PT-4 "The Response to Jesus" (Matt. 19:20-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/14/2023 9:08 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-4 “The Response to Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 19:20-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?" 21 Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22 But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieved; for he was one who owned much property.”

 

            I want to continue looking at John MacArthur’s quote where we left off in our last SD.

            “Jesus took the focus off the young man’s felt religious and psychological needs and placed it on God.  He tried to show the man that the real problem in his life was not his feeling of emptiness and incompleteness, legitimate and important as those feelings were.  His great problem, from which those felt needs arose, was His separation from God and his total inability to reconcile himself with God. Scripture says, ‘God is angry with the wicked every day’ (Ps. 7:11 KJV).  In himself this man not only fell far short of God’s righteousness standards but was, in fact, an enemy of God and under His wrath (Rom. 5:10; Eph. 2:3).  And God will not save those who try to come to Him harboring sin.

 

            “Evangelism or personal witnessing that does not confront people with their utter sinfulness and helplessness is not faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ, no matter how much His name and His Word may be invoked.  A profession of Christ that does not include confession and repentance of sin does not bring salvation, no matter how much pleasant emotion may result.  To tell an unbeliever that God has a wonderful plan for his life can be seriously misleading.  If the unbeliever turns to Christ and is saved, God does indeed have a wonderful plan for him.  But if he does not turn to Christ, God’s only plan for him is damnation.  In the same way it is misleading and dangerous to tell an unbeliever only that God loves him, without telling him that, in spite of that love, he is under God’s wrath and sentenced to hell.

 

            “God’s grace cannot be faithfully preached to unbelievers until His law is preached and man’s corrupt nature is exposed.  It is impossible for a person to fully realize his need for God’s grace until he sees how terribly he has failed the standards of God’s law.  It is impossible for him to realize his need for mercy until he realizes the magnitude of his guilt.  As Samuel Bolton wisely commented, ‘When you see that men have been wounded by the law, then it is time to pour in the gospel oil.’

 

            “Instead of being wounded by the law, however, the rich young ruler was self-satisfied in regard to the law.  He diligently sought eternal life, but he sought it on his own terms and in his own power.  He would not confess his sin and admit his spiritual poverty.  Confession of sin and repentance from sin are utterly essential to salvation.  John the Baptist began his ministry preaching repentance (Matt.3:2), Jesus began His ministry preaching repentance (4:17), and both Peter and Paul began their ministries preaching repentance (Acts 2:38; 26:20).  Peter enven used repentance as a synonym for salvation when he wrote that ‘the Lord…is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance’ (2 Pet. 3:9).

 

            “True conviction, confession, and repentance of sin are as much a work of the Holy Spirit as any other part of salvation (John 6:44); 16:8-9).  They are divine works of grace, not pre-salvation works of human effort.  But just as receiving Christ as Lord and Savior demands the action of the believer’s will, so do confession and repentance.  It is not that an unbeliever must understand everything about confession, repentance, or any other aspect of salvation.  A person can genuinely receive Christ as Lord and Savior with very little knowledge about Him and the gospel.  But genuine belief is characterized by willingness to do whatever the Lord requires, just as unbelief is characterized by unwillingness to do whatever He requires.”

 

            Lord willing, we will begin to look at verse 21 as we begin our next SD on this fairly long section.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Being reminded of the truth that when I witness to unbelievers I need to make sure that they understand that repentance of their sin is a key to becoming a believer. 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trusting the Lord to give me victory over the flesh and being reminded that I must hate sin as much as the Lord hates it are also keys in my life to walk more closely with the Lord.

 

3/14/2023 9:36 AM

PT-3 "The Response to Jesus" (Matt. 19:20-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/13/2023 10:29 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-3 “The Response to Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 19:20-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?" 21 Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22 But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieved; for he was one who owned much property.”

