False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Contamination (Matt. 23:27-28)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2023 8:21 AM

 

My Worship Time                          Focus:  “False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Contamination”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 23:27-28

 

            Message of the verses:  “27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 “Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

 

            We are now looking at the sixth “woe” in these two verses as Jesus cursed the scribes and Pharisees for spiritually contaminating everyone they touched.

 

            What is our Lord referring to when He says “you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful.”  Now especially in the New Testament times the Palestinian Jews after the end of the spring rains would go out and whitewash things like their houses, walls, and in particular tombs.  MacArthur writes “They began this task on the fifteenth of Adar, which roughly corresponds to March, in order to make their communities more attractive for Passover pilgrims. They had an additional purpose for whitewashing grave sites, however, especially those in and near Jerusalem.  Because a person became ceremonially unclean for seven days if he touched a dead body or even a grave (Num. 19:16), all tombs were carefully whitewashed to identify them to unwary travelers.  They would be prevented from inadvertently touching the bombs and becoming defiled and thereby disqualified to participate in many of the Passover activities, including the offering of sacrifices.  In some cases the entire tomb was painted, and in other s drawing of bones were painted on it to mark it as a sepulcher.  Because of all the whitewash, Jerusalem and its environs glistened in the sunlight during the Passover season.”

 

            Now I have to say that if I would have not read this then I would certainly not known the background for what Jesus was talking about here.

 

            Now we must try to understand the meaning here as we have the background to what is now being said.  We know that these verses are a curse to the scribes and Pharisees, so like the whitewashed tombs, on the outside appeared beautiful, but inside they were like the tombs that are they were full of dead man’s bones and all uncleanness.  They were spiritually dead and had no genuine regard for God’s law, despite their outward praise of it and claim to be its true interpreters and teachers.  Now it is clear that Jesus called them hypocrites!  In an infinitely worse way than the tombs ceremonially defiled those who touched them, that is the scribes and Pharisees spiritually defiled those whom they touched.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The fact that these scribes and Pharisees were dead spiritually, the truth is that every person who is born is born spiritually dead and are in need of the saving grace that Jesus provided when He died on the cross.  There is no way humans can be saved on their own, and that is what the scribes and Pharisees believed that they were doing.  Don’t be fooled by false teachers who teach that you can work your way into heaven, because that will only result in going to hell.

            My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Lord will guide my steps as I go through this day, and I trust that His Holy Spirit will use the Spiritual Diaries that I write to call some to salvation, which is one of the reasons why I write these, actually the main reason, with causing other believers to grow in their faith.

 

10/31/2023 8:46 AM

False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Extortion And Self-Indulgence (Matt. 23:26-26)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/30/2023 9:56 AM

 

My Worship  Time Focus:  False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Extortion And Self-Indulgence

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 23:25-26

 

            Message of the verses:  “25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”

 

            In today’s SD we want to look at the fifth curse that Jesus gives to the scribes and the Pharisees for their extortion of others and indulgence of themselves.

 

            Jesus is using the outside of a cup and …dish, but not the inside to illustrate once again the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees.  MacArthur writes “The Greek phrase behind dish was often used of a platter on which exquisite delicacies were served.  The idea is of a person who offers a guest a seemingly lovely mean served with the best wine.  But it turns out that, although the utensils are beautiful and ceremonially purified, the food served on them was putrid.”  I have to say that I am happy for that explanation.

 

            So how does this apply to these religious leaders?  These religious leaders gave the appearance of pious devotion to the Lord, but inwardly they were full of the moral and spiritual faith of robbery and self-indulgence.  These leaders were ceremonially immaculate and attractive but they were spiritually foul and hideous.

