SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/29/2022 9:10 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Kingdom
is not Superficially Visible”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
13:44-46
Message of the verses: “44 "The
kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and
hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and
buys that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking
fine pearls, 46 and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all
that he had and bought it.”
I
want to first look at Luke 17:20-21 which gives the answer that Jesus gives the
Pharisees when He was questioned about when the kingdom of God was coming: “20 Now having been questioned by the
Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God is not
coming with signs to be observed; 21 nor
will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold,
the kingdom of God is in your midst.’”
MacArthur writes “The kingdom will not be observable until Jesus returns
and establishes His millennial rule over the earth. At that time He ‘is going to come in the
glory of His Father with His angels,’ and men will ‘see the Son of Man coming
in His kingdom’ (Matt. 16:27-28). But
the present kingdom ‘is not of this world’ (John 18:36).
Now
we want to look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:14 “But a natural man
does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to
him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” In 2nd Corinthians Paul further
explains “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.” Now
here are the reasons that these verses were used in this section of our SD for
today: “Even when the truth of the
gospel is clearly presented to him, the natural man cannot see it. As long as he resists the moving of God’s
Spirit on his heart, he cannot see past the spiritual blinders Satan has placed
over his eyes. He is completely content
to seek his ephemeral (fleeting) pleasures and the things that can never
satisfy, considering the trinkets of the world to be of great value and the
gospel of salvation to be worthless.”
MacArthur
quotes an unknown author who writes “Under the form of a man, under the privacy and poverty of a Nazarene,
was the fulness of the Godhead hidden that day from the wise and prudent of the
world. The light was near them and yet
they did not see it. The riches of the
divine grace were brought to their door and yet they continued poor and
miserable.”
Salvation
is the greatest treasure that there is and yet it is not obvious to men, and it
is therefore not something that they will naturally seek. People do not understand why it is so prized
by Christians, and further do not understand why Christians give up so much,
and what they give up can be their self-dependency, sinful pleasures, and sometimes
even their social, political, and economic freedom and welfare in order to gain
what seems to be so little. Unbelievers
cannot understand why believers willingly live by standards of ethics and
morality that go against man’s deepest drives and lusts. We have spoken about Matthew 7:14 when we
were in that chapter, but it is a good time to repeat that verse now “The narrow gate and the hard road lead
out into life and only a few are finding it” (Philips).
As we
look at the full value of the pearl it may not be evident to the average person,
and I have to say that it won’t be evident to most unbelievers, as they look at it,
but as believers who realize the importance of that pearl as it represents the
greatest gift of all, their salvation, whey will understand and see the great
beauty of it. Now it is true that many
people have passing admiration for Jesus and the gospel but are totally unaware
of the supreme and priceless gift that could be theirs in belonging to
Him. These people see the pearl in plain
view, but to their worldly eyes it has very little worth. We will close with some verses from John’s
gospel chapter one and verses nine through eleven: “9 There was the true Light which, coming
into
the world, enlightens every man. 10 He was in the world,
and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own,
and those who were His own did not receive Him.” John is talking about the Jews in verse
eleven, the ones who mostly did not receive Him. However if you are reading this SD and don’t
understand the greatest value that the pearl represents, my prayer is that the
Holy Spirit of God will open your eyes to understand the greatest truth ever
known, and that is Jesus Christ loves you, and it is His desire to save you
from your sins and take you to heaven to be with Him.
4/29/2022 9:42 AM
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