PT-1 "The Superficial Hearer" (Matt. 13:20-21)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/31/2022 9:35 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  “The Superficial Hearer”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 13:20-21

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 "And the one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.”

 

            We can see from this text that this second patch of soil covers unseen rocky places, and the problem is that it has no depth.  This soil represents the man who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy.  The difference between the first soil and this one is that it seems that this person could hardly wait to hear the gospel message even though he probably didn’t realize that this was what he wanted to hear, and so after hearing it he quickly embraces it.

 

            I have been going to church since I was a believer for 44 years and have from time to time seen people come to know the Lord, at least that is what they have said, and then fade away.  I have seen people being baptized and their testimony was that they had thought they were believers, but then realized they were not.  I mentioned that the person that gave me the gospel later on said that he was not into that anymore, but at first it seemed to me that his faith was genuine.  I think that the rocky soil represented this person along with his wife. 

 

            The following quote from John MacArthur’s commentary has great meaning:  “Sometimes shallow acceptance of the gospel is encouraged by shallow evangelism that holds out the blessing of salvation but hides the costs—such as repenting from sin, dying to self, and turning from the old life.  When people are encouraged to walk down the aisle, raise their hand, or sign a card without coming to grips with the full claims of Christ, they are in great danger of becoming further from Christ than they were before they heard the message.  They may become insulated from true salvation by a false profession of faith.

            “In any case, the superficial convert accepts the message of salvation with open arms and is overcome with joy and enthusiasm.  He cannot say enough good about the gospel, the preacher, the church, and the Lord.  He is certain he has found the answer to his felt needs.  He has been accepted with those who believe and cannot wait to tell everyone of the new meaning, purpose and happiness in his life.”  Now I have to say that this is exactly what happened to me right after I became a believer in 1974, but the difference in me as opposed to those represented by the rocky soil is that I still believe the gospel and have a great desire to tell others the truth which is that we are all born sinners with no way of forgiveness on our own.  Jesus came to earth almost 2000 years ago and took our place on the cross in order to pay for our sins, making us right with God.  Realizing that we are sinners and we can do nothing about it on our own, realizing that Jesus paid it all for our sins, and then realizing that we must confess our sins and trust Christ for our salvation is the only solution.  Then we must realize that because we are believers that life is not always going to be rosy like some teach, for all one has to do is look at what happened to Christ’s disciples as they were all killed for the cause of Christ with the exception of John.  The earth is not our home, heaven is and the things that happen to us while on earth are only things that will soon pass, they are things that are in effect tests to help us grow in our walk with the Lord.  We have to learn to embrace them, and that is not always easy.  We have to remember that the Lord has a plan for our lives and He will never leave us nor forsake us.

 

            It looks like we will have to continue to work on this section in our next SD.

 

3/31/2022 10:08 AM

 

The Unresponsive Hearer (Matt. 13:19)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/30/2022 9:51 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                    Focus:  “The Unresponsive Hearer”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 13:19

 

            Message of the verse:  “19 "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.”

 

            Let us look again at verse four:  “4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.”  It makes sense that if the birds ate up this seed that fell beside the road that the soil that was beside the road was hard-packed and thus it was not going to go down into that soil in order to produce anything.  This soil represents the person who hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it.  Now the reason that he does not understand it is not due to any deficiency in the message but it is because of his own hard heart, as his heart is as hard as the soil beside the road.  In the Old Testament refers to this person as stiff-necked.  This person is unconcerned with the things of God, and he is completely indifferent to anything spiritual.  I suppose that if we desire to spread the seed of the gospel we will have run into people like this.  The seed is correct if it is told correctly but the soil it lands on is hard hearted and cannot penetrate. 

 

            There is a reason for this type of person’s heart which is explained in the last part of this verse:  the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.  This person lacks repentance or any sense of guilt and shame insulates him from God’s help and thus leaves him utterly exposed to the attacks of the evil one.  His heart has never been softened by remorse, it has never been broken up by conviction of sin, it has never been cultivated by the smallest desire for anything good, pure or holy.

