SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/5/2022 9:40 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2
“The Kingdom Is Made Personal By A Transaction”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
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 think that I mentioned or at least thought that it
would be best to begin this SD with the continuation of the quotation from John
MacArthur’s commentary that we ended with in our last SD. “It must be noted that such surrender is not
a human work to gain salvation but a part of the saving work of God wrought in
the soul by the Holy Spirit.
“Several
other men who declared their intention to follow Jesus made various excuses for
not doing so, proving their insincerity by their unwillingness to do what Jesus
required. Of one man He demanded the
sacrifice of comfort by joining ‘the Son of Man [who] has nowhere to lay His
head’ (Matt. 8:20); and another He demanded the sacrifice of an inheritance the
man wanted to receive when his father died (v.21).Of another He demanded the
sacrifice of family ties (Luke 9:61-62), and of still another He demanded
surrender of wealth already possessed (Luke 18:22).”
Now
it has to be noted that the surrender of possessions, making no difference
whether great or small, present or prospective, will in no way buy
salvation. These have no spiritual merit
and are of absolutely no value to God, for after all whatever is found on
planet earth belongs to God for He created it all. The truth is that surrender is necessary not
because it can buy anything but because it is inevitable when salvation is
truly sought. Salvation this is not
desired above everything else is not truly desired, which is certainly seen in
the two parables that we have been writing about. The truth is that salvation costs nothing in
the sense of payment but everything in the sense of surrender. “37 “He who loves father or mother more than
Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not
worthy of Me. 38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not
worthy of Me. 39 “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his
life for My sake will find it (Matt. 10:37-38).
Jesus said the following on another occasion “Then Jesus said to His
disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and
take up his cross and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24).
MacArthur adds “To take up the cross is to forfeit everything, including
physical life.
“Speaking
of coming to Him for salvation, Jesus said,
‘28 "For which one of you, when he wants
to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he
has enough to complete it? 29 "Otherwise, when he has laid a
foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule
him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build
and was not able to finish.’ 31 "Or
what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit
down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men
to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 “Or else,
while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of
peace. 33 “So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up
all his own possessions’ (Luke 14:28-33).
“Jesus could not have made clearer the truth that
the person who will not surrender his old life will never have the new.”
Now
the truth is that most people who consider receiving Christ as Savior and Lord
do not consciously inventory all of their material, social, and all of their
other possessions to see if He is worth sacrificing those things for. When a person discovers the infinite value of
salvation, they will simply yield to Christ.
Their focus is not on what they give up but on what they receive because
of their salvation. Now if their
redemption is genuine, their lives will evidence a willingness to surrender
whatever stands between them and faithfulness to their Lord. This will all happen as the Spirit of God
continues to work in the heart of true believers.
John
MacArthur writes something in the following paragraph that speaks to my heart,
and I suppose the reason it does is because when He saved me I was close to
being 27 years old and had lived a life that was only for me and for my
pleasures that I could get out of life.
He writes “Some of
men’s most cherished possessions are their sins; and these must certainly be
surrendered, because it is from sin that Christ saves us. No one can come to Christ by stopping his
stealing, cursing, immorality, lying, or a dozen such sins. But the one who truly belongs to Him will
long to give up those sins and every other.
This is the attitude taught by Jesus in the Beatitudes—poverty of spirit
that recognizes the bankruptcy of all human resources, mourning over sin,
meekness in the presence of God, and hunger and thirst for righteousness in
exchange for sin and guilt. God’s
sovereign, saving work incorporates that response.
“In
his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul recounts his many personal
advantages and achievements before he was saved. I was circumcised the eight day,’ he says, ‘of
the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the
Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the
righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me,’ he
continues to explain, ‘I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ’ (Phil.
3:5-7). Now New Testament writer more
staunchly defends the freeness of salvation than does Paul. Yet he testifies that, in coming to Christ,
he counted as loss—that is, he willingly surrendered as worthless—everything he
was and had. Like the men who bought the
treasure in the field and the pearl of great value, he liquidated everything he
had for the e priceless Treasure he had discovered.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Like Paul it is my desire to lay aside the
things in the old life that I had, including the sins that actually brought
happiness—or at least I thought they did at the time—and lay them at the feet
of Jesus so that I can live my life each and every day for the cause of Christ,
to bring glory to His name.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To give up
all of the old sinful habits that came from the old life and live for
Christ. To trust the Lord as I meet with
a younger man this afternoon in order to pray for revival for our country.
5/5/2022 10:22 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment