SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/10/2023 12:06 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Response by Jesus”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
19:17-19
Message of the verses: “17 And he said to
him, Why are you questioning me about what is good? One there is who is good:
but if you have a desire to go into life, keep the rules of the law. 18 He says
to him, Which? And Jesus said, Do not put anyone to death, Do not be untrue in
married life, Do not take what is not yours, Do not give false witness, 19 Give honour to your father and your mother:
and, Have love for your neighbor as for yourself.”(BBE)
The story that I want to tell probably has been told
by men before, but I actually don’t remember when I told it. At any rate that was a slave owner in the
south who had a slave who knew the Lord and told him about the Lord. The owner wanted to come to the Lord, but the
slave told him that he had to come down and work with him in the muddy fields
wearing his white suit. This went on a
couple of times and every time the owner said that he would not do that but
that he really wanted to know about the peace that this slave had. Finally the day came when the owner told the
slave that he would do that. To his surprise
the slave told him that he did not have to do that for as long as he said that
he would do it that was enough. The
slave owner came to know Jesus Christ.
Sometimes people, like this young man in our verses put something in
front of them that keeps them from coming to know the Lord, something that they
love more, and as we will see what this young man loved more than Jesus was his
money, and unlike the slave owner he refused to give up his money. He had something that he cannot keep and yet
he did not want to give that up.
The
truth is that in churches today that there are many people who give out a false
hope in giving out the gospel, things like just signing a card that shows that
a person has come to the Lord, and yet there is no fruit in the person who
signed the card.
John
MacArthur writes “The gospel is not a means of adding something better to what
one already has, a means of supplementing human effort by divine. Nor is it simply a means of fulfilling
psychological needs, no matter how real and significant they may be. Jesus did not die simply to make people feel
better by relieving their frustrations and anxieties. And relief from such feelings I no certain
evidence of salvation.
“Many
people are simply looking for solutions to their felt needs, but that is not
enough to bring them to legitimate salvation.
Jesus therefore did not offer any relief for the young man’s felt
needs. Instead, He gave an answer
designed to confront him with the fact that he was a living offense to Holy
God. Proper evangelism must lead a
sinner to measure himself against the perfect law of God so he can see his
deficiency Salvation is for those who hate their sin.”
The
young man asked Jesus “Which ones,” referring to which commandments he must
keep in order to have eternal life. He
could have been saying to Jesus “I have read the commandments many times. I memorized them when I was a small boy, and
I have carefully kept them ever since. How could I have missed any? Which ones could You possibly have n mind?
Well
we know that no one has kept perfectly the Ten Commandments and even though
this young man thought he had, he had not!
Now our Lord responded by quoting five of the Ten Commandments as seen
in verse 18b not commit murder, not commit adultery, not steal, not bear false
witness, and to honor your father and mother (See Exodus 10:12-16). He then added the second greatest
commandment: You shall love your
neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18; compare Matt. 22:39).
These
words were very familiar with this young man, but again he missed Jesus’
point. Just as he failed to recognize
that the One to whom he spoke was Himself God who is the source of eternal
life, he also failed to see that those well-known commandments, and all the
other commandments, could provide the life to which they pointed.
MacArthur
writes “The Lord did not mention the first four of the Ten Commandments, which
center on man’s attitude toward God (Ex. 20:3-11), or the first and greatest
commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your might” (Deu. 6:5; cf. Matt. 22:38). Those commandments are even more impossible
to keep than the ones Jesus quoted. The
Lord therefore challenged the young ruler against the least impossible of the
commandments, as if were.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is what is on the inside that counts.
3/10/2023 12:45 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment