PT-1c "The Principle" (Matt. 21:20-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/30/2023 8:48 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  PT-1c “The Principle”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 21:20-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, "How did the fig tree wither all at once?" 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.’”

 

            Today will be the last day at looking at these very wonderful verses on prayer.  I hope that all who read them will now better understand more about prayer.  I will continue to quote from John MacArthur’s sermon on these verses.

 

            “And I’m committed in my own heart to a greater commitment to the life of prayer and less involvement in trying to think up better ways to do things. And when I see a problem that I can’t solve, instead of running up the street and trying to get the next best counselor that I can find in line to help the person, to take the person to prayer and let God do the things that He wants to do through His own power. And maybe we’d be a greater help to each other if we spent more time in prayer than more time in giving advice.

            “Verse 22 is a dynamic verse. You ought to put a circle around it in your Bible and see if it is being applied in your life. I mean when’s the last time you saw some mountain moved into the sea because you didn’t doubt God but you persisted in prayer?

            “Well, a very dramatic event. Jesus is the King, and the King does what the King wants to do because He’s the King. And what He wants to do is show to Israel the nature of His kingliness, and it isn’t political, and it isn’t social, and it isn’t military. First of all, it’s spiritual.

            “And so, He does what must be done: He cleanses the temple; He curses the tree. And He says to them, “Your religion is corrupt, and your nation is corrupt, and they are doomed to judgment. Sad day. He laid the ax at the root of the tree, and He did it because there was nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves.

            “Somebody wrote, “Nothing but leaves; the spirit grieves/Over a wasted life/Or sins committed while conscience slept/Promises made, but never kept/Hatred, battle, and strife/Nothing but leaves!/Nothing but leaves; no garnered sheaves/Of life’s fair, ripened grain/Words, idle words, for earnest deeds/We so our seeds – lo! tares and weeds/We reap, with toil and pain/Nothing but leaves!/Nothing but leaves; memory weaves/No veil to hide the past/As we retrace our weary way/Counting each lost and misspent day/We find, sadly, at last/Nothing but leaves!/And shall we meet the Master so/Bearing our withered leaves?/The Savior looks for perfect fruit/We stand before Him, humbled, mute/Waiting the words He breathes/’Nothing but leaves?’”

            “I trust you examine your own heart in that regard. And if you find, in fact, that you are one of His own, and there is fruit there, may it be that it’s the fruit of persistent prayer, and that you learn the lesson those disciples needed to learn, that all the power the Lord had, when He cursed the tree, and more is available to the one who calls upon Him in faith. And may we go to prayer on behalf of each other and the purposes of our Lord and His glorious kingdom. Let’s pray.

            “Lord, if there are some in our fellowship – and we know there are – who have nothing but leaves, whose lives are devoid of fruit, who shall meet the Master, bearing their withered leaves while He looks for perfect fruit, and stand before Him humbled, mute, waiting the words He breathes, “Nothing but leaves?”

            “Oh, God for those we pray; save them. Infuse into the deadness of their life Thy living power through Christ, that they may bear fruit and not be cut down and cast into the fire like so many Judas branches.

            “And then, Lord, for those of us who are fruit-bearing Christians, but who have never really been faithful to persistent prayer and therefore never seeing Your power the way we could see it, call us, O God, by Your Spirit to a more faithful prayer life, through greater diligence.

            “And may we not eliminate the power that is ours through prayer by reasoning away things, by developing a theology which says, “You’re going to do what You’re doing to do anyway, so why bother?” But, O God, may we leave the resolution of things that we can’t understand to you. And may we obey what we do here and understand. And may we pray for mountains to be cast into seas. And may we accept the fact that all things, whatever we ask believing, we shall receive - in prayer, we can experience, as we pray in Your name; consistent with Your will, Your purpose, Your Son and with persistent faith. O God, we pray that You release Your power in this place, in our lives, in this church and around the world because we’ve become people of persistent prayer. Work in every heart this day. We’ll praise you in Christ’s name, amen.”

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I certainly do not want to eliminate the power that is mine through prayer, and to be better in my prayer life.

