SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/15/2022 9:27 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-5
“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.’”
In my study of the book of Hebrews for our Sunday
school class I have used mostly John MacArthur and Dr. Warren Wiersbe’s
commentaries and in Hebrews 5:12-6:8 we can see that the author is appealing to
the Jews who were considering the gospel, and even perhaps had taken some
tentative steps toward accepting it. In
order to do this they would have to leave behind their symbols ceremonies and
sacrifices and then come all the way to the living Reality (Jesus Christ) to
whom those symbols pointed to.
I
suppose that after sin first entered into the universe that is when Adam and
Eve first brought sin into the human existence that there has always been a
void, something missing, something needed, and that something was a
relationship with God, something that both Adam and Eve had before the
fall. So from that time and especially
from the time when the Old Covenant was introduced by the Lord people have been
trying to be accepted by God through outside rituals more than inside
righteousness. People try and do it on
their own, and that is impossible. In
rituals there is no change of heart required, no forsaking of sin, and no
repentance before God. It allows a
person to display symbols of religion while holding on to their sins. It is religion of form rather than faith and
is therefore empty and also hypocritical.
John
MacArthur writes “The people of Israel not only failed to appreciate the
spiritual truths pictured by God’s prescribed ceremonies and restrictions, but
they also added their own pictures to God’s.
And the more they multiplied the pictures, the more they trusted in the
pictures and the less they trusted in God.
Instead of pointing them to God, the traditions led them further from
Him. Instead of enhancing faith, the
traditions stifled faith and enhanced self-reliance and self-righteousness. Therefore, when God’s perfect Reality came to
earth, His people were so enmeshed in their traditions and so far from His
Word, that they crucified God incarnate.”
I
have mentioned that after I became a believer that from time to time I had
opportunities to witness to people where I was working at. Many of the people were catholic and in some
ways similar to who the author was writing to in the book of Hebrews. Similar but not exactly the same, but both
just wanting to do things on their own and not having it done for them in
changing from the inside, and so in my speaking to them about the truth that I
had learned the response that I got was I will not change my “religion” I will
die a catholic, and I suppose that is what they all did. I had the opportunity to message one of the
sons of this family who was actually suffering with cancer. He told me that all of this family that I worked
with had since died. I messaged to him
about the Lord and got the same answer that all those who had died gave me when
I was working with them, I have my religion and I will die with it and not
change. What the catholic “religion” and
Judaism have in common is it is a works religion, it has to do with working
your way to heaven by doing what is suppose to be “good works.”
We
will conclude this section with a quotation from John MacArthur and then from
the Apostle Paul who is writing to Timothy.
“The
matter of externals was so deeply ingrained in Jewish thinking that even Jewish
believers in the early church often had great difficulty forsaking them. Several years after Pentecost, Peter still
could not accept the idea that all foods were now clean. It required a special vision from God,
instruction repeated three times, and a special demonstration of the work of
the Holy Spirit to convince Him that both all foods and all people cleansed by
God are acceptable too him (see Acts 10:1-33).
Even years after that experience, Peter slipped back into his old
mind-set and for a while ‘began to withdraw and hold himself aloof [from
Gentiles], fearing the party of the circumcision’ (Gal. 2:12).”
Now
we will look at Paul’s warring:
“1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some
will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and
doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the
hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, 3 men who forbid marriage and advocate
abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by
those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good,
and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; 5 for it is
sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:1-5).
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Perhaps we are in this period that Paul is
writing to Timothy about and that means that first of all we are close to the
return of Christ at the rapture and second I have to continue to witness to the
lost as the Spirit of God brings them onto my path.
My Steps of Faith for Today: “always being ready to make a defense
to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness
and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15b).
7/15/2022 10:07 AM
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