 

            There are several verses in the book of Proverbs that describes this person.  “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Pr. 1:7).  “The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish tears it down with her own hands” (Pr. 14:1).  This person could be described as a “know it all,” as he is self-sufficient, self-satisfied, and often self-righteous, (notice the word self).  Let us look at 2 Cor. 4:4 “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 

 

            We will end this SD by looking at how the evil one uses many means as he snatches away what has been sown in his heart.  In Luke’s gospel he adds that some seed was trampled under the feet of those who walk the hard path “"The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled under foot and the birds of the air ate it up” (Luke 8:5). “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?” (Heb. 10:29).

 

            MacArthur concludes “Satan constantly uses ride to blind people to their sinful condition and need of salvation.  He makes them believe they are not really so bad, or that, if they do need improvement, they can improve themselves.  He uses doubt, prejudice, stubbornness, procrastination, love of the world, love of sin, and every combination of those ploys.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I suppose that it can be true that a believer’s heart can get hardened and cause sin in their life.  However that is different than the person who has never accepted the forgiveness that the Lord Jesus offers and He took our place on the cross, but one surely has to accept that forgiveness.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to fight the good fight as Paul tells Timothy.

 

3/30/2022 10:24 AM

Intro to Matthew 13:18-23

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/29/2022 9:40 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus: Intro to Matthew 13:18-23

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 13:18-23

 

            Message of the verses:  “18 “Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. 20 "And the one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 “And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 23 “And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.’”

 

            First we want to look at two other passages to show who the Lord is speaking to:  10 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" (Matt. 13:10).  “As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables” (Mark 4:10).  We can see from these two verses that Jesus is speaking to His disciples and some of His followers.  For them to hear was to understand, because, as the Lord had just told them, their faith allowed their eyes to see and their ears to hear, the things that the unbelievers could not as seen in Matt. 13:1-12, 16-17.

 

            Now in the parable of the wheat and the tares we see from verse 37 that He will indentify the Sower, but He does not identify Him here.  “37 And He answered and said, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.”  I suppose we can say that in this present passage that the Lord takes it for granted that the disciples understand the identity of the seed, which is made explicit in Luke’s account as seen in Luke 8:11 “"Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.”  MacArthur writes “In particular, the sower sows the word of the kingdom, the good news of entrance into the kingdom by grace through faith.

            “In a broader sense, of course, any believer who preachers or testifies to the gospel is a sower who sows Christ’s word in his Lord’s behalf.  The parable therefore applies to any true presentation of the gospel.”

 

            MacArthur goes on to quote the nineteenth-century commentator William Arnot who wrote of sowers: “As every leaf of the forest and every ripple of the lake, which itself receives a sunbeam on its breast, may throw the sunbeam off again, and so spread the light around; in like manner, everyone, old or young, who receives Christ into his heart may and will publish with his life and lips that blessed name.”   

 

            I often listen to Rush Limbaugh while in my car and one day he was talking about water and referenced a scientist whose name I don’t remember talking about the fact that there is only so much water on our earth and you can’t add any water to the earth other than what is there.  In the same way not even a dedicated Christian can create “the word of the kingdom.”  It is God only, who creates “the word” of the gospel that brings the life of His Son to a believer.  The work of Christ’s witnesses is to manufacture a message to create a synthetic seed, or even to modify the seed given to them, however it is to sow God’s revelation by proclaiming it exactly as He has given it.  At the end of the Word of God in the book of Revelation we read “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book (Rev.  22:18-19).”  I think that there are times when people don’t always give the whole truth about the gospel message and tend to water it down, to show things like if you accept this message that nothing wrong will happen to you, and your life will be all a bed or roses.  Not true as there have been countless millions of people who have died for the cause of Christ.

 

            MacArthur writes “The Bible is the written word, but Jesus Christ is the living word who gives it life.  The Bible, as it were, is the husk and Jesus is the kernel. ‘You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life,’ Jesus told a group of unbelieving Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, ‘and it is these that bear witness of Me’ (John 5:39).”