 

            We have been talking about the fact that this young ruler knew that something was missing in his life and that is why he is talking to Jesus about eternal life, but he was not willing to admit what he did have and needed to receive, to be rid of, namely sin.  The problem was that he had too much spiritual pride to acknowledge, that he was sinful by nature, as we all are, and that his whole life fell short of God’s holiness and was an offense to Him.  His desire for eternal life was centered entirely in his own felt needs and longings.

 

            Here is a problem that he had, and probably a problem that even many of us believers have, and that is not having a hatred for sins that needed forgiving and no admission of a heart that needed cleansing.  Now I know that all of us as believers have had our hearts cleansed when we became a believer, but what I am talking about is our battle with the flesh, and sometimes it seems that the flesh wins some of these battles because we don’t hate sin as we should hate it.  Now all this man wanted from Jesus was another commandment, another formula, another rite or ceremony by which he could complete his religious obligations and make himself acceptable to God, showing that he wanted easy answer to something that it took God sending His Son to take our place on the cross to make payment for our sins, and that in fact was the greatest thing that has ever happened on planet earth.

 

            The hour is late as I have had a difficult day today and so I will close this very short SD with a quotation from John MacArthur’s commentary.  I want to also say that John MacArthur has had some health problems as he has had to have some stints put in and then he fell down a while back and hurt his wrist and head and actually missed the Shepherds Conference that is held each year in the college he is a part of.  He did make it to the last day to speak but I hear that he had to wear something to cover his wrist and a hat to help cover the wound on his head.  I think it would be good to hold this wonderful man up in prayer.

 

            “But salvation is for people who despair of their own efforts, who realize that, in themselves and by themselves, they are hopelessly sinful and incapable of improving.  Salvation is for those who see themselves as living violations of His holiness and who confess and turn from their sin and throw themselves on God’s mercy.  It is for those who recognize they have absolutely nothing good to give God, that anything good they receive or accomplish can be only by His sovereign, gracious provision in Jesus Christ.

            “Paul spends three full chapters of Romans declaring the sinfulness of man before he ever discusses the way of salvation.  John 1:17 declares, “The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”  Law always precedes grace; it is the tutor that leads to Christ (Gal. 3:24).”

 

3/13/2023 10:48 PM

Part 2 "The Response to Jesus" (Matt. 19:20-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/12/2023 8:13 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-2 “The Response to Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 19:20-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?" 21 Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22 But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieved; for he was one who owned much property.”

 

            I mentioned in our last SD that the young ruler was lacking something in his heart and that is why he had come to Jesus and we see that question in the last part of verse twenty what am I still lacking?" What is this man implying with this question?  Perhaps he thought that there were some commandments that he had not heard about or perhaps that something in addition to keeping the law was required to obtain eternal life.  The one important thing that did not occur to him was that he fell short in obedience to any part of God’s known law.  He did this because his outward, humanly observed life was “full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” as seen in Matthew 23:7.  This is something that he would not admit of himself that is that lust is a form of adultery, that hate is a form of murder, or that swearing by anything in heaven or on earth is a form of taking the Lord’s name in vain as seen in Matthew 5:22, 28, 34-35.  And one more thing that had certainly never occurred to him was that “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point…has become guilty of all” which comes from the pen of James 2:10.

 

            He is in the same boat as most of his Jewish contemporaries failed to see that the Mosaic commands were not given as means for humanly achieving God’s standard of righteousness but were given as pictures of His righteousness.  The Law of God was also given to show men how far away they were in trying to keep it on their own.  Paul writes about this in the book of Romans “Rom. 5:20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”  MacArthur adds “Obedience to the law is always imperfect because the human heart is imperfect.”

 

            I will conclude this short SD on the first day of Daylight Savings time with a quote from John MacArthur:  “One of sins greatest curses is the spiritual and moral blindness it produces.  It would not seem to require special revelation from God for men to realize that even the commandments concerning their relationship to other men are impossible to keep perfectly.  What truly honest person would claim he has never total a single falsehood of any sort, never coveted anything that belongs to someone else, and always treated his parents with respect and honor—much less that he had always loved his neighbors as much as he loved himself?  But one of Satan’s chief strategies is to blind sinners to their sin; and because pride is at the heart of all sin, there is a natural inclination toward self-deceit.  And nothing is more effective in producing self-deceit than works-righteousness, which is the basis of every man-made religion, including the God-given but humanly corrupted religion of the first-century Judaism.”