 

            “Hapage (robbery) carries the ideas of plundering, pillaging, and extortion, and akrasis (self-indulgence) has the basic meaning of lack of self-control and was often used to denote unrestrained self-gratification.  The unscrupulous religious leaders robbed the people they were supposed to serve in order to satisfy their own greed.  The plundered both the souls and the wallets of the people and used the ill-gotten gains to serve themselves.) (MacArthur’s commentary)

 

            Jesus was making the accusation more personal and direct when He said “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”  There is no utensil that is clean when it has ill-gotten food or drink in it.

 

            MacArthur concludes “Throughout history, false religious leaders have become rich and fat by fleecing those they pretended to serve.  Outwardly they appear righteous, caring, and exemplary, but inwardly they are rapacious wolves.”

 

10/30/2023 10:29 AM

 

 

PT-4 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Inversion" (Matt. 23:23-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/29/2023 8:20 AM

 

My Worship Time                          Focus:  PT-4 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Inversion"

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 23:23-24

 

            Message of the verses:  “23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”

 

            It is my hope to finish this SD this morning because I do have to go and teach our Sunday school class later this morning.

 

            In looking at false religions, it is almost without exception they strongly magnify the insignificant and minimize or even ignore the things that are truly scriptural.  The truth is, especially at this time in history is that the worldly is idolized; the spiritual disregarded.

 

            MacArthur concludes this section by writing:  “It is also possible for true believers to be caught up in minutiae” (finer points or details). “Some Bible students, for instance, claim to have ascertained the meaning of virtually every obscure sign and symbol in Scripture yet give scant attention in their lives to the Bible’s clear and unambiguous moral truths.

 

            “Jesus graphically illustrated the scribes’ and Pharisees’ inversion of priorities by saying that they would strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.  The gnat and the camel represented the smallest and the largest, respectively, of the ceremonially unclean animals (see Lev. 11:4, 42).  Fastidious Pharisees would drink their wine  through clenched teeth in order to filter out any small insects that might have gotten into the wine.  In their typical reversal of values, those Jewish religious leaders were more concerned about being contaminated by a tiny gnat that by a huge camel.  They were painstaking about formal, ceremonial trivialities but were unconcerned about their hypocrisy, dishonesty, cruelty, greed, self-worshiping, and a host of other series sins.  They substituted outward acts of religion for the essential virtues of the heart.”

 

            10/29/2023 8:35 AM

PT-3 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Inversion" (Matt. 23:23-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/28/2023 8:39 AM

 

My Worship Time                           Focus: PT-3 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Inversion"

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 23:23-24

 

            Message of the verses:  “23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”

 

            Well the weather has changed in North Ridgeville, Ohio as it is getting colder and for the next three days or so we will have a lot of rain, and so with that said it was good to get, what is probably the last game of golf for this year in yesterday. 

 

            I want to pick up where we left off in yesterday’s SD by continue to talk about the weightier provisions of the law, but first I want to quote what MacArthur wrote before writing about that.  “The scribes and Pharisees were inequitable, unfair, unjust, unmerciful, brutal, unforgiving, unkind, greedy, and abusive of others.”  The scribes and the Pharisees everything in contrary to the weightier provisions of the law, and worst of all, they walked by sight rather than faith, as they trusted in their works rather than God’s grace.  Now as I continue to think about the true way of salvation which was provided by the Lord Jesus Christ as He died on the cross for sinners, I think that when a person like the scribes and Pharisees would try to do things that were pleasing to God in order to be saved what they were doing was in effect saying to God, “what You did for me is not enough, I have to do it on my own.”  In this section we see that Jesus did not denounce the tithing of herbs, which would have been perfectly acceptable if done in sincerity and in faith.  At that time tithing was still a valid requirement under the Old Covenant, Jesus certainly did not reprove tithing in general.  Jesus said “these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”  MacArthur writes “In light of the fact that such garden plants had not generally been considered covered under the Mosaic laws of tithing until rabbinical times, it seems likely that by these…things Jesus was referring to tithing in general.  In other words, while being faithful to tithe according to scriptural instruction, they should not have neglected the Lord’s much weighter demands.”