 

            Now as we look at the parable of the sower we see that it revolves around proclaiming the saving gospel, heralding the word about the King and His kingdom.  But the main teaching has to do with the heart soils on which the truth the truth of the word falls in the way that it is truthfully preached.  As we look more closely at this parable we will see that Jesus mentions four different soils onto which the seed falls as it is sown, and these represent four kinds of hearts that will hear the gospel.  We have mentioned that these parables are prophetic to the church age, which is a part of God’s kingdom.

 

            The truth is that the soils themselves are the same dirt that given the right conditions could support the growth of crops.  We know that because of the fall that every human heart is naturally sinful and hostile toward God.  This can be seen in Romans 8:7; and Ephesians 2:15-16.  Also every human heart is capable of being redeemed, but the truth is not all will be.  MacArthur writes “There is no such thing as a naturally unredeemable heart.  If a person is not saved, it is because he does not want to be saved.  ‘The one who comes to Me,’ Jesus says categorically, ‘I will certainly not cast out’ (John 6:37).  Every person could receive the seed of the gospel and participate in its life if he believed.  The differences in the soils, and in the hearts to which they correspond, are not in their composition but their condition.

            “Jesus was preparing the apostles, and every other proclaimer of the gospel, to understand the four basic kinds of hearts they could expect to encounter the unresponsive, the superficial, the worldly and the receptive.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As a believer in Jesus Christ it is my wonderful duty to give out the truth of the gospel, as I cannot save anyone, only Jesus can, but I know there will be times of disappointment when I tell someone the truth of the gospel and they turn it down.  I give it out, and it is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict and to convert.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To be ready to tell the wonderful truth of the gospel to the ones that the Holy Spirit brings onto my path.

 

3/29/2022 10:38 AM

To Reveal (Matt. 13:16-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/28/2022 9:28 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                            Focus:  “To Reveal”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 13:16-17

 

            Message of the verses:  “16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 "For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

 

            I like the way that verse 16 begins with the word “but” which means a change of direction, something that in this case is the right direction. 

 

            It happens that when men choose to believe God’s Word, and then to trust in His grace, that He gives them salvation and more and more truth by which to walk and to worship as we see in verse 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.”  These are the words that Jesus was speaking to His disciples.

 

            I want to look at 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 and then says something about these verses:  9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”  These verses are very important to believers to show us that we as believers can understand even the deep things of God’s Word, because they have them written in the New Testament, and they are illumined by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

 

            As we continue in the 13^th chapter of Matthew we see that Jesus explains to His disciples the meaning of the parables, and then He asked them if they understood, to which they replied “Yes.”  Now His disciples were not actually smarter than the unbelieving Jews as the Scribes and Pharisees were highly educated and had studied the Scriptures diligently since they were very young.  However their eyes were blinded to the truth of Jesus’ teaching, and the reason was because of their unbelief.  Now on the other hand, with the exception of Judas the eyes of the disciples were able to see and also their ears were able to hear, and the reason was because they did believe.

 

            Let us look at Mark 4:34, a parallel verse to what we are looking at in Matthew 13.  “and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.”  This was a big part of our Lord’s ministry, especially after the Jews had turned their backs on Jesus and wanted to kill Him, He would spend much time in giving understanding to His disciples.  MacArthur writes “During perhaps His last appearance to the disciples after His resurrection, Jesus, ‘opened their minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45).  The psalmist knew he could not comprehend God’s Word in his own intellect, and he prayed, ‘Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Thy law’ (Ps. 119:18).”

 

            Let us look again at verse 17 “"For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”  Now as we look at this verse we can conclude that not even the most faithful and enlightened saints of the Old Testament were given insights, the privileges of having the understanding of every believer.  Peter also has something to say about this “10 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, 11 seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to look.”

