SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/13/2021 11:30 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-1
“The Response of Unbelieving Indifference”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
11:20-24
Message of the verses: “20 Then He began
to reproach the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they
did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the
miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have
repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 “Nevertheless I say to you, it
shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment, than
for you. 23 “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You
shall descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which
occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. 24 "Nevertheless I
say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the Day
of Judgment, than for you.’”
It may seem to many who read this section that Jesus’
harsh reproach against these cities where most of His miracles were done on the
surface to be less justified than His comparatively mild rebuke of those who
openly criticized Him. Now for the most
part these three cities that Christ mentioned did not really take any direct action
against Him, so then what is the problem?
The problem is that they simply ignored Him. Now think about having the Second Person of
the Godhead living in your midst for close to a year and a half, and you ignore
Him all together. That is hard to
believe, but perhaps that is what many people around the world do in the 21st
century, they just ignore Him. What
Jesus is talking about here as to what they were doing wrong is indifference as
it is a heinous form of disbelief. It so
completely disregards God that He is not even an issue worth arguing about,
like His enemies were doing. Jesus is
not taken seriously enough to criticize.
Like I said that is mostly what is going on around the world today, but
I do have to say that as we draw closer to the time of Christ’s return then
people will become haters of Jesus Christ and all those who represent Him.
We
will now look at what one of Israel’s Kings had to say found in 2 Kings 22:13 to
help us further make this point about indifference: “"Go, inquire of the LORD for me and the
people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the
LORD that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words
of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.’” Notice the highlighted portion of this rather
long verse to see the point that I am trying to make here.
We
will now look at another example which comes from the parable of the royal
wedding feast, as the guests who were first invited actually “paid no attention
and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business” (Matt.
22:5). They did not mistreat and kill
the king’s slaves as some of the other citizens did “the rest seized his slaves
and mistreated them and killed them,” (v-6), but they were equally excluded
from the feast. They picture the many
people Christ calls but whose indifference excludes them from being among the
few who are chosen (v. 14). “"For many are called, but few are
chosen.’”
It
seems that MacArthur agrees with a statement that I just wrote about as he
writes “Indifference to the Lord will continue in the world until He
returns. ‘Just as it happened in the
days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man,’ Jesus said; ‘they
were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in
marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and
destroyed them all. It was the same as
happened in the days of Lot: they were
eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were
planting, they were building;…It will be just the same on the day that the Son
of Man is revealed’ (Luke 17:26-28, 30).
Some of the people in Noah’s day doubtlessly criticized him abusively
for building a ship in the middle of the desert; and some of the worst
inhabitants of Sodom tried to homosexually attack the angels who came to rescue
Lot. But most of the people in the days
of Noah and of Lot paid no attention to the Lord or to His servants. Yet they, too, were totally destroyed, because
they rejected God just as totally as those who actively expressed their
unbelief.”
What
we see here is that Jesus’ righteous anger boiled against the privileged cities
who witnessed the awesome evidence of His divine power and goodness and yet
they did not repent. In our Lord’s holy
furry He declared to them, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!”
MacArthur
adds “The interjection ‘woe’ is sometimes used in Scripture to represent grief
(see, e. g., Rev. 18:10), but most often is represents denunciation; it clearly
does here.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I desire to take advantage of the things that
I know and learn about the Lord, and not just listen but act.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to continue to pray for revival,
especially for our church as I believe that there are people going there who
are not saved and are in danger of running out of the Lord’s longsuffering.
12/13/2021 12:44 PM
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