SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/8/2023 10:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 “The
Intruder Expelled”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
22:11-14
Message of the verses: “11 "But when
the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not
dressed in wedding clothes, 12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in
here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. 13 “Then the king
said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer
darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For
many are called, but few are chosen.’”
When I do my prayer time from a list that I have,
one of the things that I do is praise the Lord for His attributes, and one of
His attributes is that He is immutable, He knows all things. This means that God can look at a person’s
heart and know whether or not their righteousness is something of their own
making or His granting it to them through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the
cross. MacArthur ads “The Lord not only imputes but imparts righteousness to His children. Only He
can see the internal righteousness that He imputes, but everyone can see the external righteousness
that He imparts. A child of God is
characterized by a holy life. Peter made
that fact clear when he described salvation as “obedience to the truth” which
has “purified your souls” (1 Pet. 1:22).”
I
have been mentioning the truth of what happens when a person becomes a
believer, and how one can have a good idea that that person is a believer by
the fruit that they will manifest. Just
before Jesus declared that prophesying, casting out demons, and performing
miracles in His name may be false evidence of salvation, and as we look back at
when He sent out the twelve, and then the seventy to preach the gospel and do
these things mentioned, we have to believe that Judas was along doing these
things in Jesus’ name. We know what
happened to Judas! Let us now look at
Matthew 7:16-17, 21-21. “16 “You will
know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor
figs from thistles, are they? 17 “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the
bad tree bears bad fruit.” “21 "Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many
will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and
in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And
then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO
PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” MacArthur concludes this thought by writing “A holy,
godly life cannot help bearing righteous fruit, because it is the natural
outgrowth of the work of the Spirit within (Gal. 5:22-23).” “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control;
against such things there is no law.”
If one would have come up to Jesus and ask Him
something like “How can I be clothed in the proper garment? What can I do to keep from being cast into
the outer darkness like that man in this parable? Someone who is reading this at this time may
be asking this very question. Jesus
would have no doubt have said to that person as He had said many times before
in various ways, “Come to Me, that you may have life” (John 5:40). In 2
Corinthians 5:21, one of the great salvation verses in the Word of God Paul
wrote “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God” (NIV).
In every one of these parables but this one Jesus
asked the Jewish leaders to comment on the first two parables. When the Jewish leaders did comment on these
first two parables they would condemn themselves with their answers as seen in
21:31-32, 40-45. Jesus knew that these
Jewish leaders would not be trapped again, because it was now obvious that the
whole thrust of the parables was to condemn them. I can imagine that the faces of these leaders
were turning red with anger as it was their desire to only do one thing to
Jesus and that was to have Him killed.
However we must remember that even though they will get what they wanted
in killing Jesus it would be in His time and under His control.
I
have been waiting to get insight from the last verse in this parable and so I
desire just to quote what MacArthur has to say about this verse. Thinking about what I just wrote about the
Jewish leaders MacArthur writes “Consequently, the Lord closed with the simple
but sobering statement, Many are called, but few are chosen. That phrase reflects the spiritual balance
between God’s sovereignty and man’s will.
The invitations to the wedding feast went out to many, representative of
everyone to whom the gospel message is sent.
But few of those who heard the call were willing to accept it and
thereby be among the chosen. The gospel
invitation is sent to everyone, because it is not the Father’s will that a
single person be excluded from His kingdom and perish in the outer darkness of
hell (2 Pet. 3:9). But not everyone
wants God, and many who claim to want Him do not want Him on His terms. Those who are saved enter God’s kingdom
because of their willing acceptance of His sovereign, gracious provision. Those who are lost are excluded from the kingdom
because of their willing rejection of that same sovereign grace.”
I
realize that this statement is hard for some to believe, but it is what the
Bible teaches. In my case, when I came
to the Lord on the 26th of January, 1974 I know that as I look back
that this statement is true in my life as the circumstances of me coming to
Christ cause me to better understand what the Bible has to say concerning God’s
sovereignty and man’s will. When taking
that faithful trip to Florida back in January of 1974 to visit a friend of mine
my intentions were not good, but God used that trip to cause me to understand
the truth of the Gospel by listening to several sermons on the end times by Hal
Lindsey. This was just what I needed to
understand the truth of the gospel and then accept Jesus Christ as my Savior
and my Lord. I was certainly a baby
believer as I actually did not attend church until four years later, but have been
active in two churches ever since. I am
thankful for the patience of God as it has been demonstrated in my life since
that wonderful day when He saved me.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Looking back on the new life that Jesus gave
me I can say that there have been ups and downs but through it all I know that God
is in control and am thankful beyond words for that.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to continue to pray for revival in
Singapore as it seems to me that the Lord is using these Spiritual Diaries to
do a work there and for that I am very thankful. 8/8/2023 11:15 AM
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