PT-4 "The Peril" (Matt. 18:6-7)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/10/2022 9:31 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-4 “The Peril”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 18:6-7

 

            Message of the verses:  “6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.

    7 "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!

 

            We have been looking at ways in which a person (believer or nonbeliever) can cause others to stumble into sin.  A husband can cause his wife to sin by suggesting that they “cheat” on their income taxes. This would be a double sin as both are involved in it.  Stretching the expense account and telling others how to do it would be sinful. 

 

            MacArthur writes “Those examples and many more would qualify as ways of leading a child of God to sin.  It is amazing how reluctant we are to expose our physical children to evil and how eager we are to protect them.  But frequently we are not as eager to protect all other children in the Lord’s family.”

 

            Paul writes in Ephesians 6:4 “Do not provoke your children to anger” and this can be another way that a parent can cause a child to sin.  It is a difficult task in raising children and the Bible has much to say about it, and if it is tough for Christians to raise their children it is much tougher for non believers to raise their children as they are not familiar with the way that can get the help they need through the Bible and also belonging to a church that preaches the gospel where they will find help from other believers.

 

            MacArthur writes “A third manner of causing God’s children to stumble is through sinful example.  Without having a word said to them, believers can be led into sinful attitudes and practices simply by following the bad example of others.  Here again parents need to be on guard, because they are continually setting examples, both good and bad, for their children to follow.”

 

            In his sermon and in his commentary MacArthur tells the story of an alcoholic father who went out of his house one snowy evening to get a drink and his six year old son was following in his footsteps.  The father turned around and asked his son where he was going and the son told him that he was following in his footsteps.  The man turned around and went home and began to weep.  Later on he became a believer and never drank again.

 

            Paul exhorted Timothy in a letter he wrote to him that is found in the Word of God.  Timothy became the Pastor at Ephesus and so Paul was writing to him about that and other matters.  “In speech, conduct, love, faith and purity “he was to show himself “an example of those who believe” (1Timothy 4:12).  All church leaders are examples to others in the church and so they are to conduct themselves in living a life that pleases the Lord.

            I want to start tomorrows SD by looking at what Paul wrote about eating meat that came from an idol’s “butcher shop.”

 

12/10/2022 9:53 AM

 

           

PT-3 "The Peril" (Matt. 18:6-7)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/9/2022 9:38 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-3 “The Peril”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 18:6-7

 

            Message of the verses:  “6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.

    7 “Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!”

 

            In earlier SD’s we have talked about the “religious” system that was in place when Jesus was on the earth, and it was almost a cult like system, a works system where the leaders of it were causing those who were following their practices to sin because of the system itself.  Jesus charged the Jewish leaders not only with being hypocritical and sinful themselves but with leading others into sin through their man-made traditions.  An example of this would be adultery in the sense of having an extramarital affair, many of them became adulterers themselves and promoted adultery by others affair, many of them became adulterers themselves and promoted adultery by others through their tradition of permitting a husband to divorce his wife without legitimate cause.  Jesus said that “whoever divorces his wife, except for the cause of unchastity makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (Matthew 5:32).  I once read or heard a sermon on the Muslim religion where a man wanted to have sexual relations with a prostate would have to have a marriage with her and then when the visit was over they would get a divorce.  The point is that in both cases, the Jews and the Muslims is was something they were doing to get around the laws that were in place.  It has to be a heart thing and not mechanically trying to get around the law in the way they did.  Jesus also said that if a man looks at a woman to lust upon her that he has already committed adultery with that woman in their heart, and I suppose that this can happen to women too.

 

            Let me give you a verse that speaks of one of the reasons that God gave His Law:  Ro 5:20  The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”  Paul is saying that one of the reasons for the Law was so that the transgression would increase, and when you think about this perhaps it does not make sense to you at first.  There has only been one Person who has kept the Law perfectly, and that of course was Jesus Christ.  He kept the Law perfectly so that we don’t have to, and we don’t keep it perfectly because we are not able to keep it perfectly so then in order to receive eternal life we have to realize this truth and then trust the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation who has kept it perfectly for all those who belong to Him.  21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). 

 

            Let us move on and talk about the church at Pergamum, a church that is seen in the second chapter of Revelation.  This church was indicted by the Lord because it tolerated members who held “teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality” (Rev 2:14).  In Revelation 2:20 we read of a similar sin that came from the church at Thyatira “‘But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.”  The bottom line is that both churches tolerated the teaching of false doctrine and the practice of wicked standards of living, and by doing this they caused people to stumble into sin.