 

            Now thinking about the tithe it was strictly a requirement of the Old Covenant, in fact it is only mentioned six times in the New Testament, three times in the gospels and in the book of Hebrews.  Now when I think about the gospel writing of the New Testament I think that during this time that people were actually still living under the Old Covenant and so in the gospels tithing is always used, as it is here, in regard to its abuse by the scribes and Pharisees, you can see this also in Luke 11:42 and in Luke 18:12.  Now in the book of Hebrews the Mosaic tithe is mentioned only in regard to its use in ancient Israel as seen in Heb. 7:8-9; vv. 5-6.  Now tithing is not mentioned in the New Testament as being binding on the church or even recommended as the standard for Christian giving.  MacArthur adds “This is easy to understand if one recognizes that tithes were a form of taxation to support the national life of Israel…The closest New Testament parallel is the requirement to pay taxes indicated in Romans 13:6-7.”  If you want more information on this MacArthur’s commentary on 1 Corinthians written in 1984 on pages454-455 would be helpful to look at.

 

            I have to say that when it came to giving to the church that my father would always say that tithing was the proper way of giving to the church.  He was not the most educated man but he would always give 10% to the church, and that seemed to rub off on me.  Once I first became a believer I did not go to church for four years, but did study the Bible and was helped by a new friend of mine who owned a Christian Book store, which is the first place that I went after I got saved while visiting a friend in Florida.  One day after getting to know this man and helping out in a ministry that he had started I bought a book from him and put a tithe in the check that I paid him with.  This however was not the first place that I tithed as I tithed to a ministry that was headed up in New Orleans.  However through some circumstances that I will not go into the Lord showed me not to tithe to that organization and so it went to what was called “Christian Wittiness Ministry until I joined a Baptist church some four years later.  I realize that tithing is not stressed in the New Testament, but I believe that tithing is a good place to begin your giving to the Lord’s work, and to my way of understanding tithing to the church where you are being feed the Word is where that portion of your giving should go.  My wife and I have had some difficult financial times in our life, much of it was my fault, but we never stopped giving our tithe to the Lord’s work and God has blessed us for being faithful in giving to the Lord.

 

            There is a little bit more to talk about in these verses, which Lord willing I will do it in my next SD.

 

10/28/2023 9:17 AM    

PT-2 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Inversion" (Matt. 23:23-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/27/2023 8:46 AM

 

My Worship Time                          Focus:  PT-2 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Inversion"

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 23:23-24

 

            Message of the verses:  “23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”

 

            I want to begin by stating that it seems that with all their carefulness in such insignificant and even at many times their noncompulsory matters that they neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.  MacArthur adds “They were obsessed with counting leaves and seeds but indifferent to basic ethics.”  (What a waste of time!)

 

            The following is the Strongs meaning to the word that Jesus used “weightier.”

AV-grievous 3, heavy 1, weighty 1, weighter 1; 6

1) heavy in weight ; 2) metaph.;

2a) burdensome

2b) severe, stern

2c) weighty

2c1) of great moment

2d) violent, cruel, unsparing

 

            MacArthur writes about this word:  “Jesus borrowed the word weightier from the rabbinical tradition, which had divided the law into light and heavy categories.  In their inverted priorities the scribes and Pharisees had reduced such matters as justice and mercy and faithfulness to the light category, and elevated the tithing of garden herbs to the weightier category.  In His reference to the truly weightier matters, Jesus paraphrased the words of Micah.  Some 700 years earlier that prophet had declared, “[The Lord] has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic. 6:8).” 

 

            The following are some good words to describe the scribes and Pharisees:  They were inequitable, unfair, unjust, unmerciful, brutal, unforgiving, unkind, greedy, and abusive of others.  This certainly was all true of them, and it is not something that I or any other believer would like to be described as.  I know that none of the believers who ever lived don’t have faults, but we do have the Holy Spirit living in us, and the Word of God to read and study, and good Bible teaching & believing churches to go to in order to be convicted of any sin so that we can confess it to the Lord (1John 1:9), and be forgiven of it because Jesus died for us, something we don’t deserve, but nonetheless the truth.