My Steps of Faith for Today:   I desire to move mountains through my prayer life.  I have three people that I am praying for that the Spirit of God will be working in their lives in order to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

6/30/2023 9:05 AM

 

PT-1b "The Principle" (Matt. 21:20-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/29/2023 9:38 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  PT-1b “The Principle”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 21:20-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?" 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen. 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.’”

 

            I want to continue to look at the sermon that John MacArthur preached on this section of Scripture in today’s SD.

 

            “But as we ask consistent with God’s revelation of Himself, consistent with the name of Jesus Christ and His purpose, consistent in an unselfish way to the glory of God, we can know we’ll receive it.

            “This is similar to John – to Matthew 17:20. Turn back for a moment. The disciples came back; they couldn’t do a miracle they wanted to do. He said, “You couldn’t do it because of your unbelief. You couldn’t do it because of your unbelief. If you just had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you’d say to the mountain, ‘Move from here to yonder place,’ and it would move, and nothing would be impossible. You didn’t have enough faith. You should have had the faith of a grain of mustard seed.”

            “You say, “Now wait a minute. Faith of a grain of mustard seed, that’s the smallest seed there is.”

            “Well, yes, but that’s – that’s not talking about small faith. The faith of a grain of mustard seed is this. A mustard seed’s a small seed that produces – what? – a very large bush. And the idea is if you have faith that starts small but gets larger and larger and larger and larger, you’re going to see God work in power. That’s what He’s saying.

            “So, you start out small, and if it doesn’t happen, you don’t say, “Well, I give up. I asked the Lord to do it, and He didn’t do it.” But your faith grows and strengthens and strengthens and strengthens. It’s like the same kind of faith that is illustrated to us in the Gospel of Luke chapter 11, the Gospel of Luke chapter 18, both of which give us the stories of persistent – persistent people where the guy gets his answer because he knocks, and knocks, and knocks, and knocks, and knocks; and where the lady gets her response because she begs, and begs, and begs, and begs.

            “In other words, the Lord is saying if you believe in God enough to be persistent in your prayers, and to start out small and keep praying, and keep praying, and keep praying; let that faith strengthen, and strengthen, and strengthen, then God’s going to respond to that.

            “Now, some people will always come along and say, “Oh, well, but God’s going to do what He’s going to do anyway. And what about God’s sovereignty? And we can’t ask for stuff that’s out of His will, and how does He know if He wants to do it?” So forth and so on.

            “And you can get all tangled up in the sovereignty of God, and then you can make your prayer life literally impotent. I don’t understand those relationships any more than I understand the fact that I must come to Christ for salvation, and yet it’s all of His sovereignty.

            “There are paradoxes in the Bible that I don’t understand. And I know God has a sovereign will, and I know God answers prayer sovereignly. And I know God is in charge of everything, and I know He does exactly what He wants to do, but I also know the Bible says that I’m supposed to pray persistently; and I’m supposed to pray faithfully; and I’m supposed to pray, believing that what God says is what God wants, and what God says He’s able to do is, in fact, what He is able to do. And if my faith will grow, and grow, and persist, and persist, and persist, I’ll see the power of God.

            “And some of you are not seeing God work in your life simply because there’s no persistence in your prayer; there’s no continuance in your prayer; there’s no strengthening. You don’t get an answer, so you quit. And it’s not mustard seed; it’s something else. Mustard seed starts small, gets big.

            “Boy, when I see a verse like 22 of Matthew 21, “All things whatever you shall ask in prayer, believing you shall receive,” that’s a pretty dynamite promise, folks. And if you understand that that means all things in the will of God, it doesn’t hurt it, it just makes it all the better. Right? Because what do you want? You only want what God wills. Right? I want whatever God wants for me. I want the best that God wants for me. I want the best that God wants for you. I want the best that God wants for this church. I want the best that God wants for this ministry, whatever it is. I want that. With all my heart I want that. And here the Lord says, “If you really believe God wants that and God can do that, then let’s see the exercise of your faith in persistence. And some of us have not received the blessing of God in our lives simply because we have not persisted in prayer.

