Psalm 13

This will be the very last posting for the year 2011 and I am very thankful for all who have looked at the postings that began on July 3, 2011.  I pray most every day that the Lord will use these postings to bring glory to His name, and to encourage others who may read them to set aside a time in their busy lives to spend time in the wonderful Word of God.  Happy New Year to all.

12/31/2011 3:39:51 PM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Psalm 13

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm 13

            Message of the verses:  “1 ¶  «For the choir director. A Psalm of David.» How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2  How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? 3  Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, 4  And my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken. 5  But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. 6  I will sing to the LORD, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.”

            This psalm may very well have been written when David was on the run from Saul.  “There is hardly a step between me and death,’” this is from 1Samuel 20:3 when David was about to leave the house of Saul where he had been living.  Before he leaves he speaks these words to his brother in the faith, Jonathan. 

            Dr. Wiersbe writes in the introduction of this psalm:  “By the grace of God, David turned his suffering into songs and left those songs behind to encourage us in our trails (2Cor. 1:2-11).  In this brief psalm, David deals with his feelings, his foes, and his faith.”

            The Inward Struggle—His Feelings (vv. 1-2):  “1 ¶  «For the choir director. A Psalm of David.» How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2  How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?”

            David starts out this psalm by asking the question “How long, O Lord” and so do some tribulation saints as the same question of God in Rev. 6:9-10, “9  When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10  and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’”

            If this psalm was written when David was hiding from Saul then there were plenty of times when David must have been wondering about the day when Samuel came and anointed him as the next king of Israel, something that did not happen for many years after that day.  David was probably wondering how long it would be before this would happen, or maybe he began to question God as to if it was going to happen at all.  Joseph was probably asking the same question of God when he was in prison waiting for God to fulfill the promises that He had given to Joseph in a dream.

            We as believers can ask God “How long” if we are in fellowship with the Lord and are not living in sin, but we must remember feelings are not always something we should give into.  Dr. Wiersbe writes, “We must not deny our feelings and pretend that everything is going well, and there is no sin in asking ‘How long?’  But as the same time, we must realize how deceptive our feelings are and that God is greater than our hearts (1John 3:20) and can lift us above the emotional storms of life.”

            The Outward Danger—His Foes (vv. 3-4):  “3  Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, 4  And my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.”

            David asks the Lord for three requests:  The first was “Look on me.”  David wanted God to look upon him as David was the servant of God and was in trouble and needed the help and guidance of God. 

            His second request was that the Lord would answer him and also to send some encouragement to David.  It was a dry time in the prayer department for David and he needed some encouragement.  This encouragement was needed in both the spiritual and the physical realm.

            David’s last request is seen from the forth verse where he is concerned about the glory of the Lord, for if David would be die then his enemies would gloat and this would not bring glory to God because it was God who had David anointed to be the king over Israel.

            The Upward Look—His Faith (vv. 5-6):  “5  But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. 6  I will sing to the LORD, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.”

            We see this in many of the psalms that David has written, for many of these psalms there is great encouragement at the end of the psalm as there is here.  We see a transition in the psalm indicated by the little word “but,” and this transition is from fear to faith, as David looks up to the Lord in faith.  David was no longer questioning the Lord but he was claiming His promises.  He knew that the Lord was more powerful than His enemies were.  David may have been on a rollercoaster with his feeling, but God was still on His throne and God never changes. 

            As we rely on the Lord it will lead to rejoicing in the Lord and his salvation (Yeshua).  Dr. Wiersbe points out “The word ‘bountiful’ focuses on the goodness of God and His generosity in dealing with His people in grace.”  Then NIV translates it “The Lord has been good to me.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Continue to trust the Lord even when feelings seem to want me to figure out things on my own, like David was trying to do in this psalm.  God is still on His throne and He will never change and all of His promises will come to pass just as He promised they will.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Trust the Lord in all aspects of my life.

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

12/31/2011 4:44:03 PM  

             

Mark 1:21-28

Jesus’ Ministry Begins in Capernaum

Mark 1:21-28

“21  They *went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and began to teach. 22  They were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.  23  Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, 24  saying, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are-the Holy One of God!" 25  And Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!" 26  Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. 27  They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him." 28  Immediately the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee.”

            As we look at verse twenty-one we see that favorite word of Mark used and that of course is immediately, which is used some twelve times in the first chapter of Mark.  Now in the last lesson on Mark we saw that Jesus had just called His first four disciples and so now in this lesson we will see Jesus begin His ministry as far as in Mark’s gospel.  We have seen that Jesus has overcome the temptations of Satan when He was in a very weakened condition and all alone, and then He overcomes sin by the power of the gospel and then He overcomes sinners by calling sinners to follow Him in His ministry and now we begin to see the ministry of Jesus as it begins in Capernaum.

