SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/23/2022 10:07 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Punishment”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
12:36-37
Message of the verses: “36 “But I tell you
that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for
it in the Day of Judgment. 37 “For by your words you will be justified, and by
your words you will be condemned.’”
We want to continue to talk about the important
topic of the Christian’s speech as we begin this section, and the Christian’s
speech is going to reflect God’s transforming work in the heart; but because of
our unredeemed humanness, it still needs to be constant care if it is to be
increasingly spiritual, along with being wholesome, fitting, kind, sensitive,
loving, purposeful edifying and also truthful.
Let us look at what the Psalmist had to say in Psalm 141:3 “Set a guard,
O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.”
The
words that come from the unbeliever’s mouth, which come from his unredeemed
heart are worthless as far as any spiritual value is concerned. His evil words are obviously worthless. Now among those words that come from his
mouth we will find lustful words as seen in Proverbs 5:3-4 “3 For the lips of
an adulteress drip honey And smoother than oil is her speech; 4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.” Now we will
look at some more things that the unbeliever speaks and will just give the
reference for them. First is deceit
(Jer. 9:8); next cursing and oppression (Ps. 10:7); lying (Pr. 6:12; 12:22);
destruction (Prov. 11:11); vanity (2 Pet. 2:18); flattery (Prov. 26:28);
foolishness (Prov. 15:2); verbosity (Ecc.es. 10:14); falsehood (Titus 1:11);
pride (Job 35:12); vulgarity (Col. 3:8); hatred Ps. 109:3; and finally gossip (Prov.
26:20). This list came from John
MacArthur’s commentary.
MacArthur
writes “For the unbeliever, careless and worthless words also include those
that are otherwise good. Although his
words of love, encouragement, comfort, and kindness may be sincere and greatly
helpful to others, they are of no spiritual value to him because they do not
come from a redeemed and righteous heart.
No spiritually good thing can come from a heart that is spiritually evil—as
Jesus has just pointed out.”
The
truth is that a person can get a good indication of his spiritual condition by
just listening to his own words. A
Christian can fall into evil words just as he can fall into evil deeds, and to
me that is not only true but scary. A
believer’s customary speaking will be pure just as his customary activities
will be righteous.
As
we have been studying this section from the 12th chapter of Matthew
on what Jesus is saying, we can determine that it has value and truth to both
the believer and the unbeliever, however Jesus thrust here is directed to
unbelievers, represented in the extreme by the blaspheming Pharisees.
Now
we want to address The Day of Judgment, and for unbelievers this culminates as
the great white throne judgment, which is the ultimate and eternal judgment at
which all unbelievers shall be condemned.
If one wants more information on this subject of the Great White Throne
Judgments I have written about it in our study of Revelation in which can be
found on both of my blogs. Now as far as
the believer’s sins, they will have all been dealt with at Calvary, dismissed
by the atoning blood of Christ applied on behalf of their faith, and we know
that all believers have sinned with his tongue after salvation, but Christ’s
sacrifice is sufficient to cover that and every other sin that he commits. MacArthur adds “The evil words and deeds of
unbelievers, however, will remain to stand in evidence against them. Like the unfaithful slave in Jesus’ parable,
unbelievers will be judged by their own words (Luke 19:22).”
Let
us now look at some of the vision that the Apostle John saw about the Great
White Throne Judgment as found in Revelation chapter twenty. “11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him
who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place
was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing
before the throne, and books
were opened; and another
book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the
things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And
the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead
which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to
their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is
the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found
written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” I mentioned that there is more to say, as far
as commentary on these verses from my SD’s from the book of Revelation found on
both of my blogs.
John
MacArthur concludes this section from Matthew 12 by writing “Scientists
theorize that sound waves are never completely lost but gradually fade beyond detection. With sufficiently sensitive instruments,
every word ever spoken in the history of mankind presumably could be
retrieved. How much more certain can we
be that in God’s infallible records every word and deed of mankind is perfectly
preserved for us as evidence in the coming judgment!
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
There is much food for thought here especially as I am to take note on
all of the words that I speak, and then think about them, and confess my
sinfulness to the Lord if my words are sinful.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Going back to the introduction to this
section where we learned how many words the average persons speaks a day I will
certainly need the help of the Holy Spirit to convict me when necessary of the
harmful words that I speak each day.
2/23/2022 10:47 AM
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