SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/17/2024 7:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The
Reward We Gain”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 25:28-30
Message of the verses: “25 ‘And I was
afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is
yours.’ 26 “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave,
you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed.
27 ‘Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would
have received my money back with interest. 28 ‘Therefore take away the
talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ 29 "For
to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance;
but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.
30 “Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
In
this section we will be able to see what this third slaved did with his master’s
talent, and then what kind of “reward” he will receive because of what he did
with the talent, and as we will see it is not going to be a pretty
picture. In speaking of the church Jesus
made it clear that the visible church will always include both genuine and
spurious Christians. Every church has
tares that, except to God, are indistinguishable from the wheat. True character cannot be determined by what
they do outwardly, because unbelievers can be quite active in the church and
seemingly interested in its work, in other words they are not truly
born-again. MacArthur writes “As far as
the Lord is concerned, however, the work they do is not in His service or for
the benefit of His kingdom. Whatever
such a person may do with the abilities he has from the Lord, they are
spiritually unproductive and might as well be hidden away. In the kingdom of God, the realm of His
sovereign rule—whether in the visible earthly church or in the millennial
kingdom—there will be no acceptable service offered to Him except that offered
by true believers.”
Let
me just say something that I have probably said before, and this comes from
Ephesians 2:8-10 “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.” In verses 8-9 Paul tells us how we were
saved, and then in verse 10 he tells us that the Lord has given us works to do
for the cause of Christ, and that God prepared beforehand so that we would walk
in them.” I have stated that in eternity
past that God gave each person that he chose for salvation spiritual gifts to
be used by them that will be used in the church. We discover these works or gifts by the
careful studying of God’s Word and then through the power of the Holy Spirit
perform these works to edify those in the church and to bring glory to the Lord
Jesus Christ. In this way they are similar to the talents that the Master gave
to the slaves as believers are to invest their spiritual gifts in the work of
the Lord.
Sunday
is church day and so I believe it best to finish this section in my next SD.
3/17/2024 8:13 AM
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