PT-3 "The Intruder Expelled" (Matt. 22:11-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/7/2023 10:32 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-3 “The Intruder Expelled”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 22:11-14

 

            Message of the verses:  “11 "But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, 12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. 13 “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.’”

 

            Think with me back to the very first book of the Bible and what happened shortly after Adam and Eve sinned against the Lord.  I want to focus in on the story of Cain and Able to make a point that since that time men have been just like Cain and what he tried to do to get close to the Lord.  I have to believe that the Lord had told both brothers how they were to offer a sacrifice to the Lord, but Cain, like the old song that Frank Sinatra sang “I Did It My Way,” and that is what Cain did, and people have been doing it their way ever since.  Able did it God’s way, the way that God had instructed him to do, and today if anyone ever wants to get to heaven then they have to do it the way that God has provided.  Jesus Christ came to earth to provide a way for people to be saved; He did it God’s way to provide salvation for those who will accept it.  To understand that because of Adam and Eve’s sin that we are all born sinners and we sin because that is the way that we are born.  I had a friend who when you would ask him how he was doing he would always say that “I was born wrong.”  What he said was true, but I don’t think that he really knew what he was saying.  I was born wrong because I was born a sinner and so when Jesus died He died for the sin that I was born with and the sins that I commit.  The man in this story was trying to get to God on his own merits just like Cain was trying to do.

 

            I wonder how many people that I know that say that they are believers are really trying to get to God their own way.  “They may fellowship with believers, join the church, become active in the leadership, give generously to its support, and speak of devotion to God.  Like the tares among the wheat, they freely coexist for with God’s people. But in the Day of Judgment their falsehood will become obvious and their removal certain.  Some will dare to say to God ‘on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’  And then [Christ] will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’’” (Matt. 7:22-23).  (MacArthur’s commentary)

 

            We have mentioned that the King had given these guests of His wedding garments to wear to the wedding of His Son.  What kind of wedding garment does a true believer have?  The answer to this question is “God-imputed righteousness.”  Without which no one can enter or live in the kingdom.  Jesus said the following in Matthew 5:20 “"For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  “The only acceptable wedding garment is the genuine ‘sanctification without which no one will see the Lord’ (Heb. 12:14).” (MacArthur’s commentary)

 

            Perhaps some of our Lord’s hearers who were listening to this parable would have had their thoughts go to a passage in Isaiah 61:10 “I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”   

 

            As we look at this wonderful verse in Isaiah we can conclude that this is all done by the Lord for us and all we have to do is accept those wedding clothes of righteousness in order to live with Him forever.  I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that a believer can be known by the fruit that he produces, and the fruit that he produces comes from the Holy Spirit living in him.  “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).  You can see in this verse that it is God who beforehand prepared fruit for those who belong to Him, and as a believer I must find out what it is that the Lord has prepared for me to do, and then by the power of His Holy Spirit, and the understanding of His Word do what He has prepared me to do.

 

8/7/2023 11:08 AM

PT-2 "The Intruder Expelled" (Matt. 22:11-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/6/2023 8:02 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-2 “The Intruder Expelled”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 22:11-14

 

            Message of the verses:  “11 "But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, 12  and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. 13 “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.’”

 

            In this part of Jesus’ parable I can see that the king was gracious in asking the man not dressed in wedding clothes how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ The king could have just thrown him out without even talking to him.  The king even called him friend, but this man had no answer to give to the king as he was speechless.  He could not even give the king an excuse as to why he was there without wedding clothes.  It is therefore obvious that he could have come in wedding clothes had he been willing.

 

            MacArthur writes “Until that point the man had been utterly presumptuous, thinking he could come to the king’s feast on his own terms, in any clothes he wanted.  He was proud and self-willed, thoughtless of the others, and worst of all, insulting to the king.  Arrogantly defying royal protocol, he was determined to ‘be himself.’

 

            The result of his being arrogant the king did what he must do “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”  I think the binding of hand and feet was like putting on handcuffs with also restraints on his feet so that he would not cause any trouble by returning to the wedding feast again.  The man was permanently expelled from the presence of the king and of the king’s people into outer darkness.  This man will have great regreat and remorse, and, with everyone else in that place, he would experience perpetual weeping and gnashing of teeth.  But though he had a great opportunity, he had never had, and did not now have, the godly sorrow that leads to repentance and salvation. “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10).

