PT-2 "The Works of the Lord" (Teaching) (Matt. 9:35)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/30/2021 9:29 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  The Works of the Lord “Teaching”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 9:35

 

            Message of the verses:  “35 Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

 

            We have been talking about the history of the Jewish synagogues and how they got started, how they functioned, and how it is believed that one of the functions of the synagogue was to have visiting Rabbis come into the synagogue in order to speak, which is exactly what Jesus did and later on Paul also did. 

 

            We mentioned in our last SD that prayer was the first part of the service, and after prayer was given in the synagogue service, a designated reader would stand up and read from the law of Moses, which of course is the first five books of the Bible entitled “The Pentateuch.”  In our Lord’s day the passage was read in Hebrew and then translated into Aramaic which was the common speech of that day.  (“They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading” Neh. 8:8).  This would be followed by the reading, translation, and exposition of a passage that came from the prophets.  John MacArthur quotes the Jewish scholar Philo, who lived in Alexandria during the time of Christ:  “Synagogues are mainly for the detailed reading and exposition of Scripture.”

 

            We spoke about having visiting Rabbis speak and also read the Scriptures and this happened to Jesus in His hometown, and as you may remember it did not go well with Him as after reading from the prophet Isaiah He sat down and said that what He had just read from Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in Him, and so they took Him out to throw Him off a cliff, but He walked through them and left His hometown.  What He read was from Isaiah 61:1-2 and the scene is found in Luke 4:16-21 “16  And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18 “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, 19 TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD." 20 And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”

 

            I mentioned earlier about having guest Rabbi’s speaking in a synagogue, and that policy was called “freedom of the synagogue.”

 

            Now the typical worship service at the synagogue was closed by a benediction and then a final congregational “Amen.”  Now once again as we look through this order of service in a typical synagogue we can see that it is similar to a typical church service found in a New Testament church, even today.

 

            I want to talk about a word for synagogue that comes from Yiddish and that word is “schul, a kin to our English school and as we have mentioned it was a place of learning as it was a public school or seminary where Jewish boys were trained in the Talmud which is the official commentaries on the Law of Moses and it is also where many Jewish men (besides the elders and rabbis) often spent time studying the Scriptures as an example is seen in Acts 17:11 “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”

 

            MacArthur concludes this section:  “Religious and community affairs were administered by the ten elders, or rulers, of the synagogue, which as Jairus (Mark 5:22).  All of the elders acted as judges, and from their number they selected a chief ruler, and interpreter of Hebrew for the worship services, a director of the school, and other such officers.  All religious disputes were settled in the synagogues, and in most countries and provinces during New Testament times, Roman government permitted the Jews to handle many of their own civil disputes and even to administer punishment.  Cases would be tried, judged, and the punishment carried out in the synagogue (see Matt. 10:17.”

 

            Lord willing in our next SD we will move onto our Lord’s preaching as found in Matthew 9:35c.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It was refreshing to me to see that the church services that I have attended since becoming a believer are similar to what our Lord attended while here on earth.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust the Lord to continue to bring people He desires to our after prayer meeting prayer service for revival.  My prayer is that there are many of these going on around our country and around our world as the need of revival is great in the day we live in.

 

6/30/2021 10:04 AM

The Works of the Lord (Matt. 9:35 Intro)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/29/2021 9:57 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  Intro to “The Works of the Lord”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Matthew 9:35

 

            Message of the verses:  “35 Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

 

            I want to look at the intro to this section entitled “The Works of the Lord” and then begin to look at the first sub-section “Teaching” from Matthew 9:35b.

 

            What we have been looking at for the past few months is what is called “Jesus’ Galilean ministry as it began in Matthew 4:23 which says “23 Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.”

 

            John MacArthur writes “We learn from the Jewish historian Josephus that at this time there were some two hundred cities and villages in the region of Galilee, and area about forty miles wide and seventy miles long.  ‘The cities are numerous and the multitude of the villages everywhere,’ he wrote, ‘crowded with men owing to the fertility of the soil, so that the smallest of them contains about fifteen thousand inhabitants.’  Based on that assessment, Galilee then contained at least three million people, most of whom could have had direct exposure to Jesus.

 

            “Cities of that day were distinguished by having high surrounding walls for fortification, whereas villages were un-walled. During His brief stay  in Galilee, Jesus visited all of them as He fulfilled His threefold ministry of ‘teaching…proclaiming the gospel…, and healing.’”