            “Now, my job is not to harmonize all of that with God’s sovereignty. God does that part. I can’t do that, but my job is to respond in faith and simple trust to the confident statement of verse 22, that if I ask in prayer, believing that God will do what He will do and is able to do what He says He will do, that I’ll see His power. I just – I get tired of impotence. I get – I’m weary of a church without power. I’m weary of a life without power. I’m weary of people without power. I’m weary of not seeing the hand of God in an almighty way. I want God to be at work, and I know that the plan here is given very clearly if we ask in prayer, not doubting. And, you know, a lot of folks start their prayer – oh, great faith – and they don’t get an answer in the next 24 hours, and… phist. That’s not mustard seed; that’s not getting stronger, and bigger, and larger. You keep pursuing, keep persisting, keep knocking, keep crying out.

            “Christ, when He prayed in the garden, cried out to the point where He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood because of the soul anguish that was poured out in His prayer. We throw superficial, shallow, little prayers at God that are so trite, lack so much intensity and so much passion that they dishonor God by even being offered. We think that God builds His Church by better programs. We think God builds His Church by better plans, by better ideas, and we fail to realize that where God really wants to reveal His power is through persistent prayers of His people.”

            It looks like I will need one more SD to finish the quotation of this sermon.

6/29/2023 9:55 AM

 

 

 

PT -1a "The Principle" (Matt. 21:20-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/28/2023 8:18 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                       Focus:  “The Principle”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 21:20-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?" 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen. 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.’”

 

            I have mentioned that I will be quoting from John MacArthur’s sermon on what he entitles “The Principle” from verses 20-22 in this and probably in the next SD as well as it is very long.

 

            “The first principle, we could say, is the obvious truth that profession without reality is cursed. That was something they must have learned from this, that it doesn’t do any good to profess to be religious if there’s no fruit. That’s a profound lesson. And while it is a national illustration in the parable, it certainly has individual implications. And I warn you that if you’re life is a life of leaves without fruit, you are cursed and doomed just like the nation Israel was. God’s going to judge the religious. God is going to damn to eternal hell those people who have had a show of religion without the truth. That is the first principle.

            “And so, if you are living a lie, if you are masquerading as one who is religious, but there’s no fruit in your life, you’re damned; you’re cursed. But there’s a lesson that He wants to give to His disciples. There’s a principle that they need, too. And so, He takes this illustration, and He turns it to a spiritual principle for them. And the principle I want you to see because He points it out is in verses 21 and 22. “Jesus answered and said unto them” – now He turns to His disciples - “‘Verily’” – and this is here for emphasis, to affirm the certainty of what He said - “‘I say to you, if you have faith and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if shall say to this mountain, “Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea,” it shall be done.’” Stop there.

            “You say, “Well, that doesn’t seem to be connected with the lesson. Well, it isn’t really connected with the lesson of the parable, but it’s connected with their response to the lesson. Their response to the lesson’s in verse 20. They were amazed. “And they marveled” – it says in verse 20. “How soon is the fig tree withered away,” they said. Boy, how fast that thing died. What power. Right? That’s what they’re saying. What power. I mean He cursed that thing, and I was dead. What power.

            “So, He says to them, “Let me tell you something, men. If you have faith and don’t doubt, you’ll not only be able to do things like that, but you could say to this mountain” – and that would no doubt refer to the Mount of Olives – “‘Be cast into the sea’” – and the sea that was on the backside of that would have been the Dead Sea, 4,000 feet down – “You could say to this mountain, ‘Dump yourself into that sea,’ and it would be done.”

            “Now, obviously that’s not literal; that’s a picture of power. I don’t know if you know it, but in Jewish literature, a rooter up of mountains was a metaphor for a great spiritual leader. It’s in the Babylonian Talmud that they call the great rabbis “rooter up of mountains.” In other words, people who could remove great obstacles, people who could solve great problems, people who express great power. Rooting up mountains became a metaphor for dealing with difficulty, dealing with impossible situations.

