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
No comments:
Post a Comment