Monday, October 23, 2023

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

 

               

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