SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/13/2022 10:05 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Parable of the Mustard Seed”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
13:31-32
Message of the verses: “31 He presented another
parable to them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed,
which a man took and sowed in his field; 32 and this is smaller than all other
seeds; but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes
a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.’”
I mentioned that we would talk about two trees that
are found in the Old Testament, the first tree is seen in Daniel 4:10-12 “10 ‘Now
these were the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed: I was
looking, and behold, there was a tree in the midst of the earth and its
height was great. 11 ‘The tree grew large and became strong And its
height reached to the sky, And it was visible to the end of the whole
earth. 12 ‘Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, And in it was
food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, And the birds of the
sky dwelt in its branches, And all living creatures fed themselves from it.” Daniel explains the interpretation of this
dream in verses20-22 “20 ‘The tree that you saw, which became large and grew
strong, whose height reached to the sky and was visible to all the earth 21 and
whose foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was
food for all, under which the beasts of the field dwelt and in whose branches
the birds of the sky lodged — 22 it is you, O king; for you have become great
and grown strong, and your majesty has become great and reached to the sky and
your dominion to the end of the earth.”
MacArthur writes “Under Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian Empire had brought
unparalleled advancement in almost every field of endeavor—agriculture,
architecture, education, the arts, literature, economics, and many others. Despite the cost in lives and slave labor, it
had brought prosperity to a large part of the known world at that time. In the king’s vision, the birds and animals
who benefited from the tree’s shade and food were the other nations of the world.”
The
tree that is spoken about in Ezekiel’s prophecy is found in chapter 31:3-6 “3 ‘Behold,
Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon With beautiful branches and forest shade,
And very high, And its top was among the clouds. 4 ‘The waters made it grow,
the deep made it high. With its rivers it continually extended all around its planting
place, And sent out its channels to all the trees of the field. 5 ‘Therefore
its height was loftier than all the trees of the field And its boughs became
many and its branches long Because of many waters as it spread them out. 6 ‘All
the birds of the heavens nested in its boughs, And under its branches all the
beasts of the field gave birth, And all great nations lived under its shade.”
We
can be sure that our Lord and probably His disciples were very familiar with
these accounts that we have just looked at, and as we look at the parable that
Jesus is talking about with the mustard seed having a very large plant come
from a very small seed and compare it to the sections in Daniel and Ezekiel we
will see that the meaning of His parable is that it starts out very small, but
then grows to a great tree which would ultimately provide shelter, protection
and benefit to the entire world. You can
go into places around the world where the gospel of Jesus Christ has not been
heard and it will be a very different place than where the gospel has been
heard, and where it has been heard life will be better.
MacArthur
writes “When Christians live in obedience to the Lord, they are a blessing to
those around them. Individual believers
become the source of benediction to nations.
And with all their faults, those nations of the world who have been so
influenced and who have recognized God’s sovereignty and have sought to build
their laws and standards of living on His Word have proved a blessing to the
rest of the world in economic, legal, cultural, and social ways as well as
spiritual and moral. It is from the
teachings of Scripture through Christian witness that high standards of
education, justice, the dignity of women, the rights of children, prison
reform, and countless other such social benefits have come. Whenever the gospel of the kingdom of God is faithfully
preached and practiced, all the world benefits.” Now as I look at this paragraph I can come to
the conclusion that the gospel is what caused the United States to become the
kind of nation that it has been for well over 200 years, but as I look at what
is going on in our country at this time what I see is that it is falling, and
it is falling because the gospel is not affecting our nation like it was when
it began. I truly believe that our
nation will fall from being a world power in the near future because our nation
is not found in the end time prophecy found in the Word of God. It has always been my prayer that the rapture
of the church will come very soon, and when that comes, not only our country
but countries around the world will not have the influence of true believers
right away, but later on there will be the greatest crop of believers that the
world will ever see, but it will be costly as only one out of every four people
will be left after the tribulation period is through, and that one out of every
four will include unbelievers who will be ushered into the place where all
unbelievers will go and have gone ever since man sinned.
MacArthur
concludes “What the church is to the world is a macrocosm of what a believing spouse
is to an unbelieving husband or wife.
Just as the unbelieving partner is sanctified through the one who
believes (1 Cor. 7:14), the unbelieving world is to a degree sanctified by the
presence of the true church.
“Jesus’
point is that, in spite of great opposition, represented by the three bad soils
and the tares, His kingdom will start small and spread in power and influence
to become victorious,” Now for that I
have to say AMEN!
4/13/2022 10:41 AM
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