 

            A long time ago I met a man who had grown up in Europe during the Second World War, as he was a young boy when this was going on.  There are many stories I could tell about Paul but one that kind of goes along with what we are looking at happened after he came to the United States and was attending a church where the deacons in that church were not living for the Lord and were probably not even true believers.  Paul and some other believers began to pray for the church and for a number of months the deacons began to die, so I guess it seems that the Lord was answering their prayers in getting that church where He wanted it to be.  I don’t remember how many of the deacons who died but I think the number six stands out in my mind.  God has ways to cleanse a church if that is what the people in the church want to happen. 

 

            We will continue to talk about how people can cause other people to sin and will begin with a story about a husband causing his wife to sin in our next SD.

 

12/9/2022 10:31 AM

PT-2 "The Peril" (Matt. 18:6-7)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/8/2022 9:42 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-2 “The Peril”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 18:6-7

 

            Message of the verses:  “6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.

    7 "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!

 

            I mentioned in our last SD on these verses that we would talk a bit about false prophets.  There is a reason that the Bible speaks so forcefully against false teachers or prophets, and that reason is that they not only believe and practice evil, but they also lure others, including God’s true children into their wicked beliefs and practices.  In my study of the book of Hebrews I have been looking at what the Bible calls “apostates.”  An apostate is a person who truly knows and understands the truth of salvation, they know what they need to do in order to become a true born-again believer in Jesus Christ, and then they walk away not accepting the truth.  Judas, and also Esau are noted apostates found in the Word of God.  Judas walked with the Lord for three years and then sold Him for 20 pieces of silver.  Esau sold his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of some kind of red stew, and later on he sought it with tears but had gone too far and later died in his sin.  MacArthur writes “People in the church who live ungodly lives and lure others into their sinful ways are sticking their finger in God’s eye, as it were, and would be better off dead.  How we treat fellow believers in the church is a matter of immense importance, and to lead them into sin, thus irritation Almighty God, is unthinkable.”  Now remember that what is done to a true believer is done to Jesus Christ.

 

            The truth is that there are many ways persons can be caused to stumble into sin, and the most obvious way is by, directly tempting them to sin, and we know that Satan and the world can use even believers to tempt other believers to sin.

 

            We don’t have to get to far in our reading of the Bible to find the first person who tempted another into sin, as we can go to the third chapter of Genesis to find that Eve tempted Adam into sin with the eating of the forbidden fruit.  It was after Satan’s temptation herself she immediately seduced Adam into joining her in disobeying God.  The blame game came after this as when confronted by God Adam said it was Eve’s fault, and Eve said it was the snake’s fault (Satan), and the snake did not have a leg to stand on.  As we continue looking at the early chapters of the Bible we see that Aaron, the high priest of Israel caused the whole nation of Israel to sin as he made the golden calf while Moses was up on Mt. Sinai.  Aaron had an excuse when confronted by Moses as he stated that he put the gold into some kind of mold and out came the calf.  We can think of all kinds of excuses as we all, at times play the blame game.  Next we want to look at what happened after Solomon’s son became king of all of Israel, and after that it was the will of the Lord to allow the nation to split into two kingdoms.  Jeroboam was the first king of the northern kingdom, and as we read through the history of the northern kingdom we see his name mentioned many times, that is mentioned in a bad way.  I did a word search of Jeroboam from 1^st and 2^nd Kings and found his name 71 times, and many of those times is spoke of the sin that he committed. “29 It came about as soon as he was king, he struck down all the household of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam any persons alive, until he had destroyed them, according to the word of the LORD, which He spoke by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, 30 and because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, because of his provocation with which he provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger” (1 Kings 15:29-30).  Notice the highlighted portion of verse thirty as this is the first time that we see this mentioned in the Word of God, but will be repeated again and again as we read through 1^st and 2^nd Kings.  This is what one can call an example not to follow.

 

12/8/2022 10:15 AM

 

PT-1 "The Peril" (Matt. 18:6-7)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/7/2022 9:35 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-1 “The Peril”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 18:6-7

 

            Message of the verses:  “6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.

    7 "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!