 

            Now that was the introduction and now we will begin to touch upon the first part which is teaching which covers Matthew 9:35b “teaching in their synagogues.”

 

            The first thing we need to know about is what a synagogue was and when it began.  Now the synagogues began during the Babylonian exile that actually began when the first Jews were taken to Babylon around 605 BC, but it really began in 586 BC when the last deportation of the Jews took place after Jerusalem was defeated, so the Jews would need a place to worship and thus the era of the Synagogues began there in Babylon. 

 

            The synagogue was a place of worship, a town hall, and a courthouse all in one as it was the center of Jewish life.  We know that before the exile all worship centered in the temple at Jerusalem, from which every Jew in Palestine lived less than 100 miles from.  However when they were separated from the temple worship while in Babylon the synagogue era began as that meant a place of worship.  There had to be at least ten Jewish men living in a community in order to began a synagogue, and many of the large cities of the ancient world had numerous synagogues.  I think we can see that there are some similarities of the church with the synagogues, which we will talk about a bit later on.

            Now the synagogue was usually located on a hill or by a river, as it frequently was built without a roof as was most of the temple was in order for the people to look up to heaven as part of their worship.  Many of the synagogues were often identified by a long pole that went high into the air and this was similar to a church steeple.  Now if a stranger came into town and wanted to find a synagogue all they would have to do was to look for the large pole (GPS was not available at that time).

 

            I will conclude this first SD on the synagogue with a quotation from MacArthur’s commentary and then will try and finish this section in our next SD.

 

            “Members of the synagogue would meet for worship on the Sabbath and on the second and fifth days of each week.  They also met there to celebrate their many feasts,, festivals, and holy days.  Regular worship services were simply structured.  They began with a time of thanksgiving or blessing, which included songs of praise and spoken testimony of the Lord’s goodness.  Prayer followed and was concluded by a congregational ‘Amen,’ and a statement of affirmation that means ‘So be it.’  Jesus often used the term ‘amen (translated, ‘truly,’ or ‘verily’; see Matt. 16:28; Mark 9:1) to emphasize the truth of important teachings; and the early church, following the synagogue practice, used it as a response to prayer (see 1 Cor. 14:16).”  As mentioned earlier there were similarities between the synagogue and church services.

 

6/29/2021 10:25 AM

The Rejection Religionists (Matt. 9:34)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/28/2021 12:20 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  “The Rejecting Religionists”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 9:34

 

            Message of the verse:  “34 But the Pharisees were saying, "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.’”

 

            This statement will be seen later on, and one thing that I learned about this statement is that this comes near the middle of Christ’s ministry on earth, and the Scribes and Pharisees have gone about as low as they could go to make such a statement like this.  The statement is no doubt blasphemous, as they are telling the God of all creation, come in human flesh in order to save sinners that all of the miracles that He is doing is powered by Satan.  The Scribes and Pharisees had gone so far away from true Judaism in order to stay in control of the people that they truly believed that Jesus was the true enemy of God, when in fact He was truly God incarnate. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “Because they could not deny the fact of Jesus’ miracles, they chose to deny the source.  And because they refused to recognize Jesus as the Messiah of God, they declared Him to be an agent of Satan who ‘casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.’  They could not assail the miracles themselves, because they were too numerous, public, and provable; instead, they foolishly assailed the One who performed them.”

 

            I have mentioned that we will see this kind of statement later on found in the 12^th chapter of Matthew, as we read that He “casts out demons by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons” (Matt. 12:24).  Now Beelzebul was probably a form of Beelzebub and this means “lord of the flies” which is the pagan Philistine deity considered to be the prince of demons, Satan himself.  We will see that Jesus points out later on in verses 25-27 the following “25 And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 “If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? 27 “If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges.”  It was right after this 12^th chapter that Jesus begins to speak in parables as it seems that He gave up on teaching the truths of the Bible, but taught in hidden ways, the parables, and then explained them to His disciples.

 

            What we have here is when an unbeliever is determined not to believe, no fact or reason, no matter how obvious and convincing, can enlighten him.  The person who is sold out to darkness refuses to recognize the light, and we must remember that Paul wrote that Satan was the one who has hindered people to see the light.  The person who praises the Lord Jesus but rejects Him or ignores and rejects Him is just as damned as the person who denounces and rejects Him.  There is only one response that one must give to Jesus and that is that He is the Lord who came to save sinners, and as Paul states “of whom I am chief.”