 

8/6/2023 8:23 AM

 

PT-1 "The Intruder Expelled" (Matt. 22:11-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/5/2023 10:14 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus: PT-1 “The Intruder Expelled”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 22:11-14

 

            Message of the verses:  “11 "But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, 12  and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. 13 “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.’”

 

            Today we will begin to look at the fourth and the last scene in the parable, which focuses on an intruder attending the wedding feast, who did not belong there because he was not dressed in wedding clothes.  Now looking back on this parable we saw that it seemed that it was difficult for the king to get people to his wedding feast, and so once his servants went out and asked what could be called “common people” to the wedding feast then this man that we are talking about this morning could surely been invited to come for the king made no restrictions as to who was invited.  I guess the bottom line was this man was not a party crasher, but the problem was that he was improperly dressed, and he obviously stood out in the great wedding hall, in stark contrast to all the other diner guests. 

 

            John MacArthur addresses a question that others have probably thought of.  “At first reading, one wonders how any of those who accepted the king’s invitation could have been expected to come properly attired.  They had been rounded up from every part of the land, and many had been taken off the streets.  Even if they had time to dress properly, they had no clothes befitting such and occasion as the wedding of the king’s son.”

 

            Now as we think about this problem we can see that all of the other guests had the proper clothes on to come to the king’s son’s wedding feast.  This shows us that the king was the one who had given the proper wedding clothes for his guests as they all but this one man had the proper clothes on.  MacArthur writes “It would have been a moral mockery, especially for such an obviously kind and gracious ruler, to invite even the most wicked people in the land to come to the feast and then exclude one poor fellow because he had no proper clothes to wear.”

 

            I will close this rather short SD with some comments that I am thinking about, and those thoughts have to do with how people look at God, for this parable is obviously about the God being the King, and His Son being about Jesus Christ.  I have to say that there are times when I probably don’t have the right thoughts or opinions who God really is.  I have mentioned about studying in the past about the attributes of God, and so I believe this is the key in understanding who God is, as these attributes that I had studied about are all in the Scriptures.  In this parable we can see that God is love by inviting these “uncommon people” to the wedding feast of His Son, but as we go through the verses in this section we can see that God is just in throwing out this improper dressed man, who by the way it seems had the ability to change into the clothes that the king had given to all of his guests.  Bottom line is knowing God by knowing His attributes.  The following is a website that gives readers the opportunity to learn about the attributes of God https://bible.org/series/joy-knowing-god. The book is entitled “The Joy of Knowing God” by Richard Strauss.  This is a great book to help us understand the attributes of God as it is easy to read and understand and all you have to do is click on this website and read it on your device.

 

8/5/2023 10:43 AM

PT-3 "Intro to Daniel 2:31-49"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/4/2023 9:32 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                Focus: PT-3 “Intro to Daniel 2:31-49”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Daniel 2:31-49

 

            Message of the verses:  Once again I ask you to look up these verses on your own. 

 

            This will be the last SD on the introduction of Daniel 2:31-49 from John MacArthur’s sermon that we have been looking at over the last two days.  One thing to remember and that is this sermon was preached by MacArthur 44 years ago, but the things that he taught then are clearly happening in our world today.

 

               “Now, stay with me. Though Assyria and Egypt had tried repeatedly to overthrow Jerusalem they had never succeeded. Why? They were always thwarted by the power of God. And of course, Assyria and Egypt are seen as the great enemies of Israel because Egypt is to the south and Assyria is to the north and east. Assyria and Egypt on many occasions have tried to destroy Israel. They had tried to sack, plunder and wipe out Jerusalem but they never succeeded. Century after century after century, they were thwarted in that effort and the reason is it was not yet God’s time. Jerusalem would not be trodden down by the Gentiles - listen - until the wickedness of Jerusalem was full.

            “And finally, when God said that’s all I’ll take, then Nebuchadnezzar came then the decimation of Jerusalem. Then the people were carried into captivity and this begins the times of the Gentiles. Dominion was removed from the nation Israel. Now as we come to Daniel, Israel is in captivity. Daniel is serving as a captive Jew, however because of his capabilities and talents has been elevated to serve in the court of King Nebuchadnezzar to assist him to work with Jewish affairs. Because of his faithful, uncompromising and amazing character, he has a very unique place in the land.

            “Now Daniel then begins with the times of the Gentiles. Now let me just say this. Immediately, in chapter 2, God gives to Daniel the prophecy through the dream of Nebuchadnezzar that describes this period of history. It describes it from the beginning to the end, how it ends, that’s even described as well. And as I studied that, I thought to myself, “Well, why does such a prophecy come at the very beginning of the times of the Gentiles?” If it’s going to last for thousands of years - it’s already lasted over 2,000 years - if it’s going to last for all this period of time, why give this prophecy at the very beginning? Well, I think there’s a good reason.

            “I think as soon as Israel went into captivity, as soon as the land of Judah was taken in captivity, as soon as God’s people knew that Gentiles were ruling in their land, God wanted them to know that that was not a permanent thing. Why? Because if they felt that it was all over for Israel permanently, they would have begun to question the credibility of God. Because God at many times said He would never forsake His people, He would ever keep his covenant, He would always fulfill his promise, He would never forget Jerusalem. And so I believe that no sooner are they in captivity than God immediately reveals the fullness of the plan from beginning to end. The start of the times of the Gentiles and the ending of the times of the Gentiles when Israel returns to its place of glory, so that they will know that God has not failed in all His good promise.

            “At this time when the prophecy comes in chapter 2, Jerusalem is in ruins, the temple is torn down, Judah has been destroyed, and the sacred vessels of the temple have been carried off and placed in a temple of an idol. The Glory is departed from between the cherubim and the arc of the covenant. Ichabod has been written over the people. The children of Israel stand of the banks of the rivers of Babylon hanging their harps on the willows because they have no song to sing, and the immediate question is has God forever forsaken His people? And the ringing prophecy of Daniel 2 says no. No.

            “Is this the end? Has God forgotten His covenant? Are all the promises lost? Is God’s word untrue? No. And so comes immediately this fantastic, incredible revelation. Now let’s look at it. In the first 31 verses of Daniel 2, we have the dream received. We’re not going to go back over that. If you were here last week, you got in on it. The dream was received. One night, Nebuchadnezzar, this pagan king who didn’t believe in the god of Israel, was just about to go to sleep and as he was lying on his bed, according to verse 29, he was lying on his bed thinking, he began to think about his empire and he ruled the – the known world and he was the most powerful monarch there was.

            “And he – he began to think about what will happen when I die? What is it going to be like in the future? And as he was musing over these thoughts he fell asleep and he dreamed some dreams, the Bible says. One of those dreams was a very special one given to him by God. He knew he wouldn’t be around forever. He had seen other empires come and go. He became deeply concerned about his own empire and so he dreamed a dream. One of the dreams, the one that God gave him was a picture - now watch this - of history from Nebuchadnezzar to the return of Jesus Christ, an incredible prophecy in a dream.

            “The period that he saw was the time of the Gentiles, the world rulers during the setting aside of Israel. Look now at verse 28 – and that’ll frame it for you – of chapter 2. “there is a God in heaven,” – says Daniel – “who reveals secrets and makes known to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, what shall be” - now watch this - “in the latter days.” Now, there is a key phrase, and we’re going to kind of give you some teaching tonight.”

            Well that is the end of the introduction to Daniel 2:31-49 and if you want to hear or read the rest of this sermon go to www.gty.org search for sermons and chose Daniel chapter two and look at the second sermon on the list.

8/4/2023 9:47 AM

 

PT-2 "Intro to Daniel 2:31-49"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/3/2023 9:25 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-2 “Intro to Daniel 2:31-49”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference: Daniel 2:31-49

 

            Message of the verses:  Once again I will not put these verses onto this SD as I will leave it up to the reader to look them up.

 

            Once again I will put this introduction from John MacArthur’s sermon onto both of my blogs and also onto my story on Facebook.  I mentioned that this sermon is 44 years old, but the message of this is very important to us living today.

 

            “Fred Barshaw gave me a very interesting article this week and I want to share it with you. It says the following was written by Professor Alexander Tyler nearly 200 years ago while our 13 original colonies were still a part of Great Britain. In fact, Tyler was at the time writing about the fall of the Athenian Republic over 2,000 years earlier. This is what he said and I'm quoting. “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship.