 

3/12/2023 8:41 AM

 

           

PT-1 "The Response of Jesus" (Matt. 19:20-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/11/2023 12:27 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-1 “The Response to Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 19:20-22

 

            Message of the verses:  “20 The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?" 21 Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22 But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieved; for he was one who owned much property.

           

            The first thing I want to say is that we will be looking over these verses for a fairly long period of time.  The second thing I want to say and that is verse 22 is one of the saddest verses found in the Word of God, and the things talked about in verse 21 and 22 are still going on in our world today and that too is very sad.

 

            We see in the verse 20 that the man said to Jesus "All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?"  What he was saying to Jesus was probably sincere but it was far from being true.  His problem is like most of the scribes and Pharisees, and that was that he was convinced in his mind that he had kept all of God’s law as son he tells Jesus “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up” (Mark 10:20).  One of the things that I continue to think about as I go through this section of Matthew 19 goes back to what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus was saying what is going on in the mind of a person is more important than the actions that the person is taking.  I have mentioned before that Jesus said that if a man looks at a woman with lust in his heart he has already committed adultery with her, and this is the things that the scribes and the Pharisees did not get, and it is not just the scribes and the Pharisees who did not get this as people throughout the church age have not gotten it either.  I have read that when a Muslin man wants to go to a brothel that there is a short marriage ceremony with the woman and him so what they do makes it all right with the Muslin faith.  All I can say is that it may be all right with the Muslin faith but not ok with God as His Word makes that clear. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “Because the commandments concerning attitudes toward God were just as familiar to the man as the one’s Jesus quoted, he obviously thought he had fulfilled those as well.  His view of the law was completely superficial, external, and man-oriented.  Because he had not committed physical adultery or murder, because he was not a liar or a thief, and because he did not blaspheme the Lord’s name or worship idols, he looked on himself as being virtually perfect in God’s eyes.”  I would say that this man, and many others had a false sense of security.  I have to go back to what this man visited Jesus in the first place, and I believe that he realized that he knew that there was still something wrong in his heart but when he gets the solution he goes back to what he thought he was doing right and won’t look at what he will not be able to give up to receive eternal life.  Now I am not saying that a person can earn salvation, because the Bible makes that clear that you cannot, but there are “road blocks” in a person that when told about them will not give them up.  Remember the story of the slave and the slave owner I spoke about in our last SD.

3/11/2023 12:56 PM

PT-2 "The Response by Jesus" (Matt. 19:17-19)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/10/2023 12:06 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-2 “The Response by Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 19:17-19

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 And he said to him, Why are you questioning me about what is good? One there is who is good: but if you have a desire to go into life, keep the rules of the law. 18 He says to him, Which? And Jesus said, Do not put anyone to death, Do not be untrue in married life, Do not take what is not yours, Do not give false witness, 19  Give honour to your father and your mother: and, Have love for your neighbor as for yourself.”(BBE)

 

            The story that I want to tell probably has been told by men before, but I actually don’t remember when I told it.  At any rate that was a slave owner in the south who had a slave who knew the Lord and told him about the Lord.  The owner wanted to come to the Lord, but the slave told him that he had to come down and work with him in the muddy fields wearing his white suit.  This went on a couple of times and every time the owner said that he would not do that but that he really wanted to know about the peace that this slave had.  Finally the day came when the owner told the slave that he would do that.  To his surprise the slave told him that he did not have to do that for as long as he said that he would do it that was enough.  The slave owner came to know Jesus Christ.  Sometimes people, like this young man in our verses put something in front of them that keeps them from coming to know the Lord, something that they love more, and as we will see what this young man loved more than Jesus was his money, and unlike the slave owner he refused to give up his money.  He had something that he cannot keep and yet he did not want to give that up.

