SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/12/2022 9:52 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2
“The Principle Stated”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
15:10-11
Message of the verses: “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.’”
Jesus uses a simple illustration that the people
would understand in order to show them the truth that He wants them to
hear. He then explained but what
proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man. The defilement comes from the inside of a
man, not the outside. Now spiritual or
moral contamination can result from what we eat, and this includes the different
foods that the Lord told the Jews that they could not eat earlier when they
came out of Egypt. The reason that He
told them this was what I think are two reasons, and the first may be the most
important, and that is to show other nations that Israel was different as they
followed their God. Next I have heard
that the foods that were on the so-called “hit list” that the Jews could not
eat were really not good for them to eat.
Not sure this applies to us today. MacArthur writes “No spiritual or moral
contamination can result from what we eat.
The physical has no way of defiling the spiritual. ‘Don’t be deceived and misled by the foolish
traditions you have been taught,’ Jesus was saying. ‘The practice of washing your hands before
you eat has nothing to do with making you undefiled. What matters is what is in your heart. It is the evil in the heart, which eventually
proceeds out of the mouth, that defiles the man.’”
The
truth is that none of the Jews should have been shocked at what Jesus was
saying. Think about what He said in the
Sermon on the Mount, as He was teaching new truths but was simply reinforcing
truths that God’s Word had always taught.
Now I want you to think about the story of how David became king of
Israel and how it goes along with what the Lord is talking about as far as what
goes on in the inside of men and what goes on, on the outside of men. When Jesse brought his sons before Samuel,
the prophet thought that Eliab, the eldest, was “surely the Lord’s anointed.” However as we go on in the test of 1 Samuel
16:6-7 we read “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or
at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as
man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the
heart.’” Think about perhaps the mistake
that Samuel was again making as he looked at Eliab and compare it to when Saul
is described earlier on in 1 Samuel and it said that he was a head taller than
all the men of Israel. That did not work
out too good for Israel, but David with a much purer heart did work out good
for Israel. David’s heart was pure as he
followed the Lord. Yes he did sin, but
we all do, but what he did after he sinned showed that his heart was pure as he
would agree with the Lord about his sin, confessing it to Him and seeking
forgiveness because he truly wanted to follow the Lord with all of his heart.
MacArthur
writes “Circumcision was the mark of the covenant given to Abraham, and it was
looked on with the greatest possible reverence by Jews. But even before Israel entered the Promised
Land, God declared through Moses, ‘And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God
require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and
love Him, and serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul, and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statues which I am commanding
you today for your good?...Circumcise then your heart’ (Deut. 10:12-13,
16). The Old Testament repeatedly
declares that the only religious ceremony or activity that pleases God is that
which comes from a contrite, pure, and loving heart (Josh. 24:23; 1 Kings 8:23;
2 Chron. 11:16; Isa. 51:7; 57:15).”
Let
us think about the expression proceeds out of the mouth. This ties closely with the idea of not eating
with unwashed hands. However Jesus was
referring not simply to what a person says, but He was also referring
to what he thinks, and the truth is that God is the only One who can tell what
a person is really thinking and what motive he has in thinking the way he is
thinking. Let us look at a parallel
passage from the book of Mark 7:15 “The things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man, now I have emphasised the word “man” here. A person’s defiled
heart is expressed both in what he says and what he does; but it is the mouth
that is a more dominant revealer of internal pollution, and that is because it
is through our words that hatred, deception, cruelty, blasphemy, and most other
evils are most clearly manifest.
Lord
willing we will continue to look at this subject in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
I am and have been studying about the spiritual armor that is found in
the sixth chapter of Ephesians. I have
been listening to sermons, reading commentaries and trying to use the spiritual
armor that God has provided to me as a believer. Why do I talk about this here? Well the reason is that it can protect me
from things that go on in the inside of me.
How can it do that? Well the
sword of the Spirit is the Word of God and so when evil thoughts come into my
mind I can then think about the Word of God and what it says and then claim
those verses to help me to not have those kinds of thoughts. It involves what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians
5:17 which says “pray without ceasing.”
That is what I have to do when things come into my life that I don’t
want there, and for this to be working in my life I have to know the Word of
God in order to use the Sword of the spirit.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Pray without ceasing.
7/12/2022 11:00 AM
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