            “The average age,” – says Tyler – “of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.” For us, that was 1976. “These nations have progressed through the following sequence” - now listen to this - “from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, and from dependency back into bondage.”

            “Every nation follows the same cycle. And democracy seems to follow it just as fast or in some cases faster than any other form of government. By the way, it might shock you to know that democracy is not God’s form of government. God’s form is theocracy where one person rules and that person is God. The world today then is simply going through the same cycles of dissolution that it has always endured. We can see the seeds of dissolution very, very manifested.

            “As we look at the world today, we see the world as a vast stage. A vast stage with the final curtain still down. And we get the feeling that the actors are behind that final curtain, preparing for the last scene in the drama of human history. The play is almost done. There remains but one more scene. And that final scene is the latter days and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we step close to the stage, behind the curtain we can hear the commotion of the stagehands as they set up the machinery and set the stage for that final act.

            “And now, as we come to Daniel 2, Daniel takes us behind the curtain before it rises. We’re going to see incredible insights, not only in Daniel 2 but from Daniel 2 to the end of the book. The unfolding of the last act on the stage of human history. Now tonight, as we look at chapter 2, verses 31 and following, we’re going to see the great history of the Gentile world rule. Jesus said there would be a time titled - Luke 21:24 – “the times of the Gentiles.” It had already begun; it would come to an end at the coming of Christ. In fact, that verse says “Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

            “There will be a period of time when Jerusalem is under the control when the nation of Israel is under bondage to some degree or another, the Gentile world power. That is known as the times of the Gentiles. Interestingly enough it began with the Babylonian captivity. It began with Nebuchadnezzar. It ends with the coming of Jesus Christ. We’re living in that time right now. Israel does not possess the fullness of its inheritance, Israel does not dwell in its land in peace, Israel does not possess everything from the Mediterranean to the Tigris and Euphrates as in the original Palestinian covenant.

            “These are the times of the Gentiles. Gentile nations have dominated that part of the world since Nebuchadnezzar, and they will, to some degree, hold power over it until Jesus comes again. In Ezekiel chapter 21, Ezekiel tells us that the glory had departed from Israel. The glory had departed from Israel. Now God in a sense, when Israel went into captivity, just moved away. And Ichabod, the glory has departed was written on that land. Now listen to me. The second chapter of Daniel then indicates that God transfers the leadership of this Earth from the Jew and Israel to the Gentiles. Israel takes a back seat.

            “Israel goes into captivity and never returns to its former glory ever, not even today. Not until Jesus comes. Israel should have been the center of the world. Israel should have been the pattern, the leader of the world. Israel should’ve been that very special people God originally intended them to be, through whom we’re given the law and the ordinances and the covenants and the promises. Israel should have been the messenger for the world. But Israel tragically failed.

            “In Deuteronomy 32 in verse 8, “When the most high divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. While the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.” Originally, Israel was His people. Jacob was the lot of His inheritance. The center of the world and the focus of everything was on God’s chosen people, Israel. That’s the way it was. That’s the way God intended it to be. It was God’s purpose that the king, the incarnate Son of God should come and reign in Jerusalem. And from Him would flow out blessings to the whole world.

            “But as you know the tragic history of Israel, Israel wouldn’t obey God, Israel wouldn’t love God, Israel went into idolatry and spiritual adultery and all kinds of other evil things and God finally had to remove Israel from the central place. They were to be the place of messiah. In Psalm 2, the second of the psalms, God made it clear. He said, “Yet” - verse 6 - “have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” God’s place was Zion. God’s king was to sit in Zion. No one was to usurp that place.

            “But what happened? First the kingdom was divided because of the terrible sins of Solomon. The ten tribes in the north split off and became known as Israel. The two tribes remaining in the south, Judah and Benjamin constituted the nation of Judah. So you have Judah and Israel. The northern tribes decided they’d rather have idolatry than the true worship of God. So they pursued their idolatry and they were literally destroyed by the Assyrians.