 

            The truth is that in churches today that there are many people who give out a false hope in giving out the gospel, things like just signing a card that shows that a person has come to the Lord, and yet there is no fruit in the person who signed the card. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “The gospel is not a means of adding something better to what one already has, a means of supplementing human effort by divine.  Nor is it simply a means of fulfilling psychological needs, no matter how real and significant they may be.  Jesus did not die simply to make people feel better by relieving their frustrations and anxieties.  And relief from such feelings I no certain evidence of salvation.

            “Many people are simply looking for solutions to their felt needs, but that is not enough to bring them to legitimate salvation.  Jesus therefore did not offer any relief for the young man’s felt needs.  Instead, He gave an answer designed to confront him with the fact that he was a living offense to Holy God.  Proper evangelism must lead a sinner to measure himself against the perfect law of God so he can see his deficiency Salvation is for those who hate their sin.”

 

            The young man asked Jesus “Which ones,” referring to which commandments he must keep in order to have eternal life.  He could have been saying to Jesus “I have read the commandments many times.  I memorized them when I was a small boy, and I have carefully kept them ever since. How could I have missed any?  Which ones could You possibly have n mind?

 

            Well we know that no one has kept perfectly the Ten Commandments and even though this young man thought he had, he had not!  Now our Lord responded by quoting five of the Ten Commandments as seen in verse 18b not commit murder, not commit adultery, not steal, not bear false witness, and to honor your father and mother (See Exodus 10:12-16).  He then added the second greatest commandment:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18; compare Matt. 22:39).

 

            These words were very familiar with this young man, but again he missed Jesus’ point.  Just as he failed to recognize that the One to whom he spoke was Himself God who is the source of eternal life, he also failed to see that those well-known commandments, and all the other commandments, could provide the life to which they pointed. 

 

            MacArthur writes “The Lord did not mention the first four of the Ten Commandments, which center on man’s attitude toward God (Ex. 20:3-11), or the first and greatest commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deu. 6:5; cf. Matt. 22:38).  Those commandments are even more impossible to keep than the ones Jesus quoted.  The Lord therefore challenged the young ruler against the least impossible of the commandments, as if were.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is what is on the inside that counts.

 

 

3/10/2023 12:45 PM

 

 

PT-1 "The Response by Jesus" (Matt. 19:17-19)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/9/2023 12:21 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-1 “The Response by Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 19:17-19

 

            Message of the verses:  17 And He said to him, "Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." 18 He said to Him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS; 19  HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER; and YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’”

 

            Jesus answers this young man’s question with something that is even more amazing than his request.  He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good?  There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

 

            Put yourself in the position of Jesus in answering this man’s question about what he had to do to have eternal life.  You probably would say something like you have to realize that you are a sinner, born a sinner, and you sin because you are a sinner, and you can do nothing on your own to receive eternal life, but what the Lord did for you is die in your place and if you will confess that you are a sinner and believe that the Lord died in your place and then invite Him into your life to save you then you will receive eternal life.  However eternal life is more that life after you die, it is something that you receive once you have been born-again and will continue through all eternity.

 

            That is not what Jesus said and that is why it is amazing that the answer He gives to this young man.  First He wondered why this young man asked Him about what is good, and then He answers him by saying no one is good but God, and then He tells him if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.

 

            I don’t really think that this young man knew that the One he was talking to was Good, because He was God incarnate.  It was because the man made no response concerning the only One who is good, it seems certain that he viewed Jesus as no more than an especially gifted human teacher.  He had indeed come to the right source for the answer to his question and the fulfillment of his need, but he did not recognize that Source for who He really was.