 

            The scribes and Pharisees were everything that is contrary to the weighter provisions of the law.  It gets worse, for worst of all, they walked by sight rather than by faith, trusting in their own works rather than God’s grace.  Grace is God giving us what we can never earn for ourselves. 

 

            I want to finish this section in our next SD.  I am going to play golf this morning, and because of the weather in Ohio during this time of the year, it will probably be the last time until next spring.

 

10/27/2023 9:09 AM

 

           

PT-1 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Inversion" (Matt. 23:23-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/26/2023 9:58 AM

 

My Worship Time                          Focus:  PT-1 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Inversion"

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 23:23-24

 

            Message of the verses:  “23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

 

            I have to say that because my vocabulary is not the best as far as knowing what certain works mean that I am glad for my computer to be able to look up the meanings and not have to drag out a dictionary.  “Inversion:” “When there is an inversion of something, it is changed into its opposite. [formal] ...a scandalous inversion of the truth. Synonyms: reversal, opposite, antithesis, transposition.”  I think that this definition of inversion fits what is being talked about by our Lord in these verses.

 

            In this SD we will begin to look at the fourth curse that Jesus gives to the scribes and Pharisees, and it is for inverting divine priorities, as they magnified the insignificant and minimized the essential.

 

            What exactly are mint and dill and cummin?  These are garden herbs that are used as kitchen spies, and they were not generally considered farm produce.  In the Mosaic Law farm produce was to be tithed on.  I suppose that if you think of farm products you may think about things like wheat or corn, or perhaps fruit that grows on a tree, but these spices were not considered farm products so one does not need to tithe on them.  I think that during this time period a person could figure out what farm items were wroth and then pay the tithe in money instead of bringing a large amount of them to the Temple.  In Leviticus 27-30 of the Mosaic Law we see about what is to be tithed to the treasury in Israel.  MacArthur writes “Because it helped support the government, which was a theocracy operated to a great extent by the priesthood, the tithe was a form of taxation.  A second tenth was to be paid each year for support of various worship ceremonies and national festivals (Deut. 12:11, 17).  Another tithe was to be paid every three years for a type of welfare, to support the Levites, aliens, orphans, and widows (Deut. 14:28-29), which amounted to an additional 3.3 percent a year.  Israelites were therefore required to pay just over 23 percent of their income a year in taxes to fund the theocracy.”  I find this very interesting to know the amount of tithe that was paid during this time period.

 

            MacArthur goes on to explain more about the instruction for tithing produce as also seen in Deut. 14:11 which was related to marketable farm crops such as grains, olive oil, wine, fruits, and vegetables.  He writes “But the legalistic scribes and Pharisees extended the provision to include the smallest potted plant grown in a kitchen window. 
As today, herbs then were grown mostly for their leaves and seeds, and when the scribes and Pharisees picked leaves from a mint plant or gathered seeds from the dill and cummin plants, they would carefully count out the leaves and seeds, separating out one for God from each ten counted.  They gloried in the self-righteousness of subscribing to such minutiae.”  Now I suppose that, like these scribes and Pharisees that you believed that you had to work your way into heaven by doing things like this then it would seemingly make you happy or fulfilled.  However this is not what God requires of a person, as when Jesus Christ died on the cross, like the song goes “Jesus Paid it All,” and then it goes on to say “and all to Him you owe.”  Let me once again share Ephesians 2:8-10 to make this point clear:  “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Now notice in verse eight is says “by grace you have been saved through faith.”  This indicates that Paul is writing to believers telling them what happened and how it happened that they were saved.  Paul then goes on to write “and that not of yourselves.”  As we relate this to our verses in Matthew we could say that tithing these small herbs cannot get you into heaven. Next “so that no one may boast.” Now again relating this to our verses in Matthew we see that the scribes and Pharisees loved to boast about how righteous they were.  Next “not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  The “works” that the scribes and Pharisees did they seemed to always boast about it, but when a person is truly born-again then he has nothing to boast about because of the fact that Jesus did it all.  Verse ten is one of my favorite verses of all time as verse ten gets things in order of what is to be seen in these three verses from Ephesians chapter two.  You don’t work for your salvation as “Jesus Paid It All,” God in eternity past as chosen works for believers to do for the cause of Christ after they become believers, “all to Him I owe.”  I have stated in earlier SD’s that I truly believe that God, in eternity past has chosen for me and all believer what they are to do once they become believers, and the only way to do what He has called you to do is through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Here is a verse that goes along with my Sunday school lesson for this upcoming Sunday:  “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 4:6b).  Once a person is saved by grace through faith the Holy Spirit then lives in that person, and He will led that person into the “works” that he is to do, and then give him the power to do these works for the cause of Christ, so that Christ will receive all the glory. 