            “The righteous out of the ten had migrated to the south. And so the south was the remnant of the ten plus Judah and Benjamin. But sadly to say, they also rebelled. They also fell into idolatry, and not many years later they too were hauled off into captivity in Babylon, and that’s where we pick up the story when we come to Daniel. It is the story of Judah, the southern kingdom, carried into captivity. And the beginning of Gentile domination of the land if Israel.

            “The glory days are over. The days of the great are over. Jerusalem is a rubble, devastated, decimated, and the times of the Gentiles have begun. And it will not again be Israel in its fullness until the messiah returns. Now, the sweep of history from Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian captivity all the way to the time of Jesus Christ is covered in this one chapter. And I want you to see this. This is a very powerful section of Scripture. Everything from Nebuchadnezzar all the way to the coming of Jesus Christ is touched on in this chapter in a broad and general way.”

            Because of the importance of this subject I will do one more SD on this introduction that John MacArthur gives in this section from Daniel 2:31-49.  On his website where I get this quotation he actually gives three sermons on these verses, but I will only quote from this first one.  The website is gty.org if anyone wants to read or listen to this entire sermon.

8/3/2023 9:50 AM

           

 

 

 

PT-1 "Intro to Daniel 2:31-49"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/2/2023 9:59 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  “Intro to Daniel 2:31-49”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Daniel 2:31-49

 

            Message of the verses:  I have decided not to add all of these verses onto this SD because of the length of them.  It would be very wise for anyone reading this to go to the book of Daniel and actually read the entire 49 verses of the second chapter.  It is my plan to put this Spiritual Diary onto both of my blogs and also on my Facebook story for today.  A little background as to why I am doing this.  First of all I am teaching through the book of Zechariah and am at the last few verses of the first chapter which tells of Zechariah’s second night vision, second of eight.  In this vision it can be seen that it goes along with Daniel chapter two as there are similar things seen in both of these visions. Both visions have to do with the time in which both of these prophets were living in and go all the way to what is called the millennial kingdom, the last kingdom that will happen on planet earth.  The millennial kingdom will begin very soon after what is called The Tribulation, a seven year period that will happen right after the rapture of the church, and that will end the church age which began on the Day of Pentecost soon after Jesus went back to heaven. 

 

            Now for the reason that I think this is so important, important enough for me to put it onto three places on the internet.  Daniel went to Babylon in 605 B.C. the first time people from Judah were taken from Jerusalem, the last being 586 B.C.  Zechariah and Daniel very well could have know each other but Daniel would have been much older than Zechariah.  I mentioned that the scope of both of these visions went from the time Judah was in captivity all the way to when the Millennial Kingdom will begin, a kingdom where Jesus Christ will rule from Jerusalem for 1000 years.  The scope of this SD will be a quotation from John MacArthur’s second sermon on the second chapter of Daniel, and it will only be his introduction to his message.  Daniel prophesied 600 years before Christ and MacArthur’s sermon was done in 1979, but I think that what he is saying in this introduction could be front page news today.  One more thing and that is if I feel this introduction is going to be too long I will break it up into two SD’s.

 

            “Turn with me to Daniel chapter 2, Daniel chapter 2. For our study tonight, we want to begin to look at the section from verses 31 through 49. The second half of this second chapter. Now we covered verses 1 to 30 last time. Now, whether or not we’ll cover the next half of the chapter tonight I really don’t know. But I do know that God has some tremendous things to say to us in this second portion beginning in verse 31. Before we get into the portion of Scripture that we’re going to be specifically concerned with, let me just say some introductory things.

            “We’re all watching rather sadly - we who know Christ - the fall of the United States of America. As sad as it is, it shouldn’t really shock us. The reason is because it has always been and always will be the lot of nations, nations of the world, that the kingdoms of men will go the way of all flesh and ultimately end in collapse and ruin. Anything based on the might of man, anything established on the wisdom of man will suffer the same kind of deterioration that man himself suffers since the fall.

            “Dissipation is man’s history. It is a devolutionary process not an evolutionary process. Man is not ascending, man is descending. In 1 Timothy 3:13, God says, “Evil men shall grow worse and worse.” Things don’t get better, they get worse. We see decay working in our society everywhere, nationally, socially, domestically, individually, organically. All things in this world are caught in a process of deterioration that began when man fell into sin in the garden. And each new combination of forces or nations that has tried to – to achieve a lasting kingdom invariably meets the same inevitable overthrow.