            “And the Lord is saying, “Look, I want you to know that You have this power. And this power’s available to you through faith. If you would believe and not doubt, you can see God’s power.” It’s like – recorded in the Gospel of John in the upper room, when the Lord said to them, “Greater works shall these – than these shall you do, because I go to My Father.” In other words, there’s great power available.

            “John 14, He says, “Whatever you ask in My name, I’ll do it.” And in verse 22, He sums it up by saying, “All things whatever you shall ask in prayer believing you shall receive.” This is a tremendous thing.

            “They’re saying, “Lord, what power. You wish that tree dead, and it was dead.”

            “And He says, “You’ve got the same power available. You’ve got the same power.” And He turns it into a lesson about prayer for them, that you can see the same power working if you believe.

            “Now, let me tell you what He means by this. Faith is not faith in nothing, and faith is not faith in things that you think ought to be, and faith is not faith in you or your ideas or your dreams or your ambitions. Faith is placing your confidence in God. All right?

            “So, when it says “if you have faith,” it doesn’t mean nebulous, “Well, I believe in believing. Well, I believe, because I believe.” Faith is placing confidence in something you know that is true. It is believing in God as God has revealed Himself.

            “So to say, “If you have faith and doubt not,” is to say that God is able and will do what He says He will do, then you can see it done. Okay? In other words, the faith that we must have in prayer is not faith in our ideas. It’s not saying, “Well, you know, I’d like to have that, and if I have enough faith, I’ll get it.” No, no, no. That’s that ridiculous stuff that you hear being propagated today, “Well, if you have enough faith, you can have everything.”

            “I heard about a pastor yesterday who claimed a whole piece of property for his church. And he told his people, “If you have the faith to do it and just claim it, it’s positive confession faith. You claim it; it’s yours.” And he claimed it, and it fell through. And this is his whole message constantly to his people. So, how is he going to recover from that? So he says, “Well, we had one guy on our board that didn’t have the faith, and he blew the whole thing.”

            “That isn’t what He’s talking about. Having faith is trusting in the revelation of God. In other words, if I know that something is consistent with God’s mind, if I know it is consistent with His will, if I know it is consistent with His purpose, if I know it is consistent with His desire, then I believe that, and I can see that come to pass. It is faith in God as God is and God as God has revealed Himself to be.

            “And how is that appropriated? Verse 22 – by prayer. Our faith is activated in petition. Petition. “And as we ask in prayer, believing, we receive.” Oh, not that we may consume it on our lusts, because James 4:3 says we won’t get those kind of things. Not because it’s our will, but because 1 John 5:14 and 15 says it has to be His will. Not because we ask in our name, because John 14:13 and 14 says it has to be in Christ’s name.”

            I really don’t want to get too many words on a single SD so I will stop here and do the rest of it on my next SD.

6/28/2023 8:30 AM

 

 

PT-5 "The Principle" (Matt. 21:20-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/27/2023 11:17 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-5 “The Principle”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 21:20-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?" 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen. 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.’”

 

            I have to say that the Lord seems to be talking to me about prayer because of what is in this section, and also I just heard a sermon on prayer, and also in our devotionals that I ‘m using in our Sunday school class since February have been on the prayers of Daniel and on what is called the “Lord’s Prayer” which is actually the disciples prayer in Matthew chapter six.  Prayer has always been a very important part of my walk with the Lord, and I am always thrilled to learn more about it.

 

            John MacArthur writes the following:  “Whatever our finite minds may lead us to think, there is no inconsistency between God’s sovereignty and man’s faith, because God’s Word clearly teaches both.  It is not the believer’s responsibility to fathom God’s inscrutable ways but to obediently follow His clear teaching.  Persistent prayer that is believing God’s Word cannot be inconsistent with the operation of God’s own sovereign will, because in His sovereign wisdom and grace He commands such prayer and obligates Himself to honor it.”

 

            I believe that when we pray to the Lord seeking His will for our lives that as long as we are in fellowship with the Lord that He will then put upon our hearts the things He wants us to pray for, things that are in His will for us.  To have these prayers answered they must be in the will of God for us. 

