SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/10/2022 10:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Intro
to Matt. 16:1-4”
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Matthew 16:1-4
Message of the verses: “And the Pharisees
and Sadducees came up, and testing Him asked Him to show them a sign from
heaven. 2 But He answered and said to them, "When it is evening, you say, ‘It
will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 “And in the morning, ’There
will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how
to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of
the times? 4 “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign
will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah." And He left them, and
went away.”
We begin this morning looking at the fact that the
Old Testament writers also testified to men’s natural spiritual blindness. Psalm 82:5 “They do not know nor do they
understand; They walk
about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are shaken.” The same writer confessed that before he came
to know God he “was senseless and ignorant,…like a beast before Thee” (Ps.
73:22). Proverbs 4:19 tells us “The way
of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know over what they stumble.” In speaking of the sin and rebelliousness of
Israel Jeremiah writes “‘Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people, Who
have eyes but do not see; Who have ears but do not hear.” Micah 4:12 says “12 “But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD,
And they do not understand His purpose; For He has gathered them like sheaves
to the threshing floor.”
John MacArthur writes “Three things contribute to
man’s spiritual blindness. The first is
sin. When God’s own Son came to earth as
the light of the world, ‘men loved the darkness rather than the light; for
their deeds were evil’ (John 3:19). The
second contributor to spiritual blindness is Satan. As ‘the god of this world [he] has blinded
the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God’ (2 Cor. 4:4). The third contributor is God’s sovereign
judgment. When, because of their sin and
their allegiance to Satan, men persistently reject God’s light, He judicially
confirms them in their self-chosen darkness.
Of those in Jerusalem who reject Him, Jesus declared, ‘If you had known
in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes’
(Luke 19:42).”
We
have been talking about the effects of the seven parables that Jesus taught in
Matthew, taught after the nation’s spiritual leaders stated that Jesus’ miracles
were done in the power of Satan, and since then Jesus has been describing the
characteristics of the age between His rejection and His coming again in order
to establish His Millennial kingdom.
These parables that He spoke have presented “the mysteries of the
kingdom,” truths not revealed in the Old Testament but given only to those who
during this age trust in Jesus Christ for Salvation (13:11). MacArthur adds “The singular purpose of those
particular parables was to teach that the mystery time, which has now lasted
some 2000 years, is a time of both belief and unbelief, of receiving and of
rejecting.”
He
goes on to explain “Following the seven parables, Jesus presented eight illustrations (Matt. 13:53-16:12), six of which focus on His rejection and two
of His acceptance. History verifies that
rejection of Jesus has been vastly greater than reception of Him, just as those
parables and illustrations indicate.
“The
gospel accounts make clear that, beginning with the ministry of John the
Baptist, the most vocal and determined rejection of Christ and His gospel was
by the Jewish religious leaders, especially the influential and powerful Pharisees
and Sadducees.
The events of Matthew 16 began just after the Lord
crossed the Sea of Galilee from the Gentile area of Decapolis, where He had
miraculously fed ‘four thousand men, beside women and children,’ and came to
the Jewish ‘region of Magadan,’ on the western shore (Matt. 15:32-39). The exact location of Magadan, which Mark
refers to as Dalmanutha (8:10), is unknown, but Jesus’ opponents came there as
soon as they heard He had arrived.
“In
16:1-4, Matthew records Jesus’ final invitation to those religious leaders; and
by their persistent rejection of Him they confirmed themselves as among the
spiritually blind who steadfastly refuse to see. In this brief passage we see four
characteristics of those whose spiritual blindness will never end: they seek darkness, they curse the light,
they regress still deeper into darkness, and finally they are abandoned by God.”
As
I look at this last paragraph I can see very similar things that are happening
in our country, especially from the radical left who will one day answer for
their spiritual darkness in a way that they do not believe today will ever
happen.
8/10/2022 10:52 AM
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