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Not to do things in my own power as they will not be of any use for the cause of Christ.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to discern the things that He desires for me to do for the cause of Christ.

 

10/26/2023 10:50 AM

 

 

           

 

 

PT-3 "Fasle Leaders Are Cursed For Their Perversion" (Matt 23:16-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/25/2023 8:54 AM

 

My Worship Time                        Focus:  PT-3 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Perversion"

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Matthew 23:16-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ 17 "You fools and blind men; which is more important, the gold, or the temple that sanctified the gold? 18 “And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering upon it, he is obligated.’ 19 "You blind men, which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering? 20 “Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. 21 “And he who swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it. 22 “And he who swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.”

 

            I mentioned in my last SD that we would begin this SD by talking about what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount.  Let us look at Matthew 5:33-37 “33 "Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.’ 34 "But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 36 “Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”  In these verses Jesus condemned all swearing of vows.  Now I mentioned in the last SD about some vows that I have made when I was a very young believer, but the thing is that I was attending a Bill Gothard seminar and he is the one who suggested that it would be good to make a vow to read the Bible at least five minutes a day.  When a person is young in the Lord and has troubles in getting a system of reading the Word of God each day then it kind of makes sense to make a vow like this, and I also mentioned that although I have only missed less than ten days in reading the Bible for at least five minutes a day since sometime in the fall of 1979 after attending that conference that I wonder whether it was the right thing to do, but since I made that vow I have tried very hard to keep it.  MacArthur adds to what these verses say by writing “A godly person will always tell the truth, and for him a simple yes or no is sufficient, because his virtuous character is his bond.”

 

            MacArthur goes on “Jesus was not teaching a new principle.  The psalmist declared, “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High” (Ps. 50:14).  In other words, a vow made is a vow to be kept.  David testified, “Thy vows are binding upon me, O God; I will render thank offerings to Thee” (Ps. 56:12, and again “I will sing praise to Thy name forever, that I may pay my vows day by day” (Ps. 61:8; cf. 66:13; 76:11).  It is significant that in each of those quotations the keeping of vows to God is directly related to praise and thankfulness to Him.” 

 

            In the fifth chapter of Acts we see the tragic story of Ananias and Sapphira who saw Barnabas sell some property that he had and give it to the Apostles for the cause of Christ.  They decided together to do the same thing, but once they got the money they then decided to keep a part of the money for themselves.  There was nothing wrong with keeping a part of the money, but their sin was not to tell the Apostles that they were doing this.  This vow that they did not keep cost them their lives as seen in Acts chapter five.  What they did was lie to the Holy Spirit, something one does not want to do.

