SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/1/2023 7:27 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “False Leaders Lack Sympathy”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 23:4
Message of the verses: “ And they tie up heavy loads, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.”
The following statement from John MacArthur’s commentary
speaks of something that from the very first book of the Bible can be seen
happening, and of course it is not the actual truth as to how a person can be
right with God. The story of Cain and
Able found in the 4th chapter of Genesis talks about how Able brought
the correct sacrifice to the Lord, and that sacrifice was a blood
sacrifice. Cain on the other hand did
not bring the correct sacrifice, and at this point I want to say that I firmly
believe that God had told both brothers what kind of sacrifice to bring. Cain brought a sacrifice from the “fruit of
the ground.” Now when we get to the
later parts of the Old Testament which speaks of different kinds of sacrifices
that are offered as seen in the Law some of them are from the ground, but not
the ones that represent salvation, for they have blood in them. The point here is seen in MacArthur’s
commentary where we read “The people were taught that it was only by their own
good works they could please God. If at
the end of life the good works outweighed the bad, then God would grant
entrance into heaven. But the scribes and
Pharisees offered the people no help in achieving even those fleshly goals,
much less any spiritual ones. They
themselves were unwilling to help move those unbearable burdens with so much as
a finger. Consequently, Judaism had
become insufferably depressing and debilitating.” The point in all of this is to do what the
Lord tells you to do, especially when it comes to salvation.
It
was Jesus, of course, who brought the good news, which was the opposite of that
which the scribes and Pharisees brought.
That good news was that He would take away the load of sin that always
outweighed their good works. When we
look at the things that Paul wrote in Galatians 1:8-9 we will see why it was
that Paul was infuriated with the Judaizers, the ones who tried to draw the
Galatian believers back into legalism. “8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a
gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we
have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel
contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” Paul wrote something similar in Galatians 5:1
“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and
do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
The truth is that the scribes and the Pharisees had
no interest in God’s grace, forgiveness, and mercy, and the reason was because
those divine provisions make no allowance for human merit or good works. Let me just say at this time that humaningly speaking
it makes sense to believe that one has to do something to please God in order
to enter the kingdom of heaven, but that is because we all were born spiritually
dead and therefore do not understand spiritual things, and we won’t understand spiritual
things unless we are born-again just like when Jesus was talking to Nichodemus
in John chapter three. Once one is born
from above as Jesus told Nichodemus they would be able to understand the truth,
and the truth is that on our own we can do nothing to please God as far as
salvation is concerned. God, through His
Holy Spirit gives and effectual call to those that He chose in eternity past
and Jesus is the One who paid the price for that salvation. Once again look at Ephesians 2:8-10 which we
looked at yesterday and you will understand this better.
I
close this SD with what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5:6 “Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God.”
10/1/2023 7:56 AM
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