 

            MacArthur concludes this chapter in his commentary and also this section by writing:  “Even for believers there must be divine illumination, and that is promised to every Christian who searches God’s Word and relies on the Holy Spirit within him (see 1 Cor. 2:9-16; 1 John 2:20, 27).  As Christians, we not only have God’s completed revelation in Scripture but the very author of that Scripture living within us—to explain, interpret, and apply its truth.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for the reminder of what was at the end of this SD that is to rely on the Author of Scripture, the Holy Spirit who lives within me to teach me from His Word.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To trust the Holy Spirit to teach me the things that He desires for me to know so that I can to the work that God has called me to do from eternity past (Eph. 2:10).

 

3/28/2022 9:58 AM

 

 

To Conceal (Matt. 13:13-15)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/27/2022 7:57 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  “To Conceal”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 13:13-15

 

            Message of the verses:  “13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; 15 for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes unless they \should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I should heal them.’”

 

            The quotation from Isaiah comes from 6:9-10 and it perfectly describes the unbelieving Jews of Jesus’ say.  Isaiah was writing during a time of sweeping judgment on Judah, as Isaiah had just pronounced a series of curses on the people of Judah, which because the people were drinking, and other things like debauchery, immorality, dishonestly, injustice, and also hypocrisy, and this kind of sounds like our country at this time in our history.  John MacArthur writes “While Isaiah was preaching his message of doom, King Uzziah died (6:1) and the nation was plunged into some of its darkest days.  They were on the verge of captivity by Babylon as part of God’s judgment, yet they refused to turn to Him for mercy and help.

            “The people kept on hearing, but they did not understand; and they dept on seeing, but they did not perceive, because they had intentionally closed their eyes an their ears to God and refused to understand with their heart and return to Him in order for Him to heal them.  Because they chose to ignore God and His word, God judicially locked them up in their unbelief so that they would fear His judgment.

 

            Now as mentioned Isaiah was telling them that judgment was coming, and so the first fulfillment of his warning came in the judgment of the Babylonian captivity, which is exactly what Isaiah had promised.  Then there was a second fulfillment, as Jesus declared, was about to happen or to be accomplished as Israel once again turned her back on the Lord and so they would face the judgment of many centuries of darkness and despair.

 

            As we look at Jesus’ parables we can see that they were a similar form of judgment on unbelief.  The ones who would not accept His clear and simple teachings, things like what He taught on His Sermon on the  Mount would not only be able to understand His deeper teachings but would lose the benefit of the teaching and miraculous witness they had been given.

 

            MacArthur concludes:  “The gift of languages in the early church was still another form of judgment on unbelievers.  Quoting from Isaiah 28:11, Paul wrote, ‘In the law it is written, ‘By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me,’ says the Lord.  So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers’ (1 Cor. 14:21-22).  Tongues were manifested in an astounding and dramatic way on the day of Pentecost and continued to be manifested from time to time during the apostolic age as a form of testimony against those who refused to believe.  The Lord first gave His truth to Israel in simple, clear teaching; and when that was ignored, He spoke to them in parables, which, without explanation, were no more than meaningless riddles.  Finally He spoke in intelligible languages that could not be understood at all without translation.”

 

3/27/2022 8:23 AM

PT-6 "The Purpose: To Reveal and to Conceal" (Matt. 13:10-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/26/2022 9:12 AM

 

My Worship Time                                   Focus:  PT-6 “The Purpose:  To Reveal and to Conceal”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 13:10-17

 

            Message of the verses:  “10 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" 11 And He answered and said to them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 “For whoever has, to him shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; 15 for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes unless they \should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I should heal them.’ 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 "For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.’”

 

            We want to begin this SD by talking about the words “Whoever has” as seen in verse 12.  This refers to those who believe those who have sovereignly given the gift of eternal life, those who have received Jesus Christ as they put their trust in Him.  These are the ones who are the true citizens of the kingdom because they have received the King.  And whoever accepts salvation from God, to him shall more be given.  In John 1:9 we read “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”  Believers will receive more light as they walk with their Lord until he shall have an abundance.” 