 

            Now I want to quote another paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary and the reason is because the section that he talks about is something I do not truly understand.  “The idea of swearing by the gold in the Temple was binding by swearing by the Temple itself was not binding was moral chicanery” (the use of trickery to achieve a political, financial, or legal purpose.) “and logical absurdity.  “You fools and blind men,” Jesus said; “which is more important, the gold, or the temple that sanctified the gold?”  In other words, by what perverted logic had it been determined that making a vow on something lesser was more binding than one made on something greater?  The only reason the gold could be thought of as sacred, and thereby make the vow supposedly more obligatory, was the temple that sanctified the gold.”  I believe that I got the point now, and perhaps it is because of the word “chicanery.”

 

            I can see now why Jesus called these men “blind guides.”  They were committing fraud against the Lord, something like what Ananias and Sapphira were doing, but perhaps the difference was that Ananias and Sapphira were believers who got caught up in trying to look good in front of the Apostles.  My thoughts are that there was little lying going on in the early church after they heard what happened to this couple. 

 

            These religious leaders applied the same twisted logic to swearing by the altar, which was considered to be nothing, that is not required by rule or law, and to swearing by the offering upon it, which was thought to make a person obligated to keep his vow.  Jesus said to this "You blind men, which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering? MacArthur writes “The whole idea was both theologically and logically preposterous.  Those standards were nothing more than wicked pretenses for using holy things to disguise their unholy propensity to lie.

 

            “As Jesus went on to point out, to swear by the altar was to swear by everything on it; to swear by the temple was to swear by Him who dwells within it, namely God Himself; and to swear by heaven was to swear by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.  In other words, everything involved with the temple and everything involved with heaven involved God.  In fact, since God is the creator of everything, to swear by anything at all involves God.”

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to be careful and not let my emotions cause me to do something that I cannot handle. 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to remember that my life has to be lived in the power of the Holy Spirit, who called me to salvation with an effectual call, and then lives within me to cause me to understand His Word, and to remember Zechariah 4:6 “Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.”

 

10/25/2023 10:07 AM

 

PT-2 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Perversion" (Matt. 23:16-22)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/24/2023 9:43 AM

 

My Worship Time                                     PT-2 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Perversion"

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 23:16-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ 17 "You fools and blind men; which is more important, the gold, or the temple that sanctified the gold? 18 “And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering upon it, he is obligated.’ 19 "You blind men, which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering? 20 “Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. 21 “And he who swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it. 22 “And he who swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.”

 

            I realize that we did not get to far in looking at these verses in our last SD, but I do believe that what I wrote was important, and it is my hope to get a little farther in these verses today, as they too are very important for us to understand them. 

 

            As we have been going through these verses in this very important 23^rd chapter of Matthew we saw that as Jesus was using the word “Woe” that in these previous woes He used the word hypocrites to describe the spiritual leaders of Judaism, but he uses the words “blind guides, in this section which emphasizes their unawareness that they were ignorant of the truth.  MacArthur writes “As God’s chosen people who were entrusted with His revelation, the Jews had long considered themselves as guides to the blind, lights to those in darkness, correctors of the foolish, and teachers of the immature (Rom. 2:19-20; cf. 3:2).  But as Jesus had declared earlier in His ministry, they were “blind guides of the blind.  And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (Matt. 15:14).  The scribes and Pharisees prided themselves in their superior religious knowledge and understanding, but they were blind leaders trying to lead blind Israel, and together they were doomed to judgment if they would not come to the light.”

 

            These spiritual leaders of Israel had many perversions of truth and were teaching that “Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering upon it, he is obligated.’”  The problem was that they had developed such a double standard for swearing gives evidence that their concern was not for truth but for the evasion of it when it did not suit their selfish interests.  Not only was this true of these blind guides of that day but as we have continually mentioned in this section from Matthew 23 that the same thing goes on with false leaders today, as they too have double standards, and many of them are only in it for the money that they receive from those who are following their teachings.  MacArthur writes “The underlying purpose behind the first part of the standard was to provide sanctimonious justification for lying with impunity” (“exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action.”)  “A person could lie all he wanted, provided he sword by the temple and not by the gold of the temple.  Since no society can survive without some provision for verifying and guaranteeing such things as promises and contracts, the second part of the standard was developed as a necessary expediency.  If a person wanted to make absolutely certain that someone was telling the truth or would live up to an agreement, he would make him swear by the gold of the temple, which supposedly made his word binding.  A person who broke his word after taking such an oath was subject to penalties under Jewish law.”

