SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/13/2022 9:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-7 “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!”
I want to begin with the story from William Barclay
as he tells the story of an old man on his deathbed who was terribly distraught. When asked what was bothering him, he
replied, “When we were boys at play, one day at a crossroads we reversed a
signpost, and I’ve never ceased to wonder how many people were sent in the
wrong direction by what we did.” “Such
acts go on all the time in the life of the church” writes John MacArthur, “as
believers send other believers signals that lead them on the road to sin. This is extremely serious. Just how serious is seen in the next verse:”
“Woe
to the world because of its stumbling blocks!” ‘Jesus
went on to warn. “For it is inevitable
that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling
blocks come!’”
“Woe was a word of cursing and
condemnation. The world is under God’s
curse not only because of its own sinfulness but because of the spiritual and
moral stumbling blocks it puts in the paths of His children. There seems to be no end of books, magazines,
movies, TV programs, and commonly accepted practices and attitudes to mislead
and corrupt those who belong to God. The
world is constantly setting sin traps, and its favorite victims are God’s
children.”
We know that this all started in the
Garden of Eden when both Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and this has
made the characteristics of the world fallenness. And because of that it is inevitable that such
stumbling blocks come, and they will continue to come until the Lord comes to
set up His kingdom which will happen after the rapture of the church, where all
true believers will be taken to heaven, and then after that the tribulation
period will come where the entire world will come very close to being
destroyed. Jesus will then return as
seen in Revelation 19 and will stop the Great War called Armageddon, and then
separate the sheep from the goats, the goats being on His left side, the sheep
on His right side. The goats will then
go into a temporary place of punishment along with Satan and his demons and then
the Lord will cause the world to be like it was when He created it. After that the 1000 year promised kingdom
will begin with Jesus sitting on the throne of David in Jerusalem. At the end
of the 1000 years the earth will be destroyed as seen in 1 Peter chapter three,
and then the new heaven and the new earth will be where all true believers will
live for eternity. Jesus will then judge
the unsaved people as seen in Revelation 20:11-15, These who are at the Great White Throne will
be judged by their works, and none of them will be saved, but will be cast into
the lake of fire for all eternity. Okay
back to Matthew 18:6-7.
But woe to that man through whom the
stumbling block comes!” Jesus had
already established the gravity of that offense by declaring it would be better
for those who were guilty to be drown in the sea. They would be better off dead than to lead
one of the Lord’s little ones astray.
Now the Lord adds that such offenses bring judgment from God, and for
the unbelievers we saw what the ultimate judgment from God will be.
MacArthur concludes this long
section with a story: “One of the young
men in our church handicapped ministry came to me one Sunday and said he had
done a bad thing. ‘I got drunk,’ he
explained remorsefully. Upon questioning
him, I discovered that, as a prank, his brother and some friends had forced alcoholic
beverages down his throat until he was drunk.
But the worst tragedy was not his drunkenness but the guilt he was made
to suffer. He thought he was responsible
for becoming drunk and has asked Jesus for forgiveness, but he was so ashamed
that he wondered if the Lord would forgive him.
I assured him that Jesus fully understood and had forgiven him, though,
of course, the guilt was not his at all.
And those who were guilty for his drunkenness and stricken conscience
were in danger of God’s judgment.”
The next section, “The Prevention”
is what we will look at in our next SD and I can assure you it will be much
shorter.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I can say
that there have probably been some mistakes made over the years as I have
written these Spiritual Diaries, but I can also assure you that I would never
want to lead anyone into sin because of what I have written over the many years
that I have been writing these Spiritual Diaries.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to
continue to learn the things that I am to do to better walk with the Lord and
also know the things that I am to trust the Lord in doing for me.
12/13/2022
10:35 AM
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