 

            MacArthur adds “God’s will for His children does not, of course, always involve things that are pleasant to the flesh or the things one might naturally prefer, His will for His children includes their willingness to sacrifice, suffer, and die for Him if necessary.  For the believer who seeks God’s will, it is never a matter of succeeding or failing, of prosperity or poverty, of living or dying, but simply of being faithful (see 1 Cor. 4:2). Therefore Paul declares, ‘If we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s (Rom. 14:8).”

 

            I think that there is little doubt that the church in most places of the world, especially in our own country is impotent, and that is because so many Christians are impotent.  The reason that Christians are impotent is because they are not persistent in praying for what God wants, believing He will provide it. It is God’s desire that His children ask and keep asking, to seek and keep seeking, to knock and keep knocking, and it is through that persistence that He promises to bless.  God guarantees that they will always receive, always find, and always have the door opened to them as seen in Matthew 7:7 “"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

 

            “God does not build His church or build up His people by better ideas, better programs, or better methods, although such things can have a place in His work. God promises to truly reveal His power only through faith believers who, in persistent prayer, seek only His will.”

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my desire to continue to do a better job in my prayer life, to seek the things that God desires for me to do and then to do them.  I want to be a part of what the Lord tells us to do in His Great Commission.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to pray for three people who I have been praying for specifically for to be saved.

 

6/27/2023 12:28 PM

PT-4 "The Principle" (Matt. 21:20-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/26/2023 9:52 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-4 “The Principle”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 21:20-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?" 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen. 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.’”

 

            I want to begin this SD by talking about an earlier time in the life of Christ and His disciples.  It was when the Lord along with Peter, James, and John were up on the mount of Transfiguration, and while they were up there the other disciples were confronting a young boy who had a demon, and they could not cast the demon out.  Jesus said to them “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you’ (Matt. 17:20).  John MacArthur writes “Jesus was not commending small faith.  It was the littleness of the disciples’ faith that prevented their success in casting out the demon.  He rebuked them for having small faith that stayed small, but exhorted them to have faith that though it begins small, continues to grow.  The point of the mustard seed illustration is not in its smallness but in its growing from smallness to greatness.  In the same way, the virtue of mountain-moving faith is its growth from smallness to greatness as God blesses and provides.”

 

            I suppose that this is something that I may have learned earlier in my walk with the Lord, but to be honest I don’t remember these points that MacArthur has made about the mustard seed growing into something large, which is what my faith should be doing as I walk with the Lord.

 

            This kind of mountain-moving faith is activated by sincere petition to God as seen in verse 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.’”  The parables of the friend who asked his neighbor for a favor at midnight and of the widow who petitioned the unrighteous judge as seen in Luke 11:5-8; 18:1-8 both teach the importance of persistent prayer.  Persistent prayer is the prayer that moves mountains, because it is truly believing prayer.  There are some who are believers who think that if they pray to the Lord for something, that it should be answered right away, but that usually does not happen.  I have been praying for some friends of mine that I use to hang around with 50 years ago and earlier this spring I had an opportunity to get together with some of them, and this encourages me that the Lord will answer my prayers that He will save them. I have to say that fifty years to me is not but a moment to God.

 

            I think that I will try and finish this section in my next SD, and then I want to take at least one more SD to quote from the sermon that John MacArthur preached on this section, the section about the (“Principle) after I finish with this last SD.  He always has more to say in his sermons than that is written in his commentaries.

 

6/26/2023 10:14 AM

 

 

 

           

PT-3 "The Principle" (Matt. 21:20-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/25/2023 6:56 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-3 “The Principle”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 21:20-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?" 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen. 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.’”

 

            Yesterday while taking my walk I listened again to the sermon from John MacArthur that goes along with the verses we have been looking at over the past week or so, and I have to say that there is a lot more info in the sermon than in the commentary that he wrote on these verses, and so what I think that I am going to do is after I finish looking at things from the commentary that I will then take a couple of days to quote from MacArthur’s sermon where he is talking about these particular verses.  I have been saying that these verses that we are now looking at are very, very important to understand as we walk daily with the Lord.