 

            Just to let you know this SD and the one for tomorrow will be rather short, but since we have been looking at longer ones in the past we will just look at the shorter ones for a couple of days.    6/28/2021 12:40 PM

PT-2 "The Response of the Multitude" (Matt. 9:33b).

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/27/2021 8:26 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “The Response of the Multitude”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 9:33b

 

            Message of the verses:  “and the multitudes marveled, saying, ‘nothing like this was ever seen in Israel.’”

 

            If one studies the gospels, the book of Acts, the letters of the New Testament, and also church history you will find that people who heap high praise on Jesus but who give no evidence of submitting to Him and in many cases flagrantly oppose the truth He taught.  This is a true statement.  Here is an example we probably all know about.   In front of Jesus’ sworn enemies, Pontius Pilate declared Him to be innocent of all wrong and then in a very short time he approved of having Jesus crucified.  MacArthur writes “The French philosopher Diderot said Jesus was the unsurpassed, and the great French Emperor Napoleon said He was the emperor of love.  D. F. Strauss, the liberal German theologian, said Jesus was the highest model of religion.  The English philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill called Him the guide of humanity.  William Leckey, the Irish historian, said He was the highest pattern of virtue, and James Martineau, the English theologian and philosopher, called Him the divine flower of humanity.  The French historian Joseph Renan acknowledged Jesus to be the greatest among the sons of men.  Theodore Parker, an American Unitarian clergyman, referred to Jesus as the youth of God in His heart, and the Welsh social reformer Robert Owen said He was the irreproachable.  A popular musical refers to Him as a Superstar.  Those are lovely sentiments, but they all fall short of saving truth.”

 

            Another example comes from the Pharisees of Jesus’ day who praised the prophets of the Old Testament, but their counterparts who lived when the prophets were alive were the ones who put the prophets to death—just as these false teachers will cause the Lord to be crucified.

 

            Here is the truth of what we are trying to say and that is as long as Jesus can be kept at arm’s length, and as long as His demanding and confrontational teachings are ignored or denied, He is often acceptable to the world.  It is kind of like when a  political person can say something good about Jesus in order to gets some votes, but who cares nothing about Jesus and the people who truly worship Him as their Savior and Lord.  MacArthur concludes “When man’s need for salvation is preached and Jesus’ claims of lordship are pressed, that is another matter.  Those who once praised Him become His critics, and those who once marveled at Him become His enemies.  People will often give the highest praise to Jesus, even acknowledge His divinity and perfection—as long as no mention is made of His condemning to hell the liar, murderer, adulterer, homosexual, thief, and every other sinner who refuses to repent and receive Him as Savior and Lord.”

 

            Lord willing in our next SD we will look at “The Rejecting Religionists,” as this will also be a rather short SD.

 

6/27/2021 8:46 PM

PT-1 "The Response of the People" (Matt. 9:33b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/26/2021 9:13 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-1 “The Response of the People”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 9:33b

 

            Message of the verse:  “and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.’”

 

            I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that there was a response after each set of three miracles done by Jesus found in Matthew chapters 8-9, and that we are now looking at the response of the people after the three miracles that Jesus just performed near the end of Matthew chapter 9.

 

            John MacArthur writes “In this text the Holy Spirit shows the responses given to Jesus after the third and last set of miracles recorded in Matthew 8-9.”  The first response that we will see is:

 

“The Response of the Multitude.”

 

            This first response by the multitudes is seen in verse 33b “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”  Now we have to take a moment to think about all the wonderful miracles that God has done in the history of Israel beginning with how Abraham and Sarah had a child way past the time when people could conceive and bear children.  Think about all the miracles that were done when God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, and then afterwards as the Red Sea was divided so that the children of Israel walked through the sea on dry ground, but the Egyptians were drowned as they tried to do the same.  Moving on to the battle of Jericho as God knocked the walls down after Israel walked around the city, and those walls were actually a double set of walls with some space in between the two walls.  Elijah and Elisha also did many miracles when they were ministering in Israel.  I think you get the point we are trying to use here.

