SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/8/2021 11:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Man’s
Lost Condition”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
9:36b
Message of the
verse: “because
they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”
We have been talking about the false
shepherds of Israel, and in Jesus’ day that included the scribes and the
Pharisees as they offered a religion that added burdens instead of lifting them
up. We have talked about this before,
that is that the scribes and the Pharisees cared more about their self-made
traditions more than they did about the Word of God, as they were superficial
and hypocritical about the true law of God.
It seems that in every society that there has to be a sector of people
who think that they are better than the everyday common ordinary people. We certainly have it in our society today,
and that is partly the reason that our country is falling apart, and that was
also the way in Jesus’ day as the scribes and the Pharisees who ruled the
religious part of life in Israel during this time, as they thought they were so
much better than others including the Son of God. My thoughts are that they have changed their
minds after their deaths. I mentioned in
our last SD about something that Ezekiel had to say about false shepherds and I
will quotes some verses from Ezekiel and also from Zechariah’s book too.
“1 Then
the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2 "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds
of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,
"Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the
shepherds feed the flock? 3 “You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool;
you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. 4 "Those who
are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the
broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have
you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated
them” ( Ezek. 34:2-4).
“5
“Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished, and each of those who
sell them says, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich!’ And their own
shepherds have no pity on them” (Zech. 11:5).
Later
on Jesus says the following in Matthew 23:4 “"They tie up heavy burdens
and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them
with so much as a finger.” This
of course is speaking of the scribes and Pharisees. It gets worse as our Lord says the following
in verse 13 “13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom
of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow
those who are entering to go in.”
I have to say that this is still true today in many churches who teach
their people false doctrines and will one day have to answer to the Lord for
that.
I
suppose that most every person who has ever been born has a desire to find out
the truth and in many cases today these false teachers are giving out lies that
they are selling as the truth when they don’t even know the truth themselves,
but continue to pass out their lies which cause the people who believe them not
to enter the kingdom of God, and as our Lord says of the scribes and the
Pharisees in the highlighted portion above they don’t enter it and keep others
from entering the kingdom of God.
Paul
has some very profound words to say to the elders of the church at Ephesus that
are found in Acts 20:28-29, and before I quote what he told them it would be
good to remember that Paul spent three years there as this was his hub in what
is now modern day Turkey. The seven
churches found in Revelation 2-3 come from this same region. “28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all
the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the
church of God which He purchased with His own blood. 29 “I know that after my
departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;” This
prophecy certainly came true as there are nothing but ruins where Ephesus once
stood.
We
will conclude this with MacArthur’s last paragraph in this section and then
another quotation he has in his commentary.
“How wonderfully refreshing
it must have been to hear Jesus say, ‘Come to Me, all who are weary and
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in
heart; and you shall find rest for your souls, For My yoke is easy, and My load
is light’ (Matt. 11:28-30). What a
contrast those words were from the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees, who
added burden upon burden, tradition upon tradition, requirement upon
requirement.”
“Someone has written,
‘Let me look on the crowd as my Savior did,
Till my eyes with tears grow dim;
Let me view with pity the wandering sheep,
And love them for the love of Him.’”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I always endeavor to teach the truth, and if
for some reason I am not teaching the truth I certainly desire to be corrected
and proven that I am not teaching the truth.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the
Lord to see me through the issues that I have with my guts, something that
seems to many times be a problem for me.
7/8/2021 12:12 PM
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