            “No matter what the intentions are, no matter what the safeguards are, the dissolution of manmade effort in inevitable, so that history as studied becomes a succession of defeat. An empire begins, reaches a peak and fades and dies and another one is built out of its ashes. We are looking at America. America in the past reached its apex. We’re on the down side, the back slope. We are watching a defeat taking place. We see the dissolution of our country on every hand. Political humanism ruling the government, a government once established on the principles on the word of God. Godless atheism dominates our education. International blackmail threatens us all over the world. A lack of conviction and a lack of courage changes the way we approach problems.

            “The destruction of the family is causing a loss of all orientation among people and a rise of psychological and psychiatric problems. The – the deterioration of the family contributed by immorality, living together without marriage, working women, women’s lib, passive fathers, homosexuality, et cetera. We’ve seen a steady decline in authority to the point where in many cases there is absence of authority. In parts of our society we have lost the ability to control behavior.

            “There’s an ever-increasing rise of crime, lax criminal justice. We are constantly being corrupted at a faster rate through materialism, alcohol, drugs, sex, total selfishness. And we can go on and on. We are deteriorating just like every other nation ever deteriorated. Because built into America is the same basic problem. We have feet of clay like the image in Daniel. And clay, says Daniel, represents the seed of men. And wherever anything is built on men, it is built for dissolution.”

            Needless to say that I will continue with this message in our next SD as I don’t want to put too many words to read each day, especially when they are as important as this, and so perhaps we will finish this introduction to Daniel 2:31-49 tomorrow.

8/2/2023 10:51 AM

           

 

 

"The New Guests Invited" (Matt. 22:9-10)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/1/2023 11:09 AM

 

 

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  “The New Guests Invited”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Matthew 22:9-10

 

            Message of the verses:  “9 ‘Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.’ 10 "Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.”

 

            Now we move into the third scene of this parable where we see the slaves go out to find guests to replace those who had repeatedly refused the king’s call.  As we have seen in earlier verses the wedding feast for the king’s son was all ready but there was no one to attend unless these new guests were invited.

 

            We can see in verse nine where the king directed his slaves to go in order to fine these new guests who will be invited, he says as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.’  Here was the plan, and that was for them to go everywhere and find everyone they could and then invite them to come.  Now let us take a moment to look at what Jesus said right before He ascended into heaven: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”  Long before this God had spoken through the prophet Hosea which Paul repeats in Romans 9:25-26 “25 As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved.” 26 “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God” (NKJV).  (Hos. 2:23; 1:10).  MacArthur adds “By the Jews’ ‘transgression,’ Paul wrote in that same letter, ‘salvation has come to the Gentiles’ (11:11).

 

            In verse ten we see that "Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good.”  What they did was call the morally evil and the morally good alike, their being equally unworthy in themselves to come to the king’s feast.  I think we should answer why it was that the first guests did not come and these other guests came so willingly.  These original guests had not been invited because of the moral or spiritual superiority, and neither were the newly-invited guests.  Among the ancient Jews were those who lived exemplary, upright lives, who were helpful to their neighbors, told the truth, never used the Lord’s name in vain, never cheated in business, never committed adultery or murder or theft. There were also those who lives were a moral cesspool. But the first kind of person was no more acceptable to God in himself than the second.  God has always extended His call for salvation to both evil and good people, because neither are righteous enough and both are equally in need of salvation.  Like I have said before we are all born wrong.

 

            Paul talks about this to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 6:9-10 “9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10  nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”  He then goes on to write in verse 11 “11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

 

            So the question is what exactly happened to these Corinthians?   Well they all, whom Paul is talking about here were washed in the blood of the Lamb, they had realized that they were sinners in need of salvation because they were all born wrong and the confessed that and accepted the salvation Christ offered to them.

 

            MacArthur concludes “What makes a person worthy of salvation today is exactly what has made a person worthy of salvation since the Fall, namely, personal faith in God’s gracious provision in Christ.  All who accept God’s invitation to His Son’s celebration, that is who follow the Son as their saving Lord, will be dinner guests in His divine and eternally glorious wedding hall.” 

 

I am truly looking forward to that feast in heaven with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

8/1/2023 11:42 AM