 

            I think that having faith as some people say that they have faith is very misleading.  I remember when I was working at my job at The Cleveland Casting Plant that I, along with several other people were up on the roof inside what could be described as a chimney replacing some firebrick.  The subject of faith came up and one of the men who were working with me was talking about faith in the platform we were standing on to be able to hold us up.  That is not the kind of faith that Jesus is talking about here.  Faith has to have an object, and in this case the object was faith in the Lord.  Faith in faith is something that is unbiblical and very foolish.  James talks about faith in James 4:3 where he writes “because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”  John writes in 1 John 5:14 “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”  MacArthur adds “Mountain-moving faith is unselfish, undoubting, and unqualified confidence in God.  It is believing in God’s truth and God’s power while seeking to do God’s will.  The measure of such faith is the sincere and single desire that, as Jesus said, ‘the Father may be glorified in the Son.’”

 

            True faith is trusting in the revelation of God, and so it is that when a believer seeks something that is consistent with God’s Word and then trusts in God’s power to provide it, Jesus assures him that his request will be honored, and the reason is because it honors Him and His Father.  “When God’s commands are obeyed He will honor that obedience, and when any request is asked in faith according to His will He will provide what is sought.  To do what God says is to do what God wants and to receive what God promises,” writes MacArthur.

 

            I will stop now as I have to teach Sunday school this morning, something that I have not done since sometime in early February.  I begin today to teach through the book of Zechariah, and I look forward to the challenge that is ahead of me trusting the Lord to give me insight to make the mysteries of Zechariah to be understood.  6/25/2023 7:16 AM 

PT-2 "The Principle" (Matt. 21:20-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/24/2023 9:50 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-2 “The Principle”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 21:20-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?" 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen. 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.’”

 

            In our last SD we began this section of “The Principle” in which Jesus teaches His disciples, and those of us who read this what the principle of His cursing the fig tree was all about.  MacArthur writes “The Lord took the opportunity to teach them about the power of faith joined to the purpose and will of God, which can do far more than instantly wither a fig tree.”  Yes I ended with that quote in our last SD, but thought it would be a good place to begin this one.

 

            It was in response to their bewilderment Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen.”

 

            I mentioned in our last SD that there are people who read this and think that God is obligated to answer their prayers on the basis of these verses.  John MacArthur writes “Jesus obviously was speaking figuratively He never used His own power, nor did the apostles ever use the miraculous powers He gave them, to perform spectacular but useless supernatural feats.  It was precisely that sort of grandiose demonstration that He refused to give to the unbelieving scribes and Pharisees who wanted to see a sign from Him (Matt. 12:38).  Jesus had already performed countless miracles of healing, many of which they probably had witnessed.  And He performed many more such miracles that they could easily have witnessed.  But the sign they wanted was on a grand scale, one in which fire would come down from heaven or the sun would stand still as it had for Joshua.  The literal casting of a mountain…into the sea would have been just the sort of sign the scribes and Pharisees wanted to see but were never shown.

 

            “The phrase ‘rooter up of mountains’ was a metaphor commonly used in Jewish literature of a great teacher or spiritual leader.  In the Babylonian Talmud, for example, the great rabbis are called ‘rooters up of mountains.’  Such people could solve great problems and seemingly do the impossible.”

 

            This is the idea that Jesus had in mind I think that He was saying “I want you to know that you have unimaginable power available to you through your faith in Me.  If you sincerely believe, without doubting, it shall happen, and you will see great powers of God at work.”  Here is what the Lord said to His disciples at the Last Supper:  “Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14).  The requirement for receiving is to ask in Jesus’ name, that is, according to His purpose and His will.”  This is very important to remember when a believer is praying, and the more that a person studies the Bible, the better they will understand that praying in the will of the Son is not just asking for things that are not in His will, as you will better understand the things that are in the will of the Lord.  Also things may not happen right away, but if it is the will of the Lord then you are praying in the right way.

 

6/24/2023 10:31 AM

 

           

PT-1 "The Principle" (Matt. 21:20-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/23/2023 10:58 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  PT-1 “The Principle”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                               Reference:  Matt. 21:20-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, "How did the fig tree wither all at once?" 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.’”

