SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/9/2022 12:33 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Condemnation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
15:3-9
Message of the verses: “3 He answered and
said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of
your tradition? 4 “For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your
mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 5 “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother,
“Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”
— 6 ‘then he need not honor
his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect
by your tradition. 7 “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8
‘These people draw near to Me with their
mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as
doctrines the commandments of men’’” (NKJV).
John MacArthur quotes an ancient rabbi: “There are ten parts of hypocrisy in the
world, nine at Jerusalem and one everywhere else.” “The same might be said of much of the
church. Satan has no greater allies then
hypocrites who go under the guise of God’s people. And hypocrites have no greater ally than
tradition, because tradition can be followed mechanically and thoughtlessly,
without conviction, sincerity, or purity of heart. Because traditions are made by men, they can
be accomplished by men. They require no
faith, no trust, no dependence on God.
Not only that, but they also serve self-interest.”
Let
us look at John 4:24 and then comment on it for a moment: “"God is spirit, and those who worship
Him must worship in spirit and truth.’”
We see in this verse that the only heart that can worship God must be in
spirit and in truth, and so as we looked at what our Lord called hypocrites we
can be sure that they cannot worship God in the way that He requires
worship. Jesus in John 4:24
is speaking of a cleansed heart, cleansed by God through Jesus’ death, burial,
resurrection, and ascension, as that is the only way to have a clean heart is
to accept what Jesus Christ had done for you on the cross. Again this did not happen to these scribes
and Pharisees during Jesus time on earth.
Ezekiel actually spoke of having a clean heart from God. “25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on
you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and
from all your idols. 26 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a
new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and
give you a heart of flesh. 27 “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to
walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (Eze.
36:25-27).
MacArthur
writes “Unless that transformation happens within a person, his righteousness
cannot exceed the hypocritical and superficial righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees—in which case he can never enter the kingdom of God (Matt. 5:20).”
Now
a brief word on tradition: There is
nothing wrong with tradition as such, as many traditions help us to remember,
cherish, and honor things that are noble and beautiful. However when traditions are substituted for,
or in any way distort or distract from God’s Word, they are an offense against
God and a barrier to right worship and living.
The truth is that when the precepts of man are taught as doctrines, then
man’s wisdom is elevated above Gods, and this is at the very root of all sin as
we saw way back in time at the Garden of Eden when Satan tempted Eve and she and Adam fell which effects the entire world that we live in and all the people
who live in this sin-cursed world.
7/9/2022 1:04 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment