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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