 

            I have to think that it is best for all of us to remember what the focus is as we look at these three verses, and that is “The Principle.”  I think that perhaps these verses have been misunderstood therefore causing disappointment to happen when they are misunderstood.

 

            I have written about the difference between how Matthew writes about this section and how Mark writes about it so I won’t go into that again except quote Mark 11:20 “20  As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.”  Now back to how Matthew writes about this, “the disciples were amazed and asked, "How did the fig tree wither all at once?"  I don’t think that anyone would think that what Jesus did to this tree was something that normally happens to a tree when it dies.  It takes a long time for a tree to wither like this one did.  For this fig tree to wither overnight was to do so virtually at once.  I would have to put this in the category of a miracle, but not one that was a good miracle like Jesus usually performed.

 

            It was at this point that the Lord moved from the visual parable of the fig tree to another truth He wanted to teach His disciples.  Jesus was always teaching His disciples something in order for when He went back to heaven that the Holy Spirit would then bring these many teachings back into the minds of the disciples so that some of them could write about.  I have to think about the book of Revelation and when John wrote it, which was probably about ninety years after the Lord had gone back to heaven, yet the Holy Spirit; the author of all Scripture would remind John of things that He wanted him to write about.  This was true of the gospel of John and John’s epistles that he wrote as they were all written many years after Jesus went back to heaven.  Ok back on track now.  “The principle taught in the parable was that religious profession without spiritual reality is an abomination to God and is curses” writes John MacArthur.  He goes on “The principle Jesus was now about to teach related to the disciples’ marveling about how quickly the fig tree withered.  They knew why it withered, because they heard Jesus curse it’ they just could not understand how it could wither so fast.  The Lord took the opportunity to teach them about the power of faith joined to the purpose and will of God, which can do far more than instantly wither a fig tree.” 

 

            I saw the following quote from Dr. David Jeremiah on Face Book this morning.  He writes “God often uses faithfulness in small tasks to prepare us for bigger ones.”  He then writes “Thank God today that He is always preparing you for what He has in store for you next. As the Lord sees us faithful in the small, He will assign more work to be rendered with joy and done for His glory.”  I think that I can compare this quote with what Jesus was teaching His disciples in our verses from Matthew.

 

Lord willing we will pick up on this in our next SD.

 

6/23/2023 11:30 AM

 

 

PT-3 "The Parable" (Matt. 21:19b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/22/2023 8:53 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                Focus:  PT-3 “The Parable”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Matthew 221:19b

 

            Message of the verse:  “and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.”  And at once the fig tree withered.”

 

            We have been talking about the fig tree that Jesus cursed and have stated that it represented the nation of Israel.  Jesus is coming to the end of His three years of ministering to the children of Israel, and the truth is that very few have believed that He is their Messiah.  This was something that the prophets spoke about, even Moses wrote about this in the 28^th chapter of Deuteronomy.  It was through Isaiah, the Lord reminded Israel that He had nurtured and cared for her like a man who plants a vineyard in the best of soil and gives it the best of care and protection.  The problem was that this vineyard produced nothing but worthless fruit, and the man declared that he would remove its protective hedges and walls, let it be laid waste and become chocked out by briars and thorns.  He would not even allow it to receive rain.  The prophet explains “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His delightful plant.  Thus He looked for justice, and behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress” (Isaiah 5:1-7).  After that a long series of woes, or curses, describing the calamities God’s people would suffer because of their  unfaithfulness and spiritual barrenness (verse 8-30).

 

            Even thought Israel has been back in their land since May of 1948 they are still under God’s curse, preserved but unblessed.  The nation of Israel is preserved because God will yet redeem them in the final days and this because of His promise, but they are unblessed because they continue to reject their Messiah.  John 1:1 tells us He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.”  The people of Israel would not have Him as Savior to deliver them from sin or as Lord to rule them in righteousness.

 

            Even though, as stated, Israel became a nation in 1948, and then in 1967 they fought a war and ended up capturing the city of Jerusalem, they have not yet been regathered receptively, because that will be the doing of the Messiah when He comes to them again to set up His kingdom, and His second coming is found in the 19^th chapter of Revelation, and at that time the “times of the Gentiles” will end.

