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.
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