EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/24/2026
9:04 PM
My
Worship Time
Focus: “True Repenters Reject Religious
Ritual”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
3:7b
Message of the verse: “who
warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Here is something that I think I
have already mentioned in an earlier SD, perhaps more than one, and that is that
the Jews hoped to gain right standing before God through their own self-righteous
achievements, and I think that I am right in saying that is true with most
peoples today and for a long time.
Keeping the Sabbath, celebrating the annual feasts, offering formal
prayers, giving alms to the poor, and observing the law, and I have to add (at
least eternally), was the essence of their religion. So thus it was just natural for them to see
John’s baptism as just another ritual to perform. However perhaps a number of them did realize
something was different about John, something they needed to follow.
But that legalistic, external
approach was antithetical to true repentance, and John boldly confronted
them. He said to them “Who warned you
to flee from the wrath to come?” in this manner, he demanded. Did they think they could escape the inferno
of God’s wrath by slithering into the Jordan River like snakes fleeing a brush
fire?
John MacArthur writes “God detests
mere outward, ritualistic, hypocritical religion. In Isaiah 29:13 He said to Israel, ‘This
people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they
remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of
tradition learned by rote.’ Later in
Isaiah God rebuked His people because they ‘swear by the name of the Lord and
invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness’ (48:1). Jeremiah lamented to God concerning his
fellow Jews, ‘You are near to their lips but far from their mind’ (Jer. 12:2;
cf. Ezekiel 33:31-32). In His masterful
discourse on salvation commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7),
the Lord Jesus Christ destroyed any hope of salvation through human
achievement.” Now let me just add a
thought of my own here. The more a
person when they become believers knows about God the more they learn that He
has to be the One to bring about salvation on His own, and He did that by
sending His Son, the second person of the godhead, to planet earth to become
the God/man in order to preach and teach for three years, and then to die on
the cross in order to provide salvation to those who will come to Him realizing
that they can do nothing on their own to become true believers in Jesus Christ
for salvation. It’s all about God. “He attacked the works-righteousness religion
of His day, denouncing its prayers as nothing but vain repetition, its
almsgiving as the parading of self-righteous pride, and its outward keeping of
the law while ignoring the inner attitudes of the heart as rank hypocrisy. In short, He pointed out the utter inability
of all their ceremonies and rituals to earn salvation. After his conversion the zealous (Gal. 1:14),
outwardly blameless Pharisee Saul of Tarsus acknowledged that all his
self-righteousness amounted to nothing more than a heap of rubbish (Philippians
3:4-8).”
(Philippians 3:4-8)
“3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help
these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with
Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I
will say, rejoice. 5 Let your
reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to
God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true,
whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything
worthy of praise, think about these things.”
“Like the crowds that flocked to
hear John, churches today are filled with people merely going through the
motions. They may be baptized as infants,
attend services, perform rituals, pray, read their Bibles, even serve as
pastors and leaders in the church. But superficial
penitence will not deliver anyone from divine wrath and judgment.”
4/24/2026
9:27 PM
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