            Now Capernaum was a major town located on the Northeast part of the Sea of Galilee and there was a Roman Garrison there because there were people traveling both north and south and east and west through the trade routes.  The Hebrew meaning for Capernaum means house of Nahum, Kaphar-Nahum.  Nahum is the name of the prophet Nahum.  Kaphar is the village, the village called Nahum.

            Capernaum was probably the headquarters of Jesus during His Galilean ministry.  We know that it was not Nazareth because while visiting Nazareth and preaching in the synagogue there the people wanted to throw Jesus off of the cliff.  Nazareth was 1300 feet above sea level while Capernaum was some 690 feet below sea level.

            Now we want to look briefly at the Jewish Synagogue and how it began and also what the purposes of it were.  We know that there was none mentioned in the OT, but they began while the Jews were in captivity in Babylon because they needed a place to gather together for the purpose of studying the Word of God.  The word means gathering place and it would take ten men to begin a synagogue.

            When the Jews returned from captivity under Nehemiah they took the concept with them of having synagogues and they begin to thrive.  We learn from the Talmud that there 500 synagogues in Jerusalem alone.  They were kind of like local churches like local assemblies where people gathered.  The law was explained in the synagogues and this was mostly done by the Scribes, and this was done on the Sabbath.  Scribes who taught, elders who taught would become judges who would rule in cases of the Law.  The synagogues were very important places in the towns and villages.  Josephus says there were about 240 towns and villages in Galilee and they all had synagogues.

            The synagogues were also used for school during the week and as mentioned above they also were used for deciding legal cases by the scribes. 

            John MacArthur writes “They got together.  The Law was read on the Sabbath.  The Law was explained to them.  Each synagogue had a ruler who really was the organizer, kind of the executive person, not necessarily a pastor or teacher.  Then it had elders.  Elders would be responsible for the reading and the explaining of the Law unless there was a visiting scribe who would do that.

            “Now when the Lord comes, the synagogues then provide a read-made opportunity for Him to go from place to place, town to town, neighborhood to neighborhood and teach and explain His message.  Maybe they just came into existence for this very purpose.  And their tradition was visiting rabbis would speak so it was no intrusion for a guest to come.”

            Now we see in verse twenty-one that Jesus came into the synagogue and He began to teach, but what He was teaching, and we don’t know exactly what it was at this meeting, amazed those who were there and the reason that they were amazed is because He was teaching with authority.  This was not what they were used to because the scribes would just site other rabbis and they prided themselves to the past being able to quote these various revered rabbis.  Not so with the messages that Jesus gave.  When Jesus brought His message found in Matthew 5-7 which is called the “Sermon on the Mount,” the people there said the same thing about His teaching, in that it was from authority, something they were not used to.

            I just want to mention one more thing before moving on and that is that when we read that the people were amazed we could actually say “they were blown away.”  It is a very powerful verb used here that is translated amazed.  It is used only thirteen times in the NASB and part of the time it is translated “astonished.” 

            Now let’s move to the rest of these verses as what we will see is the ability of the “Servant” to have control over demons.  We saw earlier about His temptations with Satan and how He overcame those temptations by quoting the Word of God.  The Word of God is Truth and that is one thing that demons do not want to hear, for it frightening them and we will see here that they were indeed frightened. 

            Verse twenty-three shows us that in this synagogue where Jesus was teaching there was a man who had an unclean spirit and the meaning of the unclean spirit is a demon.  We know that God did not create anything that was evil, but evil angels exist along with evil men and the reason is that both fell into sin.  Satan was the most beautiful of the angels every created and it was because of this beauty that pride entered into him.  We see this story in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.  We also see in Revelations 12:4a these words, “And his tail *swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.”  This verse tells the story of how one third of the angels that God created chose to follow Satan.  The Bible says that hell was made for these angels, but it will also have people in it, those who have not trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

            We see in this verse that there was a man in that synagogue who had this demon living in him or we might say that he was possessed by this demon.  This man comes into the synagogue and he may not know that he had this demon in him, and then he may have known it and when he gets there he finds a guest speaker, the Son of God and so after Jesus gives His message the demon becomes frightened and begins to speak using the man’s voice to talk to Jesus and we see that this demon “cried out” or “screamed.”  “To raise a cry from the depth of the throat, to cry out” is how the Greek/English dictionary describes this word.  I think that we can be safe to assume that this demon was frightened, and with very good reason, for he knew that his fate was the burning fires of hell and we see that he thought that it may have been his time to go there for he says to Jesus, “Have You come to destroy us?”  It seems that this demon was asking this question for all of the demons for he uses the word “us,” and he has also used the word “we.”