 

            He goes on to write “Societies have had various means of trying to make its people keep their word.  In some, the most sacred and binding vow was sealed with the blood of the parties involved.  In others, an agreement is written in a contract, which each party signs and which often specifies penalties for defaulting.  Until recent years, many Western courts of law required those giving testimony to swear to tell the truth by placing left hand on the Bible, raising their right hand, and invoking God’s help.”  I think that even in our country today that there are people, people who are elected to government offices like being a senator or a congressmen that there are some who will not swear like this and in many cases they want to use other books like the Koran as it is unfortunate that our country has changed so much in such a short time to have this kind of a thing happen today.  Our country was founded on the principles of God’s Word and that is why it was required to have people swear on the Bible, but as mentioned we have fallen so very far from the principles that it once stood for.

 

            The use of oaths had become so perverse in Israel during this time when Christ was on the earth that they were used even to renege (break your word) on promises made to God.  Now if a person, for example, vowed to give a certain amount to the Lord’s work, he would often swear to his vow by the temple.  Then if he later decided he had pledged too much, or if he never intended to give the full amount, he had and out, because that vow was considered to be nothing.

 

            Lord willing in my next SD will look at this false vowing from our Lord Sermon on the Mount as Jesus had much to say about this in that sermon.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have mentioned this in earlier SD’s that when I first became a believer that I had made two vows to the Lord, one was to read the Bible at least five minutes a day, and then later on was to pray for at least five minutes a day.  These are vows that I have pretty much fulfilled each day since I made them, but I have often thought that I wish that I had never made them, not because it was the right thing to do, but because I don’t want to make any vows that I can’t keep all of the time. 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It was because I made these two vows that by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit I will keep them.  I have to say that I was about to make another vow, and my former Pastor gave me good advice about not making vows and so by his good advice I did not make that vow, which I will not mention, but never would have been able to keep it and that would have probably had serious consequences on my walk with the Lord.  My advice is that as believers not to make any vows.

 

10/24/2023 10:36 AM

 

 

PT-1 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Perversion" (Matt. 23:16-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/23/2023 9:19 AM

 

My Worship Time                      Focus:  “PT-1 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Perversion"

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 23:16-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “16 "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ 17 "You fools and blind men; which is more important, the gold, or the temple that sanctified the gold? 18 “And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering upon it, he is obligated.’ 19 "You blind men, which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering? 20 “Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. 21 “And he who swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it. 22 “And he who swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.”

 

            We begin the third curse that Jesus used against the scribes and Pharisees, and this one is for their perversion of truth.  Let us look at a couple of verses that shows that God is the God of truth and cannot lie:  “in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, (Titus 1:2).  “so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us” (Heb. 6:18).  As we look at these two verses it can be concluded that God desires for His people to people of truth.  Now lest us look at the other side, and that is that there is no truth in Satan as seen in John 8:44 “"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  I noticed that John 8:45 talks again about the truthfulness of God:  “"But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.” 

 

            The followers of Satan are also skilled in lying, and although I usually don’t get into what is happening in the world when I am doing my Spiritual Diaries I think that there is a good example that is happening and it has to do with the war that is going on in Israel today.  A few days ago there was a hospital that was said to be boomed in Gaza, and by the way Gaza is mentioned some twenty times in the Bible and only once in a good light.  There was a misfired rocket from Hamas that actually did not hit the hospital but the parking lot of the hospital, the first lie, and the second lie was that Israel was bombing the hospital.  As soon as this happened Hamas said that Israel did it, which was a lie, and then the left wing news agencies started to say the same thing that Hamas said.  Now you talk about Satan’s followers being liars and here you have it in cases, Hamas, and the left-wing news agencies. 

