SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/7/2022 9:35 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Peril”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
18:6-7
Message of the verses: “6 but whoever
causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for
him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in
the depth of the sea.
7 "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it
is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the
stumbling block comes!
We just spent two days looking at the “Principle”
from verse five, the good side, and not we must take some time to look at the
negative side of the previously mentioned truth. When a person mistreats a fellow believer he
is in effect mistreating Jesus Christ.
This principle applies to believers and unbelievers alike. It makes little difference as to whether or
not the person who is doing the mistreating to a believer, whether a believer
is doing this or an unbeliever they are doing it to Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you that the disciples
at this time were not living the way that they were supposed to be living, and
also in the larger section that I believe goes back to chapter 17 Jesus is
taking time to minister to His disciples and not to others as Jesus was
teaching them things that they will need to know after He has left them and
going back to the Father.
Jesus here is speaking of moral and
spiritual stumbling, that is of sinning, which is what the disciples were
doing. MacArthur writes “The verb (scandalized) to stumble literally means ‘to
cause to fall,’ and the Lord is therefore speaking of enticing, trapping, or
influencing a believer in any way that leads him into sin or in any way makes
it easier for him to sin. A person who
is responsible for causing a Christian to sin commits an offense against Christ
Himself as well as against the Christian.
“In the most vivid and sobering
language indicating the seriousness of such an act against one of God’s
children, Jesus declared that a person who does such a thing would be better off
dying a terrible death. It would be better
for him, in fact that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be
drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Now the millstone that Jesus is
referring it the kind of millstone that was pulled by an animal in order to
grind wheat, actually the kind of millstone that Samson was pulling as seen in
the story of Samson found in the book of Judges. The word translates mulos onikos as this is a very heavy grinding stone. It was the practice of the Romans as they
would do exactly what Jesus describes in verse six as they would use this as a
form of execution. This was a horrible kind
of execution that is drowning a person something that the Jews would never
practice. Jesus said of this horrible
execution method that it would be better to have done to a person who causes a
believer to fall into sin.
As I mentioned this statement that
Jesus made must have been especially sobering to the disciples as they were
just talking about which of them who would be the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven. This dispute doubtlessly caused
everyone’s anger and resentment to rise, as one after the other gave their
reasons he was due the honor. The twelve
were not only sinning because of their own pride and boasting but also because
they were inciting each other to envy, jealously, and anger.
Now when a person confess the fact
that he is a sinner and then realizes that the only way to have forgiveness of their
sins is to invite the Lord Jesus into their hearts, realizing that on their own
they could do nothing to have their sins forgive, but that they then realize
what it was that Jesus had done for them on the cross, dying in their place and
then crediting this person with His own righteousness. This is called the great exchange as the Lord
paid for their sin and exchanged righteousness for them. Now with this stated the person becomes a
child of God, and think about how parents would do most anything for their
parents to protect them from harm, and so God the Father does this for His own
children. 2Co 5:21 He
made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our
behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. This is the “great exchange” verse that I am
speaking of.
In the book of Zachariah we read in
2:8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, "After glory He has sent me against
the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.” Notice the highlighted portion of this
verse. The apple of His eye here is
speaking of the children of Israel, and the apple of the eye is the pupil of
the eye, the most delicate and sensitive expose part of the body, the eye. No one wants to receive a poke in the eye as
this can cause blindness or being miserable and so God is saying through Zachariah
that His children are most precious to Him and to leave them alone. In conclusion it is not good to poke the eye
of our Lord, and this is what a person is doing when they cause a believer to
fall into sin.
Lord willing we will begin our next
SD by talking about false teachers.
12/7/2022 10:17
AM
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