 

            However the fate of unbelievers is just the opposite of that of believers, and it is because of their unbelief, he does not have salvation, and so even what light of God’s truth he has shall be taken away from him.  MacArthur writes “Many thousands of people heard Jesus teach and saw Him perform miraculous signs as evidence of His divine messiahship, but most of them did not recognize Him as Lord or receive Him as Savior.  They were exposed to God incarnate, and yet they rejected Him—either by direct opposition or by indifferent neglect.  They said no to the King, and because they refused to receive the divine light that shined on them, they drifted deeper and deeper into spiritual darkness.”

 

            Now as we think of the result of these Jewish people rejecting God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ there have been some very difficult things that have happened to them beginning in 70 A. D. when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and several million Jews were killed.  Those who were left offered themselves as slaves but there were not buyers for them as the slave market had too many slaves.  De 28:68 “The LORD will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer."  Moses prophesied about this many, many, hundreds of years before it happened.  To this day, there are no people on earth who are more religiously disoriented than Jews.  The Jews were called God’s people, and were given His promises, His covenants, His laws, and His immeasurable blessings.  They were even sent God’s Son who was born into a Jewish family, and He taught them, He healed them, gave them comfort, redemption if they would accept it, and yet the turned it down.  They did not want this Man to rule over them, and even today when the Lord brought them back into their own land which they have not possessed since 586 B.C. they still will not come to their Messiah and even persecute believers in their land.  Judaism ended when their Messiah was crucified and the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom as Jesus died on the cross for them.

 

            MacArthur concludes this rather long section by writing “All men are either progressing or regressing spiritually.  No person remains static in his relationship to God.  The longer a person knows and is faithful to Christ, the more his Lord is faithful to reveal His truth and power.  The longer a person rejects the knowledge of God he has, whether much or little, the less of God’s truth he will understand.  Willful human rejection leads to divine judicial rejection.  When a man says no to God, God says no to that person.  God confirms men in their stubbornness, and binds them with their own chains of unbelief.”

 

            Lord willing we will continue to look more closely at verses 13-15 in our next SD under the title of “To Conceal.”

 

3/26/2022 9:39 AM  

 

PT-5 "The Purpose: To Reveal and to Conceal" (Matt. 13:10-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/25/2022 9:01 AM

 

My Worship Time                                    Focus:  PT-5 “The Purpose: To Reveal and to Conceal”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 13:10-17

 

            Message of the verses:  ““10 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" 11 And He answered and said to them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 “For whoever has, to him shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; 15 for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes unless they \should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I should heal them.’ 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 "For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

 

            We will continue to talk about the fact that there are believers and nonbelievers in the kingdom as we look first of all at the apostles of Jesus Christ and see that eleven of them were true believers, but one, Judas was not a true believer.  MacArthur adds “Throughout its history, the visible church has always included adherents who have not trusted in Christ and who therefore do not belong to Him and are not a part of His spiritual body.”

 

            I have mentioned in previous SD’s that during the millennium there will be unbelievers there even though Satan and his demons will be in the lake of fire, and there will only be believers who enter the millennium as it begins because after Christ returns to earth at the end of the tribulation period He will separate the sheep from the goats, and only the sheep will enter the millennium.  The problem is that when these believers have children that they will all need to come to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, and at this time Jesus Christ will be sitting on David’s throne in Jerusalem and the truth is that not all of these children will come to Him for salvation thus there will be believers and unbelievers in the millennium.  At the end of the millennium there will be a short battle as Satan will be let out to lead the unbelievers against the Lord in battle.  “7 When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, 8 and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. 9 And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. 10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev. 20:7-10).

 

            MacArthur writes “God’s universal kingdom over heaven and earth has no conditions.  To exist is to be in that kingdom.  To be in His mediatorial kingdom, however, requires intentional identity with Him.  For the false citizen the identity is hypocritical and superficial.  For the true citizen the identity is genuine, being based on repentance, faith in Christ, and the new life that faith in Him brings (Mar. 1:15).”  “and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’”

 

            It is when Christ returns to planet earth as we have described that his indirect rule in the mediatorial kingdom will become His direct rule in the millennial kingdom and then in the eternal kingdom of the new heavens and the new earth as describes in Revelation chapter 21.

