SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/19/2022 9:27 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Intro to Matt. 13:53-58”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
13:53-58
Message of the verses: “53 And it came
about that when Jesus had finished these parables, He departed from there. 54 And
coming to His home town He began teaching them in their synagogue, so
that they became astonished, and said, "Where did this man get
this wisdom, and these miraculous powers? 55 “Is not this the carpenter’s
son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and
Simon and Judas? 56 “And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did
this man get all these things?" 57 And they took offense at Him.
But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his home
town, and in his own household." 58 And He did not do many miracles
there because of their unbelief.”
Before I begin with the subject that I have been
writing about as far as the introduction to these verses I just have to say
that anyone who believes that Jesus did not have any physical half-brothers and
half-sisters may they ought to look at verse 55 real close. As far as His mother Mary being a perpetual virgin where did all
these offspring come from. We are told
that after Joseph found out that Mary was to have a child by the Holy Spirit
that he did not have any physical relations with her until after Jesus was
born. Satan sure likes to try and mess
things up.
I
begin with a quotation from MacArthur: “In
these eight accounts” (we looked at in our last SD) “there is exactly the ratio
of belief to unbelief (one out of four) found in the parable of the sower. By the marvelous wisdom and provision of the
Lord, the Twelve, through these incidents, witnessed living demonstrations of
the principles He had just taught them about men’s response to the gospel in
the present age. In these situations
both the power of belief and the power of unbelief are revealed.”
We
can see the power of belief as we move through different parts of the
Scripture. A very important example
comes from the life of Abraham where we read about how he believed God and it
was counted to him for righteousness (salvation) and he became the father of a
great nation of God’s chosen people.
Then Israel believed God and they walked through the Red Sea on dry
land. David believed God and was thus
enabled to kill Goliath. I think that
many of these examples can be found in the 11th chapter of the book
of Hebrews. Naaman believed God and was
healed of his leprosy. One of my all
time favorite books of the Old Testament, the book of Daniel tells the story of
Daniel spending a night with some hungry lions who did not bother him at all
because of his great faith in believing God.
We move to the New Testament and talk about two blind men who believed
God and received their sight and also more importantly their salvation. Jairus believed our Lord and was rewarded by
having his 12 year old daughter who had died come back to life. The story of the Philippian jailer and how he
became a believe along with his whole household is found in the book of
Acts. We could go on and talk about more
which is what the author of Hebrews says after talking about many OT saints,
and I believe that that list continues to go on as the church age
continues. In January of 1974 I believed
God and through the power of the Holy Spirit who gave me an effectual call I to
became a believer.
I
really hate to bring up the other side of the coin and talk about those who did
not believe God, but I think that it is also necessary. It surely begins with Adam and Eve, and even
though they did become believers they certainly did not believe God and this
was the cause of all of their children being born spiritually dead and in the
need of a Savior. Think about the story
of Noah and how the entire world at that time did not believe God and they all
perished in the flood with only eight people alive in the ark along with the
animals. The great spiritual leader
Moses did not believe God and thus was not able to led the children of Israel
into the Promised Land. Aaron refused to
believe God’s command about worship and led the people into idolatry, resulting
in the loss of three thousand lives.
Nebuchadnezzar refused to believe God and became a senseless beast. In the NT there were many would-be disciples
who refused to believe God because they were offended by Christ’s teaching and
thus they entered into eternity without hope.
How about the unbelieving Pharisees who were part of the plan to have
our Lord crucified, and then the story of the worst apostate of them all, a man
who walked with our Lord for three years and then Judas sold the Lord for a few
dollars of silver and then hung himself over the guilt. Felix, Festus, and Agrippa refused to believe
God through the witness of Paul, and they were lost forever.
MacArthur
writes “Just as faith has the power to bring forgiveness of sins and eternal
life, unbelief has the power to hold a person in his sins and under the
condemnation of eternal hell. Just as
belief has the power to bring eternal happiness, joy, peace, and glory in God’s
presence, unbelief has the power to bring eternal sorrow, pain, and anguish in
God’s absence.
“As
the parable of the sower illustrates, most of the response Jesus faced and the
disciples would face was that of unbelief.
Whether unbelief comes from the heart beaten hard by sin, from the rocky
heart covered by a shallow layer of superficial belief, or from the thorny
heart whose worldliness chokes out the truth of the gospel—all unbelief is a
matter of will. Unbelief is a choice; it
is saying no to God in spite of the evidence.
“Matthew’s
account of the first incident illustrating the parable of the sower is preceded
by the brief mention of Jesus’ departure from Capernaum.” That is the subject that we will be looking
at in our next SD, Lord willing.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I look at the two lists of people, some
believing and some not believing I can see that many of the unbelieving were
really believers and their unbelief was in some ways worse because they knew
the truth.
My Steps of Faith for Today: It has always been my desire every since I
became a believer to please the Lord, but many times I have failed to do
so. I still desire to please the Lord in
all that I do and to do the work that He has planned for me to do before the foundation
of the world.
5/19/2022 10:06 AM
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