SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/3/2023 9:43 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “False Leaders Lack Spirituality”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 23:5
Message of the verse: “But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries, and lengthen the tassels of their garments.”
I just looked to see how many verses are in Matthew
23 and found out that there are 39. If
we just continue to look at one verse at a time we will be here for a long
time. Just kidding!
We begin today to look at the fourth false religious
leaders and how they are characterized, which is by lack of spirituality, by
the absence of a genuine desire to please God.
“Man's chief and highest end
is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.” This comes from the Westminster Catechism” and
looking at these false leaders this certainly was not what they wanted to do.
MacArthur writes “Like
the scribes and Pharisees, the motivation for all their pretentious religious
activities and deeds is to be noticed by men.
Everything is done for outward show rather than from the heart, for
fleshly gratification of ego rather than selfless service to God and to others
in His name. The issue for them is not
godly character but fleshly appearance, the making of “a good showing in the
flesh” (Gal. 6:12). Their purpose is to
glorify themselves, not God.”
Let us take a look at
Matthew 6:1 “"Beware
of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise
you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” This verse does not address the
scribes and Pharisees in particular, but it does show what they like to do, and
that is to parade their piosity everywhere they went. Here is some more from Matthew chapter six
that speaks of these false leaders found in verse five: “"When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they
love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they
may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.”
In verse 16 of that chapter we read “"Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do,
for they neglect their
appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting.
Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.” Again this speaks of the false leaders, and
this time when they fasted.
Here is what Jude has to say about
them in verse 19 “These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the
Spirit.” These false leaders “follow
their natural appetites and ambitions without restraint or shame, considering
themselves to be the spiritually elite with a favored status before God as well
as before men” (MacArthur’s Commentary).
One more quote from MacArthur’s
commentary and then, Lord willing we will look some more at this section in our
next SD. “Hundreds of such fleshly
frauds without the Holy Spirit still proclaim themselves as representatives of
God and are followed by millions of gullible people who support them with
hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
In order to feed their egos and to amass wealth and power, these false
leaders sometimes pastor huge churches, head colleges and seminaries, direct
radio and television empires, and promote many other personally-oriented
activities in the name of the gospel.”
10/3/2023 10:12
AM
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