 

            MacArthur writes “Thhaumazo (‘marveled’) means to be greatly amazed and astounded, to be overcome with awe.  The intensified forms of the verb found in Matthew 27:14 and Mark 12:17 carry an even stronger meaning.  As Jesus’ miracles increased so did the astonishment of the crowds.  They became amazed beyond amazement.  When Jesus stilled the storm on the Sea of Galilee, the disciples were more afraid of the divine power that stilled it than they were of the storm itself.  The vast number and variety of healings and other miracles made them both incontestable and incomprehensible.”

 

            There was also a problem as many of the astounded people were, in fact many of them were fickle in their praise for Jesus.  An example of this was when Jesus came into Jerusalem on what we call “Palm Sunday” as the crowds were putting palm branches down and also even their coats as they were praising Jesus, but then came Friday when it all changed and probably some of the same people were yelling “crucify Him.” 

 

            There were many, many people who followed Jesus along those dusty roads as He did miracle after miracle, but were not interested in the miracle of the second birth, only what Jesus could do for them in a physical means.  Does this remind you of the “health and wealth gospel?”  Think about what happened in the sixth chapter of John as Jesus confronted the crowds telling them that they only were following Him because He feed them.  His response “Truly, truly I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled.  Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life.”  We all have to be sure that is why we are following Jesus, and that is because He has given eternal life to all whom the Father has given to Him, and none will be lost in the process.

 

6/26/2021 9:50 AM`

PT-4 "Intro to Matt. 9:33b-35

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/25/2021 10:16 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-4 Intro to Matt. 9:33b-35

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 9:33b-35

 

            Message of the verses:  “and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel." 34 But the Pharisees were saying, "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons."

 “35 Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

 

            I stated in our last SD that we would be looking at what the Apostle Paul has to say about the theme that the human race is divided into believers and unbelievers—into the heaven bound and the hell-bound, also the blessed and the cursed, the glorified and the damned—and that the determining issue between them is their response to the Lord Jesus Christ.  “12 Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, 13  I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia. 14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. 15 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; 16 to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?”  Now focus in on the highlighted verses as I only put verses 12 and 13 to better understand the passage.  As believers “we are to touch all the world with the fragrance of God, but that fragrance is a pleasant blessing only to fellow believers.  The more the saved hear and understand and fellowship with those who also believe the gospel that redeemed them, the more they rejoice and grow in their new life in Christ.  But to those who are doomed to hell, who reject the good news about Chris, all that believers are and teach carries only the smell of death.  The more they hear the gospel and see it manifested, the more repulsive it becomes to them and the deeper they entrench themselves in their lostness.  Their continual rejection of the gospel serves to confirm their spiritual deadness.”

 

            I want now to quote from what the author of Hebrews had to say about this:  “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29).  I think that there is an example of this found in the book of Exodus and it has to do with Pharaoh where we read that as the judgments of God continued to come upon Egypt that Pharaoh’s heart became harder and harder until there was no hope for him and then we read that God hardened his heart.  God was done with him, and this can certainly happen to those that the author of Hebrews is writing about in our verse above.  MacArthur adds “The more the saving gospel of Jesus’ sacrificial atonement for sin is denied and purposely rejected, the deeper become the spiritual darkness and the severer the punishment of eternity.”  Now in speaking of the punishment in hell there are different degrees to that punishment just as there are different degrees of glories to those who will enter into heaven.  The Bible speaks of some believers who are saved actually have a smoke smell on their robes as they have not done much for the Lord.  I have mentioned time and again about Ephesians 2:10 stating that God has given us in eternity past works to do for Jesus Christ while in the body, and these can only be done through the work of the Holy Spirit, but we must desire to have Him do those works through us in order to have more “stars in our crown” in heaven.  Now as far as the different punishments of hell I have to believe that the one who will have the “hottest” place in hell will be Judas as He spent three years with the Lord Jesus Christ and then only thought of himself and betrayed Him.  The more exposure that a person has to the gospel, and then refuses it the stiffer the punishment will be in hell.

 

            John MacArthur concludes “In Matthew 9:33b-35 we are first shown two superficially different but basically similar responses to Jesus’ miracles, and then we are given a brief summary of His Galilean ministry, which is also a summary of His entire ministry until time of His crucifixion.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There is nothing wrong with having a desire to have great rewards in heaven as that can motivate me to desire to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to do the things God planned for me to do in eternity past.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to bring revival to me, to my family, to our church and to the church around the world so that the number of believers who are to be in the church will come and then the Lord will come in the clouds to receive His bride and we will then be with the Lord forever.