 

            We just spent two days looking at the “Principle” from verse five, the good side, and not we must take some time to look at the negative side of the previously mentioned truth.  When a person mistreats a fellow believer he is in effect mistreating Jesus Christ.  This principle applies to believers and unbelievers alike.  It makes little difference as to whether or not the person who is doing the mistreating to a believer, whether a believer is doing this or an unbeliever they are doing it to Jesus Christ.  Now I want to remind you that the disciples at this time were not living the way that they were supposed to be living, and also in the larger section that I believe goes back to chapter 17 Jesus is taking time to minister to His disciples and not to others as Jesus was teaching them things that they will need to know after He has left them and going back to the Father.

 

            Jesus here is speaking of moral and spiritual stumbling, that is of sinning, which is what the disciples were doing.  MacArthur writes “The verb (scandalized) to stumble literally means ‘to cause to fall,’ and the Lord is therefore speaking of enticing, trapping, or influencing a believer in any way that leads him into sin or in any way makes it easier for him to sin.  A person who is responsible for causing a Christian to sin commits an offense against Christ Himself as well as against the Christian.

 

            “In the most vivid and sobering language indicating the seriousness of such an act against one of God’s children, Jesus declared that a person who does such a thing would be better off dying a terrible death.  It would be better for him, in fact that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

 

            Now the millstone that Jesus is referring it the kind of millstone that was pulled by an animal in order to grind wheat, actually the kind of millstone that Samson was pulling as seen in the story of Samson found in the book of Judges.  The word translates mulos onikos as this is a very heavy grinding stone.  It was the practice of the Romans as they would do exactly what Jesus describes in verse six as they would use this as a form of execution.  This was a horrible kind of execution that is drowning a person something that the Jews would never practice.  Jesus said of this horrible execution method that it would be better to have done to a person who causes a believer to fall into sin.

 

            As I mentioned this statement that Jesus made must have been especially sobering to the disciples as they were just talking about which of them who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  This dispute doubtlessly caused everyone’s anger and resentment to rise, as one after the other gave their reasons he was due the honor.  The twelve were not only sinning because of their own pride and boasting but also because they were inciting each other to envy, jealously, and anger. 

 

            Now when a person confess the fact that he is a sinner and then realizes that the only way to have forgiveness of their sins is to invite the Lord Jesus into their hearts, realizing that on their own they could do nothing to have their sins forgive, but that they then realize what it was that Jesus had done for them on the cross, dying in their place and then crediting this person with His own righteousness.  This is called the great exchange as the Lord paid for their sin and exchanged righteousness for them.  Now with this stated the person becomes a child of God, and think about how parents would do most anything for their parents to protect them from harm, and so God the Father does this for His own children. 2Co 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. This is the “great exchange” verse that I am speaking of.

 

            In the book of Zachariah we read in 2:8 For thus says the LORD of hosts, "After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.”  Notice the highlighted portion of this verse.  The apple of His eye here is speaking of the children of Israel, and the apple of the eye is the pupil of the eye, the most delicate and sensitive expose part of the body, the eye.  No one wants to receive a poke in the eye as this can cause blindness or being miserable and so God is saying through Zachariah that His children are most precious to Him and to leave them alone.  In conclusion it is not good to poke the eye of our Lord, and this is what a person is doing when they cause a believer to fall into sin.

 

            Lord willing we will begin our next SD by talking about false teachers.

 

12/7/2022 10:17 AM

 

           

PT-2 "The Principle" (Matt. 18:5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/6/2022 11:09 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-2 “The Principle”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 18:5

 

            Message of the verse:  “And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;”

 

            It was because that I was sick for the last couple of weeks that I did not do my Spiritual Diaries last week and so as am beginning to feel better I began walking again and while I walk I listen to sermons, and I listened to the sermon that John MacArthur preached on Matthew 18:5-9 yesterday.  I needed to go over this sermon again as I suppose the older you get the fact is that you do not retain the information that you could when you were younger.  Now I promised to go over the word “receives” as we begin this SD.

 

            MacArthur writes “Receives” is from dechomai, which means to deliberately and readily take something or someone to oneself.  The term was often used of welcoming honored guests and meeting their needs with special attention and kindness.  Jesus’ primary point here is that the way a person, believer or unbeliever, treats Christians is the way he treats Jesus Christ.  When anyone welcomes with an open heart a Christian as an honored guest and friend, he welcomes Christ as his guest and friend.  When he treats any Christian with tenderness and kindness, he treats Christ in the same way.” 