            What was it that terrified this demon?  It was the truth that he was hearing in the message that Jesus was giving.  As stated earlier demons are afraid of the truth and we know from John’s gospel that Jesus is the Truth.  Demons know who Jesus is for we have already stated that they all were “good” angels at one time and would have known Jesus then, and just because they are “bad” angels doesn’t mean that they don’t know Him now.  James writes these words, “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”  The word James uses for shudder means “1) to bristle, stiffen stand up 2) to shudder, to be struck with extreme fear, to be horrified.”

            We mentioned that this demon was in this service and John MacArthur give a reason why when he writes, “The demons knew that they had developed an untrue false system of religion that was highly successful in Israel.  And it held people captive unto their damnation.  They again are disguised as angels of light.  They hide in the idle of false religion.  Satan is before all other things a liar and a murder.  He wants to catch everybody in deception and then kill their eternal souls.  Truth is therefore deadly to the demonic operation…deadly.  This is where the initial conflict comes.”

            We know that Jesus was very hard on the Pharisees while here on earth and that is because they were a large part of the false religion that was prompted by now knowing the truth, and not wanting to understand the truth, therefore they were described by Jesus as sons of Satan, “You are of your father the devil and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

            In his sermon on this section John Macarthur points out for reasons that demons scream and we have just looked at the first reason, and this is truth.  The second reason is Jesus has the authority to Judge them, and we spoke briefly about that earlier.

            The third reason demons scream according to John MacArthur is “the authority of His purity.”  The demons called Jesus the “Holy Son of God,” and this also makes them scream.”

            The last reason they scream is because of the authority of His power.  Jesus tells the demon to come out of the man and he has no other choice but to come out of him, but before coming out of him he does “throw him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him.”  In Dr. Luke’s writing on this account he reports that the man was all right.

            I want to make one last point and that is that Jesus told the demon to be quite and come out of the man and we will see this in other parts of Mark’s Gospel too.  When we look at the first part of the book of Mark the only ones who know that Jesus is the Son of God for sure are the demons.  When we get to the middle of Mark’s Gospel we will see that Peter answers Jesus’ question “Who do men say that I am?” by answering that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of the living God. We will then see in the last part of Mark’s Gospel that others will also see this truth.

            There were men in that synagogue that though that what they heard was amazing, but did not come to realize that Jesus was the Son of God, and there was a demon who knew that Jesus was the Son of God.  The demon could not be saved, but it seems that the men did not want to be saved so both were as bad off as they could be.

            Jesus made the demon stop talking because He did not want the demon telling other who He was, Jesus did not need that kind of publicity, that coming from a demon.  We will see later on that the Pharisees claimed that Jesus was healing people through the power of Satan and so this is why Jesus caused the demons to stop talking about who He was.  This also happened when Paul was ministering on one of his missionary trips that a woman who had a demon kept telling others who Paul was and he finally told the demon to come out of her, because Paul did not want publicity for a demon possessed girl.

            We have two choices as we look back at this lesson from Mark’s Gospel, and that is are we going to be like the people in the synagogue who were blown away at the message of Jesus and then do nothing about it or are we going to look at this amazing message from the Amazing Son of God and accept the Gospel message offer which Paul writes about in 1Cor. 15:1-4 “1 ¶  Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2  by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4  and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”  The choice is yours.

12/31/2011 12:30:20 PM

           

Jesus Overcomes Sinners Mark 1:16-20

“Power over sinners”

Or

“Selectivity of Succors”

Mark 1:16-20

“16  As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. 17  And Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men." 18  Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. 19  Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. 20  Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away to follow Him.”

            Jesus knew all of these men from His time in Judah, we see this in John chapter one, but now Jesus is calling them to follow Him, to be His disciples, to be apostles, and we see that they immediately follow Him.  Jesus said in John 15:16a, “"You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit.’” 

            We have seen in the last to messages from Mark that Jesus went out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and we saw that He overcame those temptations and Satan, and then we saw that Jesus (the Servant) has power over sin with the message of the Gospel of God, and now we see here that Jesus has power of sinners, He can call sinners to be saved and in the case of these men He also called them to be His disciples and His apostles so that when Jesus would be gone from the earth that they would be the ones who would carry the message of salvation to the lost world.  Why were these men chosen by Him?  We see in John 17 that the Father had given them to His Son.  6 ¶  "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”  “Out of the world” means that these men used to belong to the worlds system, and we who are now believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, who have been washed clean by His blood were once in the world system, for all people were born into the worlds system and the only way to get out of it is to be born from above, to be born again.  John 3:36 are words the John the Baptist said and they tell us that there are two kinds of people in this world, only two:  “"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.’”

            Paul writes the important words to his son in the Lord, Timothy, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”  We see here that Paul wants Timothy to pass on the things that he had been taught by the Lord to Timothy, so that he can pass them on to others who in turn can pass them on to more faithful men and so it goes on from Jesus to the Apostles to men like Timothy to others and now it is passed on to believers in the 21^st century in the same way.

            Now just think if you had to get a message out to the whole world.  Would you choose the twelve men that Jesus chose to accomplish this task?  Well that was the plan of Jesus Christ and it is still working today.  Why is it working?  Jesus took these men out of the world and taught them for three years, but the difference really came on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given to them, not in the same measure that it was given to Jesus, but when He was given to them their lives changed dramatically in a way where what they were doing was done through the power of the Holy Spirit, and when this was done it brought glory to the Lord for It was being done the way He wanted it done because He was doing it through them through the power of the Holy Spirit.  I want to look at a verse that helps me to understand how all of this works, that is doing the work of God while we are here on earth: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  (Ephesians 2:10)  We are all pretty much familiar with Ephesians 2:8-9, but we see here in verse ten that before the world was created that God chose works for us to do, and those works will be done through us through the power of the Holy Spirit, and then when we all get to heaven we will receive rewards for doing the works that God called us to do and so we will throw our rewards at the feet of Jesus because He is the One who deserves them because of what He has done for us. 

            Now we see that these men were fishermen and Jesus tells them that they will now be fishing for men.  We know that these men were well off, for we see that James and John’s father had servants and we will see that Peter had a house near the Sea of Galilee where Jesus will come and He probably stayed there many times while ministering in this area of Israel.  It is possible that James and John’s father was married to a sister of Mary.

            Jesus demonstrates in this section His power over sinful men as He calls them and we also see that Jesus was preparing these men to continue the ministry when He would go back to heaven. 

12/30/2011 9:55:25 AM

Psalm 12

12/30/2011 7:34:49 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Psalm 12

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm 12

            Message of the verses:  “1 ¶  «For the choir director; upon an eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm of David.» Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases to be, For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. 2  They speak falsehood to one another; With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak. 3  May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, The tongue that speaks great things; 4  Who have said, "With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?" 5  "Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise," says the LORD; "I will set him in the safety for which he longs." 6  The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. 7  You, O LORD, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever. 8  The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.”

            In his introduction to Psalm 12 Dr. Wiersbe writes that “Our ability to speak and write words is a precious gift of God, and this psalm deals with the right and wrong use of that gift.”

            The Righteous—Despairing Words (v.-1):  “1 ¶  «For the choir director; upon an eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm of David.» Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases to be, For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.”

            We see in this first verse that David is crying out to the Lord that there are not enough godly men in Israel.  This was not the first time that we will see this type of cry from the pages of Scripture, for Elijah thought that he was the only one left in Israel that worshiped the true God, and there are others who thought this too.  Back in Genesis 12:1-3 we see the calling of Abram whose name was later changed to Abraham, and that calling was actually for the nation of Israel and God gave to Abraham a promise saying I will bless those who bless you and those that curse you I will curse and then the Lord adds and all the families of the earth will be blessed by you.  I am sure that David knew this promise that God had given to Israel, and now that David was their leader he must have feared that this was not happening and so he cries out to the Lord about this.

            Dr. Wiersbe makes a statement in his commentary on this verse and I want to quote it here because of the great truth that I find in it:  “One of the tragedies today is that a new generation of believers doesn’t seem to know what it takes to be a godly leader, so they borrow leadership ideas from secular society and all kinds of unequipped and unqualified people to be leaders.”

            The wicked—Deceptive words (vv. 2-4):  “2  They speak falsehood to one another; With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak. 3  May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, The tongue that speaks great things; 4  Who have said, "With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?’”

            “2  Everyone talks in lie language; Lies slide off their oily lips. They doubletalk with forked tongues. 3  Slice their lips off their faces! Pull The braggart tongues from their mouths! 4  I’m tired of hearing, "We can talk anyone into anything! Our lips manage the world.’”  (Message)

            When we look at these three verses we see that David was frustrated with the use of words that people were using in order to get the things that they want, and David was writing about the ungodly people of his day, and I wonder what he would say about our day.  We live in a day where the “media” doesn’t just report the news but they manipulate the news in order to get people to believe their lies about it. 

            Saul told lies to his leaders about David in order to have them go after him to kill him, and Absalom used flattery to get people to follow him.  The Bible has a lot to say about flattery and none of it is good.  The Hebrew word that is translated as flattery in the KJV of the Bible is used 66 times and I did find “flattering” used in the NT (NASB) four times. 

            The verses have the word tongue in them and James has this to say about the tongue:  “Jas 3:8  But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.”  He has other things to say about the tongue such as “Jas 1:26  If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

“Jas 3:5  So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!

“Jas 3:6  And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.”  What James is saying is that words can cause all kinds of harm and can hurt people, but words can also help people too and that is how we as believers should use our words.

            The Lord—Delivering Words (vv. 5-8):  “5  "Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise," says the LORD; "I will set him in the safety for which he longs." 6  The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. 7  You, O LORD, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever. 8  The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.”

            We have seen the words “I will arise” spoken by the Lord in previous psalms and we mentioned its use in Numbers 10:35, “Then it came about when the ark set out that Moses said, "Rise up, O LORD! And let Your enemies be scattered, And let those who hate You flee before You.’”  In psalm 12 God says that He will arise and judge the liars and the deceivers. 

            The word safety in verse five is translated as salvation 32 times in the KJV and it comes from the same Hebrew root as “help” in verse 1 and “deliver” in 6:8, and is the basis for the names “Jesus” and “Joshua” (“Jehovah is salvation”). 

            The way the NASB uses the words “I will set him in safety for which he long” according to Dr. Wiersbe is the proper way to translate it from the Hebrew and he goes on to say, “When God comes to deliver His people, He will ‘cut off’ those who practice flattery and deception (v.3), which means separation from the covenant community (Gen. 17:14), like the separation of the goats from the sheep (Matthew 25:31-33).”

            We know that we can trust the Words of the Lord (“As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times”).  Psalm 19:9-10 reads “9  The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. 10  They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.”

            Unlike many people in society who think that the Word of God is useless believers know that the Word of God is true and because it is true it can be trusted, and that makes it worthwhile to continue to study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who doesn’t need to be ashamed.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “If God’s people  saturate themselves with God’s Word, they won’t be seduced by ‘this lying generation.’ When the church adopts the techniques and motives of the world system, the church ceases to glorify the Lord.”

            Dr. Wiersbe writes these words about the last verse of Psalm 12:  “The final verse issues a call to action, for ‘the wicked strut about, and evil is praised throughout the land’ (NLT).  Vileness (‘cheapness’) is promoted and exalted in the media; immorality, brutality, murder, lies, drunkenness, nudity, the love of money, the abuse of authority.  The things that God condemns are now a means of universal entertainment, and the entertainment industry gives awards to people who produce these things.  People boast about things they ought to be ashamed of  (Phil. 3:18-19).  Is there a way to restrain and overcome this national decay?  Yes!  God’s people are salt and light (Matt. 5:13016).  If there were more light in the land, there would be less darkness, and if we had more salt, there would be less decay.  As God’s people worship God, pray, and share the Gospel with the lost, more people will trust Christ and increase the salt and light in the land.  We must also share the truth of the Word with the next generation (2Tim. 2:2) and prepare them for the battles and opportunities to come (78:1-8; 102:18).  The church is always one generation short of extinction, so we must be faithful to win the lost and teach the believers, or vileness will conquer the land.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The things that Dr. Wiersbe wrote in the last paragraph are a great challenge to me and by the grace of God I will do my part.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Trust the Lord to give me the words to speak and to write in order to challenge the next generation to be faithful to the Lord and to study His Word so that they too can tell others about the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

12/30/2011 9:00:22 AM

             

           

Mark 1:14-15 Victory over Sin

“Victory Over Sin”

Mark 1:14-15

            In the previous message we spoke of Jesus having victory over Satan or victory over temptation as he was all along in the wilderness immediately after being baptized by John.  He was all alone and He was without food for forty days being tempted by Satan.  Mark wants his readers to understand that Jesus could overcome these temptations that happened in the worst kind of environment in order to prove that Jesus was the Messiah sent from God.  We must remember that Mark’s primary audience was the Romans who knew nothing about where Jesus came from, where He was born, or the promises that were made in the OT about His coming.

            As we look at the verses that go along with this message we will see that Jesus will have victory over sin by the simplicity of the subject that He will deliver in His message.  “14 ¶  Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15  and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’”

            First we see as we compare the other Gospels with this section is that Mark leaves out the ministry that Jesus had in Judea and Jerusalem.  He leaves out about how Jesus cleansed the temple and the other things Jesus did there and moves right to His ministry in Galilee.  If you read the forth chapter of John that speaks of Jesus talking to the woman at the well you will find that Jesus was heading to Galilee when He stopped to talk to her.  We also see that the ministry of Jesus and John the Baptist was at that time overlapping and then when John is put into prison by Herod Jesus move His ministry to Galilee.

