Friday, May 31, 2024

PT-3 "Strength" (Matt. 26:45b-46)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/31/2024 10:49 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                      Focus:  PT-3 “Strength”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 26:45b-46

 

            Message of the verses:  “Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Arise, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”

 

            As I was looking at this verse and a half of verse the thought came to me that this is a dividing point in the book of Matthew.  Let me explain what I am thinking about.  Jesus seemed to have His disciples around Him for the most part since around the fifth chapter of Matthew, and now would be the last time that He would have all of them around Him in this way.  The next time would be after His resurrection where He would come to them at different times to show Himself to them, which is different from the times in chapters 5-26:45.  It would be time for the disciples to begin to depend mostly on the power of the Holy Spirit in a new way, in the same way that the Church today is suppose to do.

 

            Now we move onto the verses at hand and see that in Matthew 26:36-46 give the pattern and the sequence of spiritual tragedy, which may be summarized in the words, confidence, sleep, temptation, sin, and disaster.

 

            We have been talking about the self-confidence that the disciples had in stating that they would never leave the Lord, but yet could not even stay awake while He was praying.  This kind of thinking will open the door to temptation.  Now the first step of a believer’s falling into sin is false confidence that he is able to be faithful to the Lord in his own power.  So like the disciples on the Mount of Olives, he is certain he would never forsake Christ or compromise His Word, and they were wrong.

 

            The third step is temptation, which Satan’s system is constantly ready to place in the way of God’s people.  As with Jesus, the temptation appeals to one’s personal rights and calls for rebellion against God. 

 

            Now we move onto the fourth step which is sin, because a believer who is spiritually self confident, who is indifferent to sin, and who does not turn to the Lord for help will for sure fall into sin.  There is no person, not even a true believer that has the capacity within himself to withstand Satan and avoid sin.

 

            Fifth and this is the final one of the sequences is disaster.  Just as temptation that is not resisted in God’s power always leads to sin, sin that is not confessed and cleansed leads to spiritual tragedy.  So the point to me here is to look at Psalm 139:23-24 daily in order to keep a short list of sins that one commits in order to continue to walk with the Lord.  23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”

 

            MacArthur concludes this section by writing “That is the pattern the disciples followed that last night of Jesus’ earthly life and that every believer follows when he does not depend wholly on the Lord.

 

            “But this passage also contains the pattern for spiritual victory, manifested and exemplified by Jesus.  The way of victory rather than tragic defeat is confidence in God rather than self, moral and spiritual vigilance rather than indifference, resisting temptation in God’s power rather than in our own, and holding to obedience rather than to the rebellion of sin.”

 

5/31/2024 11:13 AM

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