 

            Now as I was listening to the sermon yesterday and this section from the fifth verse I have to say that if I knew this, and I probably did, that it had new meaning to my heart.  To think that if a person, believer or non-believer treats me or any other believer wrongly because of Jesus Christ that no matter what they would do to me or any believer they are doing to Jesus Christ, and one day those unbelievers will have to answer for what they have done. 

 

            Let us look at an example of this teaching that comes from the 25^th chapter of Matthew, a chapter that speaks of the Tribulation period that has yet to come, but will come, and in my opinion will come soon.

 

31 "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 “All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36  naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37  "Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’”

 

            In the next verses Jesus talks to the unbelievers who did nothing for any of the believers and He tells them the same thing as we see in verse forty.

 

            Believers are to receive one another with tenderness, care, kindness, and love, opening up their hearts to welcome fellow believers no matter who they are.  I know that sometimes this is a difficult thing to do, and we will certainly need a great deal of grace in order to do this, but that is what we are to do, and in doing this believers will embrace the Lord Jesus Christ who lives in them.  We are to care for each other like precious children as Jesus was illustrating by having a child on His lap while teaching this section of verses.  This is a vital message to the church, especially in the times we are living in now.

 

12/6/2022 11:31 AM

"The Principle" (Matt. 18:5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/5/2022 11:08 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-1 “The Principle”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 18:5

 

            Message of the verse:  “And whoever received one such child in My name receives Me;”

 

            It has been a week or so since we looked at the introduction to this section which covers Matthew 18:5-9, but we will have to pick up and go to this first sub-section this morning.

 

            As we look at this verse we can see that the basic truth of it is that it is impossible to separate Christ from His people and that, consequently, whatever affects believers, affects Him.  The specific truth here is that whoever receives a child of God in Christ’s name receives Christ.  This is a wonderful truth to behold as there is nothing better in this world than for a person to receive Christ as their Savior and Lord.

 

            We can see clearly from this context, Jesus using a child that He was probably holding in His arms or on His lap as He was teaching to His disciples and perhaps others who were in the room.  Using this child was only and illustration.  One such child identifies the spefic child being referred to in this context.  MacArthur writes “This can only mean the one who spiritually becomes a little child, as described in verses 3-4.  Jesus was not speaking of the toddler himself but was using him to represent the children of God.  The physical child symbolized the spiritual child of God, who becomes childlike in his faith and who humbly accepts the gospel and is converted (v. 3).  Such converted people are the ‘little ones who believe in Me,’ Jesus explained (v. 6).  And no matter how lowly, unsophisticated, immature, or weak a believer is, he must be treated as the precious child of God he truly is.  There is solidarity and unity between the Lord and all who share His life by the indwelling Holy Spirit.”

 

            It is therefore important for us to see that Christianity is not a system of religion but a redeemed people who are united with God, one with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.  We as believers not only follow the teaching of Christ, but Christ Himself and are totally and intimately identified with Him.  He is the Head and we are the body as seen in 1 Cor. 12:27); He is the Vine and we are the branches as seen in John 15:5); He is the Bridegroom and we are the bride (Rev. 21:2, 9). 

 

            We will end this SD with an important, rather long, paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary.  “In profound terms, Jesus affirmed this amazing reality to His disciples, ‘The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and the one who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me’ (Luke 10:16; cf. John 13:20).  When Saul was persecuting Christians, the Lord confronted him on the Damascus Road with the words, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’  (Acts 9:4).  In his first letter to the Corinthian church, Paul negatively confirmed the oneness between Christ and each believer when he strongly rejected them for sexual immorality involving prostitutes.  It was spiritually defiling in a unique way, because it made Christ Himself a kind of participant in the sin.  Because the believer is spiritually united with Christ, when he sexually unites himself with a prostitute he involves the Lord in his sin.  ‘Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?’ the apostle asked.  ‘Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?  May it never be!’ (1 Cor. 6:15).  It is not that Christ Himself is made impure by the impurity of His followers but that His name is stained.  He is not personally contaminated by believers’ sin any more than sunlight is contaminated by shining on a garbage dump.  But His name is maligned and His work is hindered when His people sin, just as His heart is blessed when His people are received.”

 

            Lord willing we will begin our next SD by looking at the meaning of the word “receives.”

 

12/5/2022 11:39 AM

Sick

  I have been under the weather for the last week and that is why there have been no new posts.  Lord willing I will begin doing my blogs tomorrow (12-05-2022).

ken