SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/8/2023 8:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “PT-3 “Judgment Was Inevitable”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 23:34-35
Message of the verses: “34 "Therefore,
behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you
will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues,
and persecute from city to city, 35 that upon you may fall the guilt of
all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the
blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple
and the altar.”
I want to continue looking at these verses in today’s
SD, and the first thing that I want to do is talk about the light that the
scribes and the Pharisees had. They had
all the accumulated revelation of the Old Testament, and that is not all as
they had been alive the three years that the Lord Jesus Christ walked on planet
earth having perfect revelation from Him.
Now the more they accumulated God’s revelation without believing and
following it, the more they accumulated God’s wrath and judgment in direct
proportion. These so-called spiritual
leaders in Israel and their generation could be held guilty for all the
righteous blood shed on earth, and that was because no generation in history
has had or will ever have more of God’s light.
This generation had God incarnate in their midst, who was Himself all
truth and all light, yet they would not have Him.
I
will not quote from John MacArthur’s commentary noting first that this was
written in 1988 and the sermons that were used from John MacArthur were
preached before that year. “The western
world today is in a similar situation.
The church has not always witnessed to Christ as clearly, fully, or
lovingly as it might, but no generation in history, outside of that of Jesus’
own day, has had more access to God’s truth and the way of salvation than
twentieth century western man. In
addition to having great light, we have had benefit of the accumulated light,
power, and blessing of the gospel for 2,000 years. Yet each successive generation seems to
reject the gospel more vehemently, amassing for itself great guilt and
therefore greater judgment.
“Paul
testified, ‘For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being
saved and among those who are perishing.’
The great difference, he went on to explain, was that to the saved they
were ‘an aroma from life to life,’ whereas to the lost they were ‘an aroma from
death to death’ (2 Cor. 2:15-16). In
other words, every time the gospel is proclaimed, it either draws men to Christ
or drives them further away. Because it
runs so contrary to popular notions about God, that truth is difficult for many
Christians to accept. But the New
Testament makes abundantly clear that the purpose of the gospel is not always
to bring salvation; it has the equally divine purpose of bringing
judgment. As the saying goes, the same
sun that softens the wax hardens the clay.
God not only is a God of love, mercy, and grace but of holiness, wrath,
and judgment; and Scripture is equally emphatic about both aspects of His
nature.” Now if this was true, and it
was in the 20th century how much more in the 21st century
in the western world.
MacArthur
goes on, and I quote this because it is important to understand: “When men receive God’s Son and are saved, He
is glorified because His grace is vindicated; and when they refuel His Son and
are condemned, He is glorified because His holiness is vindicated. Knowing how troublesome the second part of
that truth is even for many believers to accept, Paul went on to assert that he
was ‘not like many, peddling the word of God’ in ways that were pleasing to
men, ‘but as sincerity, but as from God, [he spoke] in Christ in the sight of
God’ (2 Cor. 2:17). Lest any of his readers think he was simply expressing
personal fanaticism, the apostle categorically asserted that he was speaking
not only sincerely but from God and in God’s sight.
“In
his letter to the Romans, Paul presents the same truth in a somewhat different
light. He anticipated that some people
would object to his teaching that God has mercy on whom He desires, and He
hardens whom He desire,’ and would ask, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’ (Rom.
9:18-19). In reply the apostle said,
20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back
to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me
like this," will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay,
to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common
use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His
power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for
destruction? 23 And He did so in order that He might make known the
riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
(vv. 20-23).
“God is God, and whatever He does is right by
definition, because He is both the source and the measure of what is right.”
Lord
willing I will continue looking at Matthew 23:34-35 in my next Spiritual Diary.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: What I have been writing and quoting in this
SD is a hard truth to understand, but it is in the Word of God, and the Word of
God is truth even though at times it is hard to understand.
My
Steps of Faith For Today: Continue to study and to learn from God’s
Word and continue to write about even the difficult truths of His Word.
11/8/2023 9:24 AM
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