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
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