 

6/25/2021 10:47 AM

 

           

PT-3 "Intro to Matt. 9:33b-35

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/24/2021 9:15 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 Intro to Matt. 9:33b-35

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference: Matthew 9:33b-35

 

            Message of the verses:  “and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel." 34 But the Pharisees were saying, "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons."

             35 Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

 

            I don’t think that I put the title to the chapter that we are looking at as we follow the commentary of John MacArthur to help us get through the gospel of Matthew.  “Responding to Jesus’ Power” is the title of the chapter and as we have seen throughout the nine miracles that Jesus did that after three miracles there will be a dialogue from what has happened, and this is the dialogue after the last of the three miracles found in the last three miracles found in Matthew chapter nine.

 

            We have been talking about the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ makes a difference, and what I am trying to say is that He is the dividing point of all mankind as far as there are only two kinds of people in the world, the lost who will have nothing to do with Jesus Christ, and thus they will end up in hell, and then the saved who love the Lord because He has saved them and will be with Him throughout eternity.  Now in Matthew seven we talked about the two men who built their houses, one on the sand which will fall, and one on the rock which will stand.  This is another picture of the difference of those who believe and those who don’t.

 

            MacArthur writes “Using still another figure, the Lord said, “For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it’ (Matt. 16:25).  On another occasion He said, ‘Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.  But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven’ (Matt. 10:32-33).  Those who identify themselves with God’s Son, Jesus Christ, God will identify as His own children.  Jesus made clear that His peace is only for those who belong to Him.  For those who reject Him, He does not ‘bring peace, but a sword.  For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household’ (vv. 34-36).”

 

            There is a parable that Jesus spoke found in Matthew 21:28-31, that He spoke specifically to the unbelieving chief priests and elders found in Jerusalem.  This parable has always been somewhat of a mystery to me, not that I really did not understand it, but that I always felt that I can learn more truth from it.  Let us look at the parable:  “28 "But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ 29 “And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 “The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. 31 “Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.”  MacArthur gives to me a better understand to this parable as he writes:  “The second son represents irreligious and ungodly people who come to recognize their sin and repent of it, turning to God for salvation.  The first son represents religious hypocrites who make an outward profession of God but are inwardly rebellious against Him.  Whether religious or irreligious, only those who turn to God through Jesus Christ can be saved.”  If my memory is correct this happened at the end of Jesus’ ministry, right before He would go to the cross, and before this parable Jesus was being asked many questions from those “spiritual leaders” who were trying to trick Him, and at the end of those questions Jesus tells this parable.

 

            Lord willing we will conclude this introduction in our next SD as we begin to look at something that the Apostle Paul wrote on this theme that the human race is divided into believers and unbelievers.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I found a good illustration from an earlier SD from the book of Ephesians as I am posting those SD’s on my other blog, and it had to do with “election” a very touchy subject, and one no one on earth can truly understand.  The illustration was one that had great meaning to me as I use to run a crane with a large magnet on it and that magnet like all magnets would only pick up metal objects, and this it divided the iron and steel from metals which are not and thus cannot be picked up by that magnet.  The magnet divides like election divides, and again I don’t understand this but I do believe it because that is what the Bible teaches.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord for revival in my heart, in our church, and in the church in our country and around the world, that God will bring about a great revival before the Lord comes in the clouds to take us to be with Him.

 

6/24/2021 9:47 AM

PT-2 "Intro to Matt. 33b-35

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/23/2021 8:58 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-2 “Intro to Matthew 9:33b-35”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Matthew 9:33b-35

 

            Message of the verses:  “and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel." 34 But the Pharisees were saying, "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons."

             “35 Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

 

            I want to begin this SD with a statement that I have heard before and truly believe and that is that Jesus is the dividing line of history and the demarcation point that determines the ultimate destiny of every individual on earth.  Let us once again, as we have looked at this verse on many different occasions, look at John 3:36 which speaks to what this statement speaks of:  “"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.’”  This verse was said by John the Baptist and the truth of this verse is so very wonderful for those who believe on Jesus as their Savior and Lord, but dreadful to those who have not, but those who are still alive at this time have time to remedy that situation and believe on Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.