            Mark says at the end of verse fourteen that Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of God.  Now before we look at the rest of that sentence that goes into verse fifteen we want to look at “The Gospel of God.”  Is that different than the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  Now it is the same message, but Mark is saying the gospel of God here because it was something that God has ordained the gospel.  We see that Jesus was preaching about this gospel of God.  Jesus was a preacher and someone said that God only had One Son and He was a preacher, we see that here.  The message was a simple message, as it was the good news of the Gospel.  Let us look at the simple message of the gospel that is stated by the Apostle Paul:  “1 ¶  Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2  by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4  and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1Cor. 15:1-4).   This is the simple message of the Gospel and this was what Jesus would preach, probably not in the exact way that we read in this Corinthian passage for He had not died yet, but His message would be very simple telling others what God would do for them and how He would do it for them. 

            Now let us talk a bit about the “Kingdom of God” and what that means.  Jesus is preaching that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, and that is the truth.  What does He mean by saying that the time is fulfilled?  Let’s look at Galatians 4:1-5 “1  Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, 2  but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. 3  So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. 4  But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5  so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”  This is the time that God had ordained for all of this to happen and that is exactly how it happened.

            As far as understanding the kingdom of God we will look at a simple way to understand it.  There are three phases to the kingdom of God and the first phase is what we are in at this time which started when Jesus came to earth to purchase those whom the Father called before the foundation of the earth, and it is a “spiritual” kingdom and could also be described as an invisible kingdom. I suppose that we could also call it the Church age. 

            Next we will look at the next phase and that will be the reign of Jesus Christ on planet earth which we commonly call the Millennial Kingdom and it is described in Revelations 20 as far as how long it will last.  However we must remember that God had promised a kingdom for the nation of Israel and the prophecies for that are scattered throughout the OT, and when Jesus came the first time He was asked after His resurrection from the dead if He was going to begin this kingdom, but told His disciples that the time for that was up to the Father. Rev. 20: 1 ¶  Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2  And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3  and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. 4  Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5  The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed.”  

            Now the last phase of the kingdom of God will last forever and that will be when time, and the earth, and all of the universe is destroyed by God and then there will be a new heaven and a new earth and all true believers will live with the Lord forever and Jesus will reign over the kingdom of God forever.  “1 ¶  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3  And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4  and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." 5  And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He *said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." 6  Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7  "He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. 8  "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’”  (Rev 21:1-8)

            I want to close this section with the words of Peter in his last letter that he wrote right before he was to be killed for the cause of Christ, and in this letter he writes about the earth and the universe being destroyed:  “9 ¶  The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.  11  Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12  looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

12/29/2011 1:52:33 PM

Psalm 11

12/29/2011 6:40:39 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Psalm 11

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm11

            Message of the verses:  “1 ¶  «For the choir director. A Psalm of David.» In the LORD I take refuge; How can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain; 2  For, behold, the wicked bend the bow, They make ready their arrow upon the string To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. 3  If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?"  4 The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. 5  The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates. 6  Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. 7  For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.”

            It is unknown as to what time in David’s life that he wrote this psalm, but there was some kind of a crisis, and in this particular crisis in the life of David he chose not to run, but to put his trust in the Lord to take care of it while staying put.  There were other times in the life of David when it was a good chose to run, like when he was living with Saul and Saul tried to kill him, which would put David on the run for about ten years, and that was a wise choice too.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “Whatever the crisis, the psalm teaches us that we must choose between fear (walking by sight) or trust (walking by faith), listening to human counsel or obeying the wisdom that comes from the Lord (James 1:5).”

            What David Should Do (v.1): “1 ¶  «For the choir director. A Psalm of David.» In the LORD I take refuge; How can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain.” When writing about this psalm John MacArthur spoke of consolers who were involved in decisions that were being made that took place and thus this psalm was written.  We see that in verse one where David’s consolers were telling him to leave, yet David did not want to leave, but to trust the Lord to care for this crisis while staying put.  David was the leader of God’s people and had a responsibility to care for them and therefore did not want to leave Jerusalem.

            What the Enemy Does (v. 2):  “2  For, behold, the wicked bend the bow, They make ready their arrow upon the string To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.”  We see in this verse that the consolers were consoling David that there were enemies who were ready to shoot arrows at him, but this was probably a metaphor and not real arrows.  There was probably a secret plan to do harm to David, but David chose to stay and face the crisis, and what we can be sure of is that David got counsel from the Lord to stay and not flee.

