SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/19/2021 10:35 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to “The Arguments”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
9:12-13
Message of the verses: “12 But when Jesus
heard this, He said, "It is not those who are healthy who
need a physician, but those who are sick. 13 “But go and learn what this means:
‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’”
The
highlighted part of verse 13 is the heart of the gospel message.
In
today’s SD we will look briefly at the introduction to this section and then we
will look at the first argument “The Argument From Human Logic.”
MacArthur
writes this short intro to these verses:
“When Jesus heard this accusatory question, He answered it for the
disciples. His doing so doubtlessly
embarrassed the Pharisees and added to their indignation. The fact that they had approached His
disciples suggests that the Pharisees were afraid to confront Jesus Himself and
His overhearing and responding to their obvious indictment of His actions was
more than a little disconcerting.
“Although
Jesus was fully aware of the Pharisees’ true intent (cf. 9:4) ‘And Jesus
knowing their thoughts said, "Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?’
He took their question at face value and explained exactly why He had done what
He did. In His brief reply, He gave
three arguments in defense of His gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation, the
gospel that was reflected in His willingness to eat with the ungodly and
immoral tax-gatherers and sinners.”
THE ARUGMENT FROM HUMAN LOGIC:
His
logic is seen in the statement “It is not those who are healthy who need
a physician, but those who are sick. Now
“if” Jesus was saying to the Pharisees, “you are really as spiritually and
morally perfect as you claim to be, you do not need any help from God or other
men. Now if you are indeed spiritually healthy
as you claim, you do not need a spiritual physician. However on the other hand, these tax-gathers
and also why you call “these sinners,” the ones that you declare to be “spiritually
sick” are the ones who are self-confessing sinners who need God’s way of
salvation presented to them. These are
the ones who are seeking the “spiritual physician,” and that is the reason that
I am ministering to them.
Now
as we look at this from a logical perspective the analogy is very simple. A physician is expected to go among people
who are sick, and so that means a forgiver should be expected to go among those
who are sinful, especially those who claim to be sinful, to which Matthew was
certainly one of them. MacArthur writes “What
sort of doctor would spend all his time with healthy people and refuse to associate
with those who are sick? ‘Are you doctors,’ He implied to the Pharisees, ‘who
diagnose but have not desire to cure?
Will you tell a person what his disease is and then refuse to give him
medicine for it?’ What an indictment of
their self-righteous hard-heartedness!
Those whom they diagnosed as sinful, they were quite willing to let
remain sinful.”
Later
on in the gospel of Matthew and in chapter 23:23 we read “"Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and
have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and
faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting
the others.”
We
have to wonder how it was that the Pharisees had missed or perhaps had missed
God’s wonderful and merciful declarations like the one from Exodus 13:26 which state
“I, the Lord, am your healer.” How is it
that they could neglect, and even resent, the healing of those whom God Himself
desired to heal? These ones, that is the
Pharisees are the ones who claimed to be well are proving that they are the
sickest of all.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Humility is something that the Pharisees never
had, and something that I always desire to have. I have to say living in this human body
sometimes makes sinful things easy to do, and lacking humility is one of them
from time to time, and it has been my desire since I became a believer not to
act like the Pharisees.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am praying
for a few more people to come to our extra prayer meeting this evening.
5/19/2021 11:03 AM
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