 

            Now we must understand that God’s kingdom and the church are distinct in that the kingdom preceded the church and will continue eternally after the church as such has ceased to exist.  However during the present mediatorial period, often called the church age, the kingdom and the church are identical.  We must remember that there was nothing written in the Old Testament about the “church age” in which we live in at this time, which began on the day of Pentecost seen in the second chapter of Acts and will end at the Rapture of the church seen in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, and also other places like 1 Corinthians 15:51 and following.  MacArthur writes “That truth is part of the mystery ‘which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel’ (Eph. 3:5-6).”

 

            Jesus expands on the truth that His parables were given to reveal and to conceal as seen in verse 12 of our text “12 “For whoever has, to him shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

 

            I will wait to talk about this verse in our next SD, and hopefully will conclude this whole section then, although in our next section we will also be looking at verses 13-15 of Matthew chapter 13.

 

 

 

           

PT-4 "The Purpose: To Reveal and to Conceal" (Matt. 13:10-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/24/2022 8:20 AM

 

My Worship Time                                    Focus:  PT-4 “The Purpose: To Reveal and to Conceal”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 13:10-17

 

            Message of the verses:  ““10 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" 11 And He answered and said to them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 “For whoever has, to him shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; 15 for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes unless they \should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I should heal them.’ 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 "For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

 

            I want to begin this section with a quote from John MacArthur’s commentary:  “When the Son of God became incarnate, He was God’s unique Mediator, the divine/human instrument of rule, who in His own right deserved to establish and reign over God’s earthly kingdom.  When the Son was rejected, God continued to rule through those who belonged to Christ, those who were now empowered within by His own indwelling Holy Spirit.  From Pentecost through the present day and until Christ returns, Christians are God’s mediatorial rulers on earth.”  I have mentioned that I am teaching through the book of Hebrews in our Sunday school class and one of the things that God is showing me as I study this great epistle is that it is a book of transition, transition from Judaism to the Kingdom of God in the church age.  I love it when the different books of the Bible that I am studying dovetail together and this 13^th chapter of Matthew dovetails perfectly with the transition that we see in the book of Hebrews and this quotation from MacArthur’s commentary fits very nicely with what is going on in the book of Hebrews.  We have mentioned that Matthew chapter thirteen is a transition in the ministry of our Lord as the Jews had stated that the miracles that Jesus was doing were done in the power of Satan, which was the unpardonable sin, and now as we move from the 12^th to the 13^th chapter of Matthew we see that Jesus is teaching in parables, parables that shows what will be going on in the church age. 

 

            Now as we move onto looking at the tribulation period, that seven year period that will usher in the return of Jesus Christ to planet earth we see that God will raise up 144,000 faithful Jewish evangelists from the twelve tribes of Israel, and an innumerable host of Gentiles, “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues,” will be converted and stand “before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes” (Rev. 7:4, 9).  God will also use two witnesses to get out the word of salvation during part of the seven year tribulation.

            MacArthur continues:  “Throughout its history the mediatorial kingdom has attracted both true and false citizens; and it will remain so until its end.  Failure to understand that truth has caused untold confusion in interpreting many Bible passages.  Among other things, it has caused many sincere Christians to believe that salvation can be lost.”

 

            I suppose that this last sentence from the above quotation comes from a couple of sources, and one of them would come from Satan, and the other from our old nature which tells us that we are truly not good enough to become and to stay believers in Jesus Christ. However it was God who chose those who will become His children before the world began, it was Christ who paid for our sins, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives us an effectual call that we cannot say no to, therefore as the Word of God says salvation is a gift given through the triune God as all the Members of the trinity had a part in our salvation. 