 

            I think that this is a shame that even though they are back in the Promised Land that their eyes are still blind to the truth that Jesus Christ is indeed their promised Messiah.  The seven year tribulation period is mostly about the Jews, but it does affect all people.  In one of the last plagues that are seen in the book of Revelation we see that after Jerusalem is attacked that there will be many Jewish people who will believe that Jesus is their Messiah,  whereas in the previous plagues they would curse God.

 

            All I can say is that God is continuing to work a work to prepare Israel to realize that Jesus Christ is their Messiah, and so after the seven years of the Tribulation Period, the Lord will return and reshape the earth and then enter into the Millennial Kingdom and will reign from the rebuilt city of Jerusalem and this will be the promised kingdom for Israel.

 

            MacArthur concludes this section by writing:  “Israel will not be destroyed, because God protects her.  But neither is she being blessed, because she will not have Him as her God.  No one comes to God the Father who does not come through God the Son (John 14:6), and because Israel will not claim the Son, she has no claim of the Father.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I trust the Lord because He is in control and all things are working out for good even though at times I really don’t see that.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Praying for the believers in Singapore, and for three lost friends of mine for them to become believers.

 

6/22/2023 9:30 AM  

PT-2 "The Parable" (Matt. 21:19b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/21/2023 9:24 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                Focus:  PT-1 “The Parable”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 21:19b

 

            Message of the verse:  “and He said to it, ‘No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.”  And at once the fig tree withered.”

 

            I have to say that as I was writing this partial verse out that I was wondering if Christ ever spoke to anything like a fig tree before. Perhaps when He calmed the sea He may have talked to the storm, after all Jesus is in control of  everything on this earth and. So when He talks to things like fig trees and storms they will immediately listen to Him, and obey Him, unlike mankind who for the most part don’t listen to Him.

 

            Jesus had earlier used a fig tree as an illustration of a barren one in a parable that He had spoken earlier.  The parable comes from Luke 13:6-9 “6 And He began telling this parable: "A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. 7 “And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ 8 “And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9  and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’"  This parable speaks of God’s patience before giving out judgment.  MacArthur adds “Our Lord makes no specific comparison of that three years to the three years of His ministry, but it was three years after Jesus first presented Himself to Israel as her Messiah that the people declared their final rejection of Him by putting Him to death.”

 

            The curse of the fig tree in our verse in Matthew will be fulfilled some forty years later in 70 A. D. when Jerusalem and the Temple in it will be destroyed by Titus and his Roman soldiers.  The Temple was a magnificent looking building as Herod had added to it, and Titus did not really want to destroy but there was gold between the giant foundational stones and the only way to get the gold was to destroy the building, which is what he did.  When this happened it destroyed the nation of Israel and its religion, because Israel had not borne any fruit, and it has not to this day.

 

            We have recently looked at Jesus, the King cleanse the Temple, and the King’s message was that Israel’s worship was unacceptable, and in cursing the fig tree it was that Israel as a nation was condemned for its sinfulness and spiritual fruitlessness.  MacArthur writes “Those messages of doom the people would not tolerate.  They had not accepted John the Baptist’s call to repentance in preparation for the coming of the kingdom or his declaration that the Messiah was coming with ‘His winnowing fork…in His hand [to] thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and [to] gather His wheat into the barn [and to] burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire’ (Matt 3:1-12).  Nor had they accepted Jesus’ same call to repentance or His command to come to God in humble contrition and a genuine hunger and thirst for righteousness (4:17; 5:3-12)  They were not even more ill-disposed to accept His word of judgment.”

 

            Let us now look at Deuteronomy 28:1-6 in conclusion of this SD, which tells us that when the Lord delivered Israel out of Egypt what He declared to them.

 

1 "Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God: 3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. 4 “Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.”

 

The Lord also declared the following later on in this chapter in verses 15-19.

 

15 "But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: 16  "Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. 17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 “Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.”

 

6/21/2023 9:51 AM