SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/31/2022 9:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 Intro to “Blaspheming the Holy Spirit”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 12:22-32
Message of the verses: “22 Then there was
brought to Him a demon-possessed man who was blind and dumb, and He
healed him, so that the dumb man spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were
amazed, and began to say, "This man cannot be the Son of
David, can he?" 24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "This
man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons." 25 And
knowing their thoughts He said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself
is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself shall not stand. 26
“And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall
his kingdom stand? 27 “And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your
sons cast them out? Consequently they shall be your judges. 28 "But if I
cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon
you. 29 “Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his
property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder
his house. 30 “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather
with Me scatters. 31 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be
forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 "And
whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him;
but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him,
either in this age, or in the age to come.”
The
first thing that I want to do is go back to the 3rd chapter of the
book of Genesis and talk a bit about what happened there when man first
sinned. I have to say that if God was
not a forgiving God that He would have just destroyed mankind at that point,
and started over if He desired to do so.
Even before that when Lucifer sinned and became the devil, God could
have destroyed him and then start over if that was what He wanted to do. The point that I want to make here is that
God is a forgiving God, and we can see that through many different passages
found in the Old and New Testaments. Let
me say one more thing here and that is before God created man everything was
perfect, and as one looks at God’s attributes they too were perfect, needing
nothing. However as one looks at His
attributes of justice, mercy, and graciousness there were not being used, as
far as I can see, and as far as others that I have read who wrote on the
attributes of God. Once man sinned than
God’s justice, mercy and also graciousness would be seen along with His forgiveness,
and perhaps that is why God created man.
Verses
that speak of God’s forgiveness in the OT:
“For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in lovingkindness
to all who call upon You” (Ps. 86:5). “Who
pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases” (Ps. 103:3). “"To the Lord our God belong
compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him;” (Dan. 9:9). “6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him
and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow
to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness
for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no
means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on
the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations’”
(Ex. 34:6-7).
“18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious
act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever,
Because He delights in unchanging love. 19 He will again have compassion on us;
He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins Into
the depths of the sea (Mic. 7:18-19).
I
have already mentioned the fact that God forgave Adam and Eve for sinning, but
as we move on through the Old Testament we also see that God forgave the
sinfulness of the patriarchs, as he forgave Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the sons
of Jacob when as we read about them they committed many sins, but because of
God’s forgiveness and God’s plan for them He forgave them, and He will forgive
us if we only come to Him in repentance, as we confess our sins before Him and
invite Jesus Christ into our hearts.
We
will conclude this first section of this intro into looking at “Blaspheming the
Holy Spirit” by looking at some New Testament verses that speak of God’s
forgiveness. “In Him we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches
of His grace” (Eph. 1:7). “in whom we
have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:14). “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1
John 1:9). “I am writing to you, little
children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake” (1 John
2:12).
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I suppose that I at times, take for granted
of the truth that God has forgiven me of all my sins, past, present, and
future. However it takes a section like
this that I am studying in Matthew’s gospel to remind me what it cost God, and
what it cost my Savior to pay for those sins, and for that I will be eternally
grateful.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord to give me wisdom as I work
on my Spiritual Diaries this week, along with preparing my two lessons that I
teach too. I cannot do this on my own,
but need to have power as I rely on God’s Holy Spirit to teach me what I am to
prepare and what I am to say to the classes.
1/31/2022 10:26 AM
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