EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/4/2026
6:29 PM
My
Worship Time
Focus: PT-1 “Rejecting The Righteous”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke
5:30-32
Message of the verses: “The Pharisees and their scribes began
grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax
collectors and sinners?” And Jesus
answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician,
but those who are sick. I have not come
to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Today was a very sad day for my wife
and I as we know now that if there is not a miracle from the Lord, or better
yet, the rapture takes place that in the not to distance future she will go
home to be with the Lord. I will do my
best to continue to write my Spiritual Diaries.
It was their haughty disdain for the
riffraff that are inside prevented them from attending Matthew’s banquet, but
that did not mean that the Pharisees and their scribes weren’t aware of
what was going on inside. They expressed
their disapproval by grumbling (gogguzo; and onomatopoetic word) at
Jesus’ disciples. They would
not deign to speak to any of the tax collectors and sinners attending the
banquet. But they evidently expected the
Lord and His disciples to follow the prescriptions of the rabbinic law, hence
their anger and resentment toward them.
MacArthur writes “Their question, ‘Why
do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?’ reflects the
scribes’ and Pharisees’ outrage that Jesus and His disciples would associate
with those unclean outcasts. Their
question was a rhetorical one, intended as a stinging rebuke for what they
viewed as outrageous behavior on the part of the Lord and His disciples. The question exposes the scribes and
Pharisees as proud, focused on externals, and hypocritical. Imagining themselves to be the religious
elite, they were in reality void of grace and strangers to salvation. Jesus turned His back on the outwardly moral,
and focused on transforming repentant sinners into a holy people.”
Now Jesus was overhearing the
scribes and Pharisees, Jesus answered their challenge. (My thoughts that He did not really have to
hear what they were saying, as He knew what was going on in their hearts
without hearing what they said. Jesus’
reply consisted of three parts. The Lord
first gave an analogy, pointing out the self-evident fact that it is not
those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. The scribes and Pharisees could not dispute
that the tax collectors and sinners were spiritually sick; they were the
sickest of the sick. How could they
argue that the Great Physician should not minister to them? The Lord’s reply
was a powerful indictment of their cold hearts, wickedness, and hatred of the
very downtrodden sinners they should have sought to help They saw no sin in themselves, probably
because they were not looking for it, and they saw no good or value in others,
which actually shows their sinfulness.
MacArthur then writes “Second, Jesus
answered them from Scripture. Matthew
9:13 records that He also told the scribes and Pharisees to ‘go and learn [an
expression used by the rabbis to rebuke unwarranted ignorance] what this means:
‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice.’’ The quote is from Hosea 6:6, and
declares that God does not want external sacrifices but a heart that shows
mercy (cf. Prov. 21:3; Isa. 1:11-17; Amos 5:21-24; Mic. 6:8).”
(Hosea 6:6)
“6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.’
(cf. Prov. 21:3; Isa. 1:11-17; Amos
5:21-24; Mic. 6:8).”
“3 ¶ To do righteousness and justice is more
acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.”
“11 "What to me is the multitude of your
sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the
fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or
of goats. 12 "When you come to
appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an
abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I
cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become
a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15
When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even
though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. 16
¶ Wash yourselves; make yourselves
clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
17 learn to do good; seek justice,
correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”
“21 ¶ "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I
take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I
will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will
not look upon them. 23 Take away from me
the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. 24 But let justice roll down like waters, and
righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
“8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and
what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and
to walk humbly with your God?”
“Those who
show mercy to others as the Lord commanded (Luke 6:36) will themselves receive
mercy from God (Matt. 5:7), but ‘judgment will be merciless to one who has
shown no mercy’ (James 2:13). The
scribes and Pharisees, who prided themselves on their rigid adherence to the
law, had no excuse for failing to show mercy to those who so desperately needed
it.”
(Luke 6:36)
“36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.’
(Matt. 5:7)
“7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they
shall receive mercy.”
“Finally, Jesus answered them from
His own personal authority as God incarnate, declaring, ‘I have not come to
call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’
It is a statement full of irony, even sarcasm (cf. Paul’s sarcastic
deflation of the conceited Corinthians in 1 Cor. 4:8).”
(1 Cor. 4:8).
“8 Already you have all you want! Already you
have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did
reign, so that we might share the rule with you!”
“Accepting
on the surface the scribes’ and Pharisees’ evaluation of themselves as
righteous and hence not in need of a Savior, Jesus judicially left them to
their self-righteous folly (cf. Matt. 15:14).”
(cf. Matt. 15:14)
“14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if
the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.’”
“Later He
would again make this point when He told His hearers that ‘there will be more
joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous
persons who need not repentance’ (Luke 15:7).
God seeks the truly repentant heart, not the hardened, self-exalting,
self-righteous one. It was the humble,
repentant tax collector, not the self-exalting, self-righteous Pharisee who
Jess said was justified (18:14). It was
His classifying of them as sinners in need of repentance that inflamed the Pharisees’
hatred of Jesus.”
There is just a little more to look
at in this section which Lord willing, I will look at in the morning.
6/4/2026
7:19 PM
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