SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/1/2024 9:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Intro to Matthew 26:69-75”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
26:69-75
Message of the verses: “69 All this time
Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a maidservant came up to him
and said, "Weren’t you too with Jesus, the man from Galilee?" 70 But
he denied it before them all, saying, "I don’t know what you’re talking
about." 71 Then when he had gone out into the porch, another maid caught
sight of him and said to those who were there, "This man was with Jesus of
Nazareth." 72 And again he denied it with an oath — "I don’t
know the man!" 73 A few minutes later those who were standing about came
up to Peter and said to him, "You certainly are one of them, it’s obvious
from your accent." 74 At that he began to curse and swear — "I
tell you I don’t know the man!" Immediately the cock crew, 75 and the
words of Jesus came back into Peter’s mind — "Before the cock crows
you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.”
I begin this SD with what is probably the most
important message that has ever been stated, and I will quote it from John
MacArthur’s commentary, although this is not the only place that you can find
it. “The single greatest gift God could
conceivably give to mankind is the forgiveness of sins. Without forgiveness, there could be no
salvation from sin, no reconciliation with God, no spiritual life, no victory
over death, no prospect of heaven.”
MacArthur
entitles this 17th chapter in his fourth commentary on the gospel of
Matthew “The Restoration of a Sinning Saint.”
In this section we will be looking at the three times that Peter sins as
he denies His Lord three times while waiting in the courtyard of the high
priest’s house. Jesus said that he would
do this, but Peter said that he would rather die than do it. In the last chapter of the gospel of John,
Jesus talks to Peter as He asked him three times “Do you love Me?” Peter got a bit upset because of being asked
this three times, but the three times were asked by Jesus because of the fact that
Peter denied Him three times. Peter
would understand this later on in his ministry for the cause of Christ.
When
I think about the Lord forgiving all my sins I am truly astounded by this
truth. I suppose that too many
unbelievers this means little to nothing to them. However to me I believe this truth but
sometimes I have a hard time living like I believe it and the reason has to do
with a guilty conscience. Before I
became a believer, and I have mentioned this recently I had a hard time saying
a sentence around my friends and co-workers without swearing. It began when I was very young, perhaps ten
years old. I went fishing with some
older friends and because they were younger I wanted to impress them and I
thought the way to do this was to swear, and that began this terrible sinful habit
that lasted until the 23rd of January in 1974. I believe that when I
became a believer that God did a miracle for me, actually two miracles, and the
first one was to save me and the second one was to clean up my mouth. Not only did He do this but He took the
desire to swear from me, and for that I am thankful. I have mentioned that I had other issues that
He did not take away from me like the swearing one, and I believe like my wife
has said that if God took all sinful habits away then perhaps pride would come
in, but also I would not try to stay close to the Lord in my walk with
Him. Romans 8:28 comes to my mind as I think
about this: “And we know that all things
work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according
to His purpose” (NKJV).
The
following is how the Lord revealed Himself to Moses as found in Exodus 34:6-7 “6 Then the LORD passed by
in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and
gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who
forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the
guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on
the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations." The prophet
Micah proclaimed, “Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity?” (Mic.
7:18). Next we look at what the apostle
John declared, “If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from
all sin…If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7,9).
I conclude this SD with a quotation from MacArthur’s
commentary “Peter’s denial of the Lord is usually looked on as a great tragedy,
which it obviously was. But viewed in
the light of Peter’s repentance and the Lord’s gracious forgiveness, the story
also brings great encouragement.
“In
all the history of redemption, few saints have fallen to the depths of sin and
unfaithfulness that Peter did in denying Jesus.
Yet few saints have been so powerfully used by God as Peter was after he
repented and was restored. The account
of his denial is a sobering testimony to the weakness of the flesh, but it is
also an encouraging testimony to the power of God’s grace. Even in the extremity of His children’s sin,
the Lord is there to forgive and to restore.”
I
will pick up in my next SD to quote another paragraph that goes along with some
of the struggles that I have from time to time.
7/1/2024 10:38 AM
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