SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/22/2022 8:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“More From Matt. 18:1-4
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Matthew 18:1-4
Message of the verses: “1 At that time the
disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of
heaven?" 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and
said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like
children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Whoever then humbles himself
as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
We want to begin by talking about the first
component that is presented for entering the kingdom of God, and that would be
repentance. John the Baptist was the
first person teaching about this in the period between the Old and New
Testament as he said “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” as seen in
Matthew 3:2. Now let us look at what the
Lord started of His ministry with in Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began
to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” This first step for people to enter the
kingdom is, as mentioned repent, as a person first of all has to realize that
they are a sinner, that they are born into sin, and that they need to agree
with God that this is true. I have said
before that when witnessing to a person in order for them to become a believer
that you first have to show to them that they are lost before you can tell them
how to be saved. John MacArthur writes “This
repentance is not a human work but a divine gift that only God can grant (2
Tim. 2:25).” “With gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if
perhaps God may grant them
repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.”
We now move to the second component of faith that
grants entrance to the kingdom is the recognition of spiritual bankruptcy. This component is too a work of God, not man,
because it is the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin as seen in John 16:8-11 “8 "And
He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and
judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and
concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11
and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” In the Beatitudes, they began with a call to
humility, expressed there as poverty of spirit as seen in Matthew 5:3 “"Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” For a person to desire to enter the kingdom
they genuinely need to see themselves as utterly unworthy and undeserving. Their awareness of their sin brings guilt and
frustration over their inadequacy to remove it.
This person knows that they cannot themselves cleanse their sin and that
they have nothing to offer God that could merit forgiveness for it. As we look at Matthew 5:3 we see the term “poor
in spirit,” and the Greek term that is behind that refers to a beggar who has absolutely
no resources of his own. Because the
repentant and bankrupt person is deeply aware of his sin, he will mourn over it
as seen in 5:4; because he has no righteousness of his own, this person will
hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness, as seen in verse 6; and because he
cannot himself cleanse his sin, he then longs for purity of heart as seen in
verse 8, and this can only be provided by God.
Let us look at these verses we have been talking about here in Matthew
chapter five. “3 "Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who
mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall
inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God.
Lord willing we will take a look at the third
component in our next SD.
11/22/2022 9:28 AM
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