            What Can the Righteous Do? (v. 3):  “3 If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?’”  The answer to that question is to lay the foundations again, for there are times when that is the only thing left to do and we see evidences of that in Scripture.  We see in the book of 1Samuel and chapter 12 that Samuel laid again the foundation of the covenant and we also see in the book of Ezra that he laid the foundation of the temple again. Jesus spoke of troubles that were in the churches that are described in Revelations 2-3 and gave advice to take care of those troubles, and this too speaks of laying again the foundations and gets going on the right track again.  As believers we seem to get off track and need to examine ourselves to make sure we have our foundations laid properly.   

            What God Will Do (vv. 4-7):  “4 ¶  The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. 5  The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates. 6  Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. 7  For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.”

            In an earlier SD I spoke of a song that I heard many years ago that was written about different characters in the Bible and the chorus went something like this “He didn’t look down, He didn’t look around, He just looked up, up, up” and then repeated those lines again.  The point is that David did not look down or around, but he looked up to get his help from the Lord who was and is in His holy temple. 

            We see here that the Lord will test both the righteous and the wicked, and we can be sure that the wicked will fail, but the righteous should trust the Lord and thus pass the test, and this will bring glory to the Lord as we saw recently in the book of Job.

            In verse six we see different ways that the Lord uses in judgment against the wicked, the first is like what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah.  The second is burning heat from a desert, and this could be a picture of hell, as hell will surely be hot, and the last is a picture of drinking from a cup and we can assume that will be poison.

              We see in verse seven that those who are the Lord’s own will someday see His face.  When we see a person’s face it means we have access to that person.  This will be a great day when we look upon the face of our Lord.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  When crisis come into my life I have to look up and not look down or look around and by looking up I can trust that the Lord will give me the guidance that I am in need of.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Continue to trust the Lord to guide me.

2.       Continue to seek to learn contentment.

12/29/2011 7:28:34 AM

           

Psalm 10

12/28/2011 8:49:06 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Psalm 10

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Psalm 10

            Message of the verses:  “1 ¶  Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? 2  In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. 3  For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. 4  The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, "There is no God." 5  His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them. 6  He says to himself, "I will not be moved; Throughout all generations I will not be in adversity." 7  His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness. 8  He sits in the lurking places of the villages; In the hiding places he kills the innocent; His eyes stealthily watch for the unfortunate. 9  He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair; He lurks to catch the afflicted; He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net. 10  He crouches, he bows down, And the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones. 11  He says to himself, "God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it."

    “12 ¶  Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up Your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. 13  Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said to himself, "You will not require it." 14  You have seen it, for You have beheld mischief and vexation to take it into Your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to You; You have been the helper of the orphan. 15  Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, Seek out his wickedness until You find none. 16  The LORD is King forever and ever; Nations have perished from His land. 17  O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear 18  To vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, So that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror.”

            In the John MacArthur Study Bible there is a note telling that Psalms 9 & 10 used to be one Psalm but now they are split between 9 & 10, and the reason they used to be on is that they are very similar, as they speak of the enemies of Israel.  Psalm nine speaks of those from the outside while psalm 10 speaks of enemies on the inside, those who claim to know God, but don’t and have no fear of God or of the last judgment that will come from God at the end of time as we know it now.  The Bible calls this judgment the “Great White Throne Judgment,” and it is found in Revelations 20:11ff.

Questioning God (v. 1):  “1 Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?”

            The psalmist is wrestling with the same old question that many people have wrestled with for many years and that is why to the wicked prosper and why do those who follow the Lord become afflicted by the wicked.  Isn’t God going to do something about all of this?  We see this in other parts of the Bible, this same question being asked, for we saw it in the book of Job when we studied Job.  We know that God has a special part of His heart for the orphans and for the widows and yet there are times when they too are afflicted and so the psalmist asks this age old question in verse one.

Rejecting God (vv. 2-13):

We will see four statements in these verses that will express what those rejecting God believe and because of this belief it will determine how they behave in their lives.

            “There is no God” (vv.2-4 NASB)  “2  In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. 3  For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. 4  The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, "There is no God.’”

            I have mentioned in an earlier SD that Dr. Wiersbe’s commentaries use the King James Bible and I have always used the NASB and in his commentary on this section he wants his readers to see verse four in the NASB because of the statement at the end of verse four:  “There is no God.”

            I have also mentioned that the reason that many people of this age flock to the theory of evolution is that by believing this lie they take God out of the picture and become their own gods doing what they want, not fearing any judgment, well the psalmist is speaking of people who are doing the same kind of thing in his day.