 

            John MacArthur writes “When Jesus was only about forty days old, His parents took Him to the temple in Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord as their firstborn male child and to perform Mary’s rite of purification after giving birth.  While they were there, a godly man named Simeon, whom the Holy Spirit had promised ‘would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.’ took the infant Jesus in his arms.  He praised God for the child, saying of Him, ‘My eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou has prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel’ (Luke 2:26, 30-32).  Then he blessed Mary and Joseph ‘and said to Mary His mother, ‘Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel’” (v. 34).”

 

            In a similar way we have seen from John the Baptist’s words in John 3:36 we have seen in the words of Simeon, and can see also what our statement in the first part of this SD mentioned.  Jesus Christ is the most important person ever to be born on planet earth, He is the creator of everything, and yet stooped to come down into history in order to save those whom the Father chose in eternity past and it is the job of all believers to give out the Word so that people can come to Him as their Savior and their Lord.  MacArthur adds “To reject Jesus ‘fall’ into God’s judgment and consequently into hell, whereas those who accept Him are saved from sin and death and ‘rise’ into eternal life with God in heaven.  Those are the only two possible destinies for a human being.  Those who trust God are saved and are ‘like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season,’ whose those who reject God are lost and ‘are like chaff which the wind drives away’ (Ps. 1:3-40.”

 

            We will conclude this SD with some quotes from the book of Luke that were spoken by Mary even before Jesus was born, while still in her womb.  “49 “For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name. 50 “AND HIS MERCY IS UPON GENERATION AFTER GENERATION TOWARD THOSE WHO FEAR HIM… 52 “He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble. 53 “HE HAS FILLED THE HUNGRY WITH GOOD THINGS; And sent away the rich empty-handed” (Luke 1:49-50, 53-53).”  Notice that in the NASB95 they use all caps when what is seen comes from the OT, and we can see that Mary had a great knowledge of the OT from this section.  Now we will look at what Jesus declared at the beginning of His ministry found in Luke 6:20-26.

 

20 And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 “Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 “Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. 23 “Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. 24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. 25 “Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.”

 

            We can see from these verses and others we have looked at that those who are blessed are the saved, and those who fall under God’s woes are the lost.

 

            Lord willing, we will continue with these thoughts in our next SD, as they certainly are so very important things to learn and once we know them to spread the word so others can realize their need for the Savior.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life:  Continue to learn more and more about my Savior and Lord as I go through this section.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pet. 3:15).

 

6/23/2021 9:30 AM

PT-1 "Intro to Matthew 9:33b-35

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/22/2021 10:09 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Intro to Matthew 9:33b-35

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Matthew 9:33b-35

 

            Message of the verses:  “and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel." 34 But the Pharisees were saying, "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons."

            “35 Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”

 

            A contemporary from Britain writer has this to say:  “The problem with humanity is this:  humanity stands at the crossroads, and all of the signposts have fallen down.”  I have to agree that this is a problem, a great problem with humanity, but the answer to this problem is certainly found in the Word of God as the signposts are all in order waiting for people to read them.  MacArthur writes “For Matthew, however—as for every other writer, preacher, and teacher of the New Testament and for every believer today—humanity’s needed spiritual signposts are very much in place and are entirely reliable.  The problem with humanity is not with the signposts but with those who ignore or reject the signposts God has made abundantly evident.”  “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” (Rom. 1:18-23).

 

            We have been looking as some of the signposts from our study in the gospel of Matthew, and they composed of nine miracles that Jesus performed that were found in chapters 8 and 9.  The miracles are a part of what Matthew is writing about to show his readers that Jesus Christ is truly the promised Messiah that was written about in the Old Testament.  These miracles show us that He has the power or save and His right to rule, but the problem is that, as stated above, people don’t want to take the time to read these signposts.  We have been seeing in these series of nine miracles, three at a time, and then there is some commentary after each set of three, and that is what we will be looking at as we go through the verses quoted in the “focus” part of this SD. 

            MacArthur writes “For some people, Jesus’ miracles were a sign of divine power and glory that drew them nearer to Him; for some they were supernatural marvels by a good man, but a man who had no claim on their lives; and for others they were an affront to religious propriety that drove them even further from the Lord.”  In our Sunday school class I have been beginning to teach through the book of Hebrews, and as many know it is a very difficult book to teach, and so I need the grace of God to do this, but in verses 2b-3 we see seven Excellency’s of Jesus Christ and one of them has to do with He being the “light.”  Paul writes that Satan is the one who blinds people from the Light of our Lord, and as we look at this section from Matthew we can surely see that there were some who were really blinded by the Light as we read "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons."  Yes these Pharisees were truly blinded from the Light by Satan.