 

            Ok that is enough of what is going on in the world today with the exception of saying that if you watch Israel and what is happening to Israel you will get a pretty good idea of Bible prophecy being fulfilled, and I am not saying that what is going on in Israel today is a part of Bible prophecy other than the fact that once the antichrist comes into power which will happen shortly after the rapture of the church that he will begin by making a peace treaty with Israel.

 

            Now I am really off the track of what is in our verses today, but I want to get back on the track at this time.  Satan’s followers are liars and this is seen in all of the false “religious systems” that were in the world during this time and one of them was headed up by the scribes and the Pharisees, the ones that Jesus is addressing in this section, that is Matthew 23.  These false religious systems have “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:15). Ok I can’t help but say that after the rapture of the church takes place there will be left the false church, the ones that don’t tell the truth, and in their case the people who belong to this “church” will never get into heaven unless they realize that they need to confess their sins and believe that Jesus is the only way to get to heaven, and that means that they not only have to confess their sins, but they then have to accept what Jesus did for them as He died in their place on the cross.

 

            I hope that we will get a little farther in talking about these verses in our next SD, but I believe that what I wrote is the truth, and not a lie and that is something that I desire to do in each of my Spiritual Diaries.

 

10/23/2023 9:55 AM

 

               

PT-3 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Subversion" (Matt. 23:15)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/22/2023 7:40 AM

 

My Worship Time                       Focus:  PT-3 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Subversion"

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matthew 23:15

 

            Message of the verse:  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”

 

            I mentioned at the end of my last Spiritual Diary that I wanted to talk about the word “hell” to begin this SD today.  MacArthur writes “Of hell translates a Greek genitive that refers to belonging to or being characterized by.  Son of hell referred to a person who was especially characterized by hellishness.  Twice…a son hell would be a person who was doubly hellish and doubly damned.

 

            “Hell is from geenna, derived from the name of a valley just outside Jerusalem called Hinnom where refuse was burned.  It was considered an accursed place because it was the site where ancient worshipers of the pagan deity Moloch offered their children as live burnt sacrifices, a hideous practice taken up even by some Israelites (see 2 Chron. 28:3; Jer. 7:31).  When King Josiah declared  the place unclean (2 Kings 23:10), it became a garbage dump, and because flames and smoke arose from the valley continually, it also became a vivid picture of the eternal  fires of hell.”

 

            I think that all believers should be grateful that at some time in their lives that they were confronted by a spiritual door-opener rather than a spiritual door-closer, someone who shows the way to the kingdom and not one that shuts people out of the kingdom as Jesus is talking about in this verse.  All believers should be grateful to have the opportunity to hear and study the Word of God in truth.  Even a dull presentation of the true gospel is immeasurably superior to the most exciting presentation of a false gospel that damns to hell.

 

            MacArthur concludes this section by writing the following paragraph.  “As a citizen of God’s kingdom, every believer ought to be one who opens the door of the kingdom to others.  All saints have the keys of the kingdom, which is the saving gospel of Jesus Christ (Matt. 16:19), and every false teacher takes away the key of knowledge that leads to the kingdom (Luke 11:52).  When Christians are confronted by a representative of a false cult, sect, or religion, they should offer to explain the way of salvation in Christ to him, hoping to snatch him out of the fire, as it were (Jude 23).  But they should not debate theology or the merits of various sacred writings or interpretations of the Bible, thereby ‘casting pearls before swine,’ but firmly denounce the teachings of that group as ungodly and damning—just as their Lord did with the scribes and Pharisees.”

 

            Here you believers have good instruction when one of those cult members knock on your door.

 

10/22/2023 8:05 AM