            We see that these evil and wicked people live only for their self, and have no fear of God or what they do to other people as long as it causes gain for them. This sounds all too familiar as we look at the world around us today.

            “I shall not be moved” (v.5-7):  “5  His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them. 6  He says to himself, "I will not be moved; Throughout all generations I will not be in adversity." 7  His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness.”

            Let us look at two passages of Scripture to help understand these verses above:  “10  For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13  which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. 14  But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15  But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16  For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.”  (1Cor. 2:10-16)  This passage shows that unconverted man have no knowledge or understanding of the Word of God, or the ways of God and that is the problem with these people in Psalm 10.

            These people of Psalm 10 misunderstand God, especially that God is longsuffering, and because He is longsuffering they think He will not act at all.  “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.”   (Eccl. 8:11) 

            One of these days these people will wake up and see that the longsuffering of God is over and then their peace and prosperity will end very suddenly.

            “God will not judge me” (vv. 12-13):  “12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up Your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. 13  Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said to himself, "You will not require it.’”

“12 Arise, O LORD!  Punish the wicked, O God!  Do not ignore the helpless! 13  Why do the wicked get away with despising God?  They think, “God will never call us to account.’” (NLT)

In these verses we see the psalmist crying out for help to God and we also see three names for God in these verses:  God: Jehovah, the God of the covenant, and El and Elohim, the God of power.  I would like to say here that it would be a wonderful study to know all the names that are used for God throughout the Bible and by knowing this it will enhance our prayer life, for like the psalmist in these verse we could cry out to God by using His names that fit into what we are praying about.

Dr. Wiersbe writes:  “The Lord will keep His covenant promises to His people, and there will be a day of reckoning when sinners will be judged by a righteous God.  ‘Arise, O God’ take us back to Numbers 10:35 and the triumphant march of Israel.”

Trusting God (vv.14-18)

The psalmist shows his great trust in God in this last portion of this psalm and has full confidence that God will answer his prayers about the wicked, for he knows that God is on His throne and has everything under control.  Dr. Wiersbe writes, “The Lord may not explain to us why some people seem to get away with their evil deeds, but He does assure us that He will judge sinners and ultimately defend His won.  In this paragraph, the Lord answers all four of the statements of the wicked that are quoted in verses 2-13.”

            God sees what is going on (v. 14):  “14  But you see the trouble and grief they cause.  You take note of it and punish them. The helpless put their trust in you.  You defend the orphans.”

            In verses 8-11 we saw that the wicked boast that God does not know what is going on, but He does see the trouble and the grief that the wicked are causing. 

            God judges sin (v. 15):  “15  Break the arms of these wicked, evil people!  Go after them until the last one is destroyed.”

            This answers the false claim of verses 12-13.  God will answer this prayer, for He is bound by His Word, and although the answer may not come in the timeframe we want it to come God will answer this prayer and God will judge sin.

            God is King (v. 16):  “16  The LORD is king forever and ever!  The godless nations will vanish from the land.”

            The wicked claim that there is no God (vv.1-4) but that is not the truth, for the truth is that God is and He rules over all.

            We know that this pray was answered for there were many nations that have vanished from their lands since the writing of this psalm, and we know according to the prophecies of the Bible that God will do this in the end times and the reason is that He is King and rules over His kingdom.

            God defends His own people (vv. 17-18):  “17  LORD, you know the hopes of the helpless.  Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. 18  You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,  so mere people can no longer terrify them.”

            In verse verses 5-7 the wicked claim that they will not be moved, but God has other plans for them.  God hears the prayers of those who are being persecuted and He see their plight, He also gives strength to their hearts to enable them to go through trials (see Romans 8:28).  He will eventually judge the wicked, those who have abused them.  Paul writes in Philippians 3:20-21 these words, “20  For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21  who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”  This is a wonder promise for all believers, especially in times of trouble. 

            Yes God will one day judge all of the wickedness that has gone on during the history of wickedness upon this earth, and God will take His children to be with Him to live forever, and these are two great promises we can hold onto.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I know that the promises of God are true and that one day God will judge the wicked, and when He does that it will not be in the sense of getting even with them, but God is just and His justice will be seen in that day when the White Throne Judgments take place.  I believe it is Ezekiel who said that God gets no pleasure from the judgment of the wicked, and I suppose that waiting on God to judge the wicked is a part of learning to be content, knowing that God is in control and will keep His Word.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Continue to learn contentment, knowing that one day all wrongs will be made right by God.

12/28/2011 10:08:15 AM