SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/22/2023 8:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Intro to Matthew 23:1-12”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
23:1-12
Message of the verses: “1 Then Jesus spoke
to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the
Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 “Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that
observe and do, but do not
do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4 “For they bind heavy burdens,
hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves
will not move them with one of their fingers. 5 “But all their works they do to
be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of
their garments. 6 “They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the
synagogues, 7 “greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi,
Rabbi.’ 8 “But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the
Christ, and you are all brethren. 9 “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He
who is in heaven. 10 “And do not be called teachers; for One is your
Teacher, the Christ. 11 “But he who is greatest among you shall be your
servant. 12 “And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles
himself will be exalted.”
I listened to one of the sermons that John MacArthur
preached on this series of verses. I
find that most of the time that when he preaches he will take a paragraph to go
over, and sometimes, well many times it may take more than one sermon to get
through a paragraph. I have never liked to
listen to what is called “airplane preaching” where a preacher only gives a
view from the clouds on different sections of the Bible, and that is why I very
much enjoy listening to and reading John MacArthur’s preaching and teaching.
What
we have in chapter 23 of Matthew is the very last preaching from our Lord in
public sermons. This certainly is not a
sermon on salvation, on the resurrection, or on principles for living the
kingdom life, but this is rather a vital and sobering message of condemnation against
false teachers. In the first seven
verses He warns the people about false religious leaders who were in Israel,
and then in verses 8-12 He admonishes the disciples and other true spiritual
leaders not to emulate them, those false teachers. Next He turns His attention directly to the
false leaders themselves, epitomized by the scribes and the Pharisees, and
gives them His final and most scathing denunciation in verses 13-36, something
we will go over at a later date. In His
closing comments found in verses 37-39 Jesus expresses His intense compassion
for unbelieving Israel and then gives the assurance that one day, in
fulfillment of God’s sovereign promise, His chosen people will turn back to Him
in faith. I know that for the most part
of Israel’s history that this has not happened, but in the future millennial
kingdom it will happen for those one thousand years. I believe that we as a church age are about to
see the end as the rapture of the church will end this age, and I have to say
that ever since I was saved by listening to what was going to happen in the end
times, which was coming up on 50 years, that I have been very, very much
looking for the rapture in order to leave this sinful world and be with my Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ for all of eternity, and that is an everlasting
eternity.
Now
one of the things that we can gleam from this section about false teachers is
that there have been false teachers for ever since mankind fell into sin
through the deeds of what happened in the garden of Eden when both Adam and eve
sinned, which meant that all of mankind are born with a sin nature, which as we
have learned comes through the man as Adam sinned with his eyes wide open. These false teachers pretend to represent the
Lord but representing only themselves.
False leaders were active in the rebellious scheme to erect the tower of
Babel. Moses came into serious conflict
with the religious sorcerers and magicians of Egypt when he demanded the
release of God’s people by pharaoh, who probably considered himself to be a god
which can be seen in Exodus 7:11-12, 22; 8:7.
Ezekiel faced the false prophets in Israel, whom God called “foolish
prophets who are following their own spirit and have seen nothing” (Ezekiel
13:3).”
It looks like we will have to finish this section on
the introduction to these verses in our next SD as we continue to talk about false
teachers, and make no mistake there are many in our world today as we will
discuss as we go through this 23rd chapter of Matthew.
9/22/2023 9:00 AM
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