SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/30/2022 11:47 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to “Empty Worship: Confusing the
Traditions of Men with the Doctrine of God”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
14:34-15:20
Message of the verses: “34 And when they
had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that
place recognized Him, they sent into all that surrounding district and brought
to Him all who were sick; 36 and they began to entreat Him that they
might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were
cured.
“1 Then some
Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying, 2 “Why do Your
disciples transgress the
tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat
bread." 3 And He answered and said to them, "And why do you
yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4
“For God said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF
FATHER OR MOTHER, LET HIM BE PUT TO DEATH.’ 5 “But you say,
‘Whoever shall say to his father or mother, "Anything of mine you
might have been helped by has been given to God," 6 he is not to
honor his father or his mother.’ And thus you invalidated the word of
God for the sake of your tradition. 7 “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah
prophesy of you, saying, 8 ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART
IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. 9 ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE
PRECEPTS OF MEN.’"
“10 And after He
called the multitude to Him, He said to them, "Hear, and understand. 11 “Not
what enters into the mouth defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth,
this defiles the man." 12 Then the disciples came and said to Him,
"Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this
statement?" 13 But He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant
shall be rooted up. 14 “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind.
And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit." 15 And
Peter answered and said to Him, "Explain the parable to us." 16 And He said,
"Are you still lacking in understanding also? 17 “Do you not understand
that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is
eliminated? 18 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and
those defile the man. 19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. 20 “These are the
things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the
man.’”
I mentioned yesterday that this section of
Scripture which ends up chapter fourteen
and then goes twenty verses into the fifteenth chapter of Matthew has some
things in it that will take us a while to get through. I listened to two sermons on this section,
and as mentioned they had some things in them that will explain how it was that
the Pharisees and other religious leaders around the time of Christ were
actually teaching what some have called a cult.
I
want to begin this introduction by talking about the meaning of Exodus 20:7
which is a part of the Ten Commandments:
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” I suppose that when you hear a person swear or
cuss and use the name of the Lord then that may all of what this verse is
talking about. However there is more to
this verse than that as we will see. It
also obviously prohibits flippant, irreverent use of His name. However more than those which are obvious
things, it also forbids any use of God’s name that is superficial, indifferent,
insincere, or hypocritical.
MacArthur
writes: “It has been said that God’s name
is taken in vain more often inside the church than outside. His name is taken in vain whenever it is
mechanically used in repetitious prayers and liturgies, in singing His praise
while having no thought of Him, and in praying thoughtlessly and without
genuine devotion. His name is taken in vain
through empty worship perhaps more than in any other way.”
One
has only to do a casual study of the Old Testament to see that Hypocritical
worship was among the worst offenses of ancient Israel. Isaiah at the very beginning of his book
writes “13 "Bring your worthless
offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the
calling of assemblies — I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn
assembly. 14 “I hate
your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a
burden to Me; I am weary
of bearing them. 15 “So when you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not
listen. Your hands are covered with blood.”
These are some very harsh words that the Lord is instructing Isaiah to
write, and the problem is that they not only apply to that time in Israel’s
history, but also all the way to the current way that Israel worships the
Lord. They were epically bad during the
time that our Lord was on earth and that is what He will be dealing with as we
study these verses.
“16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good;
Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow”
(Isa. 1:16-17). In these verses from
Isaiah he is giving them some things that they were to do in order to be in a
right relationship with God.
MacArthur
writes “Unless the heart of the worshiper is cleansed and purified, he cannot
worship God acceptably, because he cannot worship God honestly and
sincerely. The person with a sinful
heart is opposed to God and it is not possible for him to worship rightly. Isaiah ends his prophecy with much the same
warning as he begins it: ‘"But to
this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who
trembles at My word. 3 "But
he who kills an ox is like one who slays a man; He who sacrifices a lamb
is like the one who breaks a dog’s neck; He who offers a grain offering is
like one who offers swine’s blood; He who burns incense is like the
one who blesses an idol. As they have chosen their own ways, And their
soul delights in their abominations,’ (Isa. 66:2b-3). As they went through the pretensions of
offering sacrifices, the people were not better than criminals and pagans,
because their hearts were not humble and contrite but proud and rebellious.”
I
will take the time to jest quote from Amos 5:21-24 and Malachi 1:6-7 as they
wrote similar things. “21 "I hate,
I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 "Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings
and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even
look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. 23 "Take away from Me the noise of your
songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. 24 “But let justice
roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” “6 "’A son honors his father, and
a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a
master, where is My respect?’ says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who
despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ 7 “You
are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, ‘How have we defiled
You?’ In that you say, ‘The table of the LORD is to be despised.’” It is good to remember that Malachi was
written after Judah returned to their land after being disciplined by the Lord
70 years in Babylon.
In our verses from Matthew we will see that Jesus
preaches the same message as those prophets: hearts that are not right with God
cannot worship Him. In this time period of our Lord’s time on earth he was in
the ending of when He was very popular, after all He had just fed the 5000 and
done many miracles to heal people, but the time is coming very shortly when He
will not be popular and the things He is saying in these chapters will be what
the Pharisees will use to have Him crucified as they don’t like it that He is
going against their teachings, but not too long after the crucifixion of our
Lord, some 27 years that Jerusalem will be destroyed, along with the Temple and
over a million Jews will lose their lives and those left will offer themselves
as slaves but there will be no one to buy them just as it was prophesied.
MacArthur
writes in conclusion to his introduction:
“In the present passage Jesus confronts the Jewish religious system of
His day head-on, showing , above all, the emptiness and worthlessness of its
worship. In doing so, He further
crystallizes the irreconcilable conflict between His gospel and that
system. As the conflicts unfolds, Jesus
is first seen as the compassionate Healer (14:34-36), then as the condemning
Judge 15:1-9), and finally as the correcting Teacher (vv. 10-20).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
I have to remember that in and of my own power that I can do nothing to
please the Lord, as it has to come from the guiding of the Holy Spirit who
lives in me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Spirit of the Lord to lead me in
doing what He has called me to do.
6/30/2022 12:51 PM
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