comes from the Lord that the same things that
happened to Israel two times will happen to us.
“18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known
about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since
the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and
divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been
made, so that they are
without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him
as God or give thanks, but
they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22
Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible
God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed
animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God
gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their
bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and
worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed
forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women
exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way
also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their
desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving
in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did
not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those
things which are not proper, 29 being filled
with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder,
strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God,
insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy,
unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance
of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only
do the same, but also give hearty
approval to those who practice them.” (Emphasis added.)
God
may be done with our country and is about to judge it, but one thing is sure that
there is still a remnant here and, I believe that through revival of the church
the Holy Spirit will use us to find that remnant.
4/5/2021 10:20 AM
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