 

            This man was missing an essential quality and that is that he lacked the sense of his own sinfulness and Jesus had to point that out.  Now how did Jesus point this out?  He says to the young man If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”  This was more familiar to the man that is keeping the commandments.  I think that at this time I want to say something about the Ten Commandments, something brief, and that is in the first place no one can keep these commandments for as we learned in the Sermon on the Mount for instance not committing adultery means not to think about a women to lust after her, so this speaks of something that goes on in the heart and mind.  The last commandment has to do with covertness: “"You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’”  This has to do with the mind also and I don’t think that anyone has ever not coveted something that they did not have. 

 

            I will conclude with a quotation from MacArthur’s commentary to help sum up what I have been writing about here.  “Judged by the principles and strategy of much contemporary evangelism, Jesus seems to have made a serious insensitive mistake.  He not only did not take advantage of man’s obvious readiness to make a decision but He even seemed to be teaching righteousness by works.

            “But Jesus knew this man’s heart was not ready to believe in Him, just as the hearts of many people who express great interest in Him are not ready to believe.  The man had a deep longing for something important in his life that he knew was missing.  He doubtlessly had anxiety and frustration and longed for peace, joy, hope and assurance.  He wanted all the inner blessings the Old Testament associated with spiritual life.  He longed for God’s blessings, but he did not long for God.  He wanted to know what good things he should do, but he did not want to know the only One who is good.”

 

            I will try and remember to tell a story that goes along with this section in my next SD.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Understand better all that is involved in salvation, for as stated about this man and his question I may have missed what his real issue was.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Be ready to tell the entire truth of salvation to any one that the Spirit of God brings my way for a divine appointment.

 

3/9/2023 12:51 PM

PT-3 "The Request to Jesus" (Matt. 19:16)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/8/2023 9:04 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 “The Request to Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 19:16

 

            Message of the verse:  “16 And behold, one came to Him and said, "Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?’”

 

            I have to say that this is the saddest of stories as this young ruler came seeking for the right thing, which is eternal life, and he came to the only One who could provide that for him, Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ who not only is the way to eternal life, but is Himself that life, and yet we will see that this man will walk away because of his love for something that will one day fade away, that is money.  Let us look at 1 John 5:11 & 20 at this time:  “11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”  “20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”   It doesn’t become any clearer that this.

 

            John MacArthur writes “By addressing Jesus as Teacher (didaskalos), the young man acknowledged Him to be a respected rabbi, an authority of the Old Testament, a teacher of divine truth.  Although the two other synoptic gospels report that the man also called Jesus “good” (Mark 10:17; Luke 18:18), there is no reason to believe he considered Him to be the promised Messiah and Son of God.  But he obviously considered Jesus to have a stature of righteous character above the typical rabbi.  The authority of Jesus’ teaching and the power of His miracles surely qualified Him as someone who knew the way to eternal life.  Even though he did not acknowledge that Jesus was Messiah and God in the flesh, he had come to the right person (cf. Acts 4:12).”

 

            This man not only came to the right source but he also asked the right question:  “What good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?”  MacArthur adds that “Many interpreters have criticized the man for asking about what he must do, suggesting that his question was works oriented.  Doubtlessly he was steeped in the Pharisaic legal system that had come to dominate Judaism and was trained to think that doing religious things was the way to gain divine favor.  But taken at face value, his question was legitimate.  There is something one must do in order to come to God.  When the multitude near Capernaum asked Jesus, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God’ He replied, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent’ (John 6:28-29).”

 

            So the question is “what is the main point of the question, how to obtain eternal life?  As stated before this is the most important question that a person can ask.  The entire purpose of evangelism is to bring lost people to Jesus Christ in order for them to obtain eternal life.  The very purpose and meaning of salvation is to bring eternal life to those who, because of sin, face eternal death as seen in Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

            MacArthur concludes this section by writing:  “The issue on this occasion was the man’s salvation, not some higher level of discipleship subsequent to salvation.  Most of the work of evangelism is to bring people to the point where they sense their need for salvation, but this young man was already there.  He was ready to sign the card, raise his hand, walk the aisle, or whatever.  He was ripe and eager—what many modern evangelists would consider a ‘hot prospect.’

 

3/8/2023 9:34 AM