 

            This introduction to this section will take us a few days to get through, but Lord willing we will get through it no matter how long it takes.

 

6/22/2021 10:32 AM`

 

Healing The Deaf Man (Matt. 9:33a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/21/2021 10:12 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Healing the deaf man

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 9:33a

 

            Message of the verse:  “And after the demon was cast out, the dumb man spoke.”

 

            We come to the conclusion of the section in Matthew from 9:27-33a as we look at the healing of the dumb man (the man who can’t hear or speak because he was possessed by a demon). 

 

            Matthew tells us that Jesus touched the man, in a similar way that He touched the two blind men that he was healed and the demon was cast out.  We don’t hear what Jesus said to the demon in order to cast him out but we did see how He did it in 8:32 “And He said to them, "Go!" And they came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters.”

 

            Another thing we don’t know about and that is the man’s faith, whether or not he had true faith in order to be saved or not, so this is a mystery to us.  MacArthur writes “As far as we know, he made no profession of faith in Jesus and received nothing from Him except physical healing. Perhaps through the continued witness of his two friends, he may later have placed his faith in Christ and received eternal life.  But at this time his healing seems only to have been physical.”

 

            Now we want to go back to the primary focus of the passage we have been looking at and that has to do with the blind men, and in this story we see a beautiful analogy of the pattern of salvation.  First their physical blindness is a picture of spiritual blindness, and so first they did acknowledged their sinfulness.

 

            Next we see that the blind men acknowledge Jesus as the Son of David, the Messiah, in the same way that the saved person must acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior.  Third, they came seeking God’s mercy as they understood that what they needed they did not deserve.  A sinful person must realize that there is nothing on their own that they can do in order to have eternal life and must ask the Lord for His mercy in order to be saved.  Fourth, these men trusted in Jesus for healing, just as the lost must trust in Him for salvation.  So it was on the basis of faith that they were converted.  Fifth, by disobeying the Lord, they displayed the well-meaning weakness that often follows conversion.  When a person is saved they are a baby in Christ and these men were undiscerning and careless, placing their own judgment above the Lord’s, something many new believers do.  Sixth, and last we find that they were also useful to the Lord because they brought others to Him.  The following is a quotation from George Lansing Taylor who wrote:

 

O Saviour, we are blind and dumb,

To Thee for sight and speech we come;

Touch Thou our eyes with truth’s bright rays,

Teach Thou our lips to sing Thy praise.

Help us to feel our mournful night,

And seek, through all things, for Thy light,

Till the glad sentence we receive,

“be it to you as you believe.”

Then swift the dumb to Thee we’ll bring,

Till all Thy grace shall see, and sing.”

 

            Our next section to look at is from Matthew 9:33b-35, and MacArthur’s 9^th chapter from his second book on his commentary on Matthew is entitled “Responding to Jesus’ Power.”  I look forward to look at this section.

 

6/21/2021 10:34 AM

The Commiment of the Men (Matt. 9:32)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/20/2021 9:45 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  “The Commitment of the Men”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 9:32

 

            Message of the verse:  “32 As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him.”

 

            It is the belief of some that as these two former blind men go out that they then brought this mute, demon-possessed man to Jesus.  Another possible rendering of this verse from the KJV is “As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man.”  It seems the idea is that these men ran into a friend of theirs and knowing what had happened to them they brought this man to Jesus.  This is what happens when a person gets saved, that is they want to tell others what happened to them.  I don’t think that it is out of the realm of possibility that these three men knew each other as they all had handicaps.  You have two blind men and a person who can’t hear and so what you have is a full person (for lack of a better term) when you put the three together.

 

            I have to mention that this is going to be a very short SD and as I end it I will quote the last paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary.

 

            “Kophos (‘dumb’) often included the idea of deafness (see Matt. 11:5).” ( “the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM”)  “because inability to speak is frequently caused by inability to hear.  As with blindness, deafness was common in the ancient world.  Accidents and disease caused loss of hearing, infectious organisms that eventually destroyed hearing.  In this man’s case, however dumbness was caused by being ‘demon-possessed,’ and when he was delivered from the demon, he was delivered from deafness.”

 

            It is my desire to all fathers who read this today to have a very happy “Father’s Day,” and to be grateful for your children and grand-children if you have any yet.

 

6/20/2021 10:01 AM