 

            We have mentioned a few times in this section about the kingdom of God and have stated that during the Mediatorial kingdom that there will be both believers and unbelievers in it.  Now a careful study of Scripture will show us that although the true subjects of God’s kingdom are only those who belong to Him by saving faith.  Now these true citizens of the kingdom can be unfailingly in distinguishing from false ones only by God Himself.  God’s chosen people, Israel, was always composed of both those who were true believers and those who were not.  Let us look at what Jesus said in Matthew 8:12 “but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”  As we look at this verse we can easily determine that those “sons of the kingdom” were not true subjects of the King.  In Matthew 13:38 we a part of the parable of the wheat and the tares and we see in that parable that they both grow up together, one true wheat and one tares, and in the end the tares will be burnt up, so again we see evidence of in the kingdom there will be both believers and non believers.  MacArthur writes “In the figure of the vine and branches, Jesus illustrates the truth that many branches that seem to belong to the vine really do not.  Jesus even spoke of the spurious branches as being ‘in Me,’ but those branches will be pruned away, dry up, and be thrown into the fire to be burned (John 15:2, 6).  The people represented by those unfruitful branches were closely, but superficially, indentified with Christ.  Condemned ‘sons of the kingdom’ are never part of God’s spiritual kingdom, and unproductive ‘branches’ are ever a part of Christ.  They only appear to be from man’s imperfect view.”

 

            I will conclude this SD with what Paul wrote in Romans 9:6-7 as we will see here that the apostle will declare earlier in his letter to the Romans 2:29 “he is a Jew who is one inwardly.  “6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called’” (Rom. 9:6-7 NKJV).

 

            I see that we are getting into some “heavy” things from the Word of God, but we will rely on the Spirit of God to get us through these heavy things.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As a believer in Jesus Christ for a little over 48 years I realize that in an of myself that I cannot always tell if a person is a believer or not, and sometimes I don’t think that a person can know for sure, and so it is good from time to time to look at 2 Corinthians 13:5 “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed you fail the test?”  It is also good to look at the next verse that Paul wrote” “But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test.”

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to continue to understand these deep things from the Word of God as the Holy Spirit is my teacher.

 

3/24/2022 9:08 AM

PT-3 "The Purpose: To Reveal and to Conceal" (Matt. 13:10-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/23/2022 8:58 AM

 

My Worship Time                                    Focus:  PT-3 “The Purpose: To Reveal and to Conceal”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 13:10-17

 

            Message of the verse:  ““10 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" 11 And He answered and said to them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 “For whoever has, to him shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; 15 for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes unless they \should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I should heal them.’ 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 "For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

 

            I mentioned at the end of our last SD that we would begin looking today at the second aspect of God’s kingdom and in MacArthur’s commentary he sites what this is from a man named Alva McClain who “appropriately called mediatorial, because His rule is mediated through others.  Both the universal and the mediatorial aspects of the kingdom are seen in the Lord’s Prayer, as Jesus commands us to pray, ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’ (Matt. 6:10).  ‘In heaven’ refers to God’s universal and direct reign, whereas ‘on earth’ refers to the present kingdom, in which only His saints are His subjects in the fullest sense.”

 

            As we go back in the first couple of chapters of Genesis we see that man was the last thing that God created, as He made all other things that He created first in order to place His highest creation, man, on earth when the earth was just perfect for man to be created.  God’s desire was for man to rule over the earth.  Let us look at Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”  We all know what happened after that as seen in the third chapter of Genesis as Satan became the usurper after Adam and Eve sinned.  However like Absalom, he is a usurper, and his rule is both illegitimate and doomed to end.

 

            MacArthur writes “Even after the fall, God maintained certain dominion over the earth through human mediators, and since that time every person who has trusted in Him has been a channel for expressing His will and power on earth.  Abel, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Rachel, Joseph, Moses, David, and countless others mediated the Lord’s rule on earth.  Through selected individuals God gave His holy Word, which was written down for all men to know and obey.  In that Word He revealed His nature, His will, His moral and spiritual standards for mankind, and His promises of redemption and restoration.  He called out a special people, the nation of Israel, to be ‘a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ (Ex. 19:6) before the world to be the forerunners of His Son as ‘a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth’ (Isa. 49:6).  He raised up prophets, priests, and kings to give special leadership on His behalf.”  I have mentioned similar things to our Sunday school class the last time we meet stating that it was the desire of God to bring mankind, those who are believers, back to where it all started as seen in Genesis chapters one and two.  God would come down to the earth after He created it and created Adam and Eve and walk with them and have perfect fellowship with them, but even after our Lord’s death and resurrection that cannot yet happen, and it won’t truly happen until the earth is destroyed and all true believes will be with the triune God in the New heaven. 

 

            3/23/2022 9:22 AM

PT-2 "The Purpose: To Reveal and Conceal" (Matt. 13:10-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/22/2022 8:30 AM

 

My Worship Time                                         Focus: PT-2 “The Purpose: To Reveal and Conceal”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 13:10-17

 

            Message of the verses:  ““10 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" 11 And He answered and said to them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 “For whoever has, to him shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; 15 for the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes unless they \should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I should heal them.’ 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 "For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

 

            I promised to begin the SD with a quotation from John MacArthur as he writes about the word mystery in his commentary.

 

            “The particular mysteries about which Jesus teaches here have to do with the kingdom of heaven (see also vv. 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47, 52)—which from parallel passages in Mark (4:11, 30) and Luke (8:10; 13:18) is seen to be the same as the kingdom of God (cf. Matt. 19:23-24).  One title emphasizes the King (God) and the other emphasizes the sphere of His reign (heaven).  Of this kingdom the Old Testament gives only limited and incomplete glimpses.  Most messianic prophecies in the Old Testament point to Christ’s second coming and the establishment of His earthly millennial kingdom and His subsequent eternal kingdom.  Only hints are given about His present earthly kingdom, which began with His rejection and crucifixion and will continue until He returns.  This is the kingdom that exists spiritually in the hearts of His people while the King is physically absent from earth.  He is present with believers, but He is not visible or evident to the world, except as revealed through their lives and testimony.”

 

            There are some people who do not believe that there is a kingdom of heaven that is present at this time, however there is an example of this in the Old Testament.  The account of when David was king and his son Absalom decides to take over the kingdom and so King David leave and go to another place.  However while David was absent from Jerusalem he was still the king.  David would return to Jerusalem after the defeat of Absalom and continue to reign until his death.  The story can be seen in 2 Samuel 15-17.  MacArthur adds “David’s kingship was acknowledged and respected only by those Israelites who remained faithful to him, but his rejection by the followers of Absalom did not make him any less the rightful king.  He was the only legitimate monarch, and every faithful citizen of his kingdom recognized it.

            “In much the same way, Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, now rules in the hearts of His people, although He is physically absent from earth and rules them from His heavenly dwelling through His Spirit—while the usurper Satan temporarily is the  spiritural ruler of this world (John 12:31).”  “"Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”

 

            Let us now look at a verse that David wrote as he reminds us that “The LORD sat as King at the flood; Yes, the LORD sits as King forever” (Ps. 29:10).  Jesus ruled the earth even when it was so wickedly rebellious that He had to destroy every human being with the exception of Noah and his family which took place in the flood.  “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all” (Ps. 103:19).  We see from this verse that God is sovereign “over all,” even over Satan and his demons, whom He has allowed certain freedoms for a limited amount of time.  However their final and certain destiny is hell.  MacArthur adds “which God rules just as surely as He rules heaven.  The Lord has prepared that place for the specific purpose of their punishment along with every unbelieving human being (Matt. 25:41).  ‘Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty,’ declares King David; ‘indeed everything that is in heavens and the earth; Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all’ (1 Chron. 29:11).”  Now we will look at Matthew 15:41 which is mentioned in this previous quote:  “"Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” 

 

            In our next SD we want to look at the second aspect of the Kingdom, Lord willing.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As a believer in Jesus Christ I am privileged of many things including living in what is called the “Church Age,” and also being a part of the Kingdom of God here on earth with my Lord and Savior ruling from heaven through His Holy Spirit who lives in my heart and is the “down payment” given to me assuring me of one day living in the presence of Jesus Christ.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Ephesians 5:18b gives me the command of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and so I pray that God will enable me to be filled and live like I am filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

3/22/2022 9:04 AM