2nd Intro to Zechariah 10

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/31/2016 1:49 PM

My Worship Time                                                            Focus:  Introduction to Zech. Chapter 10

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 10

            In the tenth chapter of the book of Zechariah we will look at, once again, the Redemption of Israel, as this is one of the great themes of the book of Zechariah, and other OT and NT books of the Bible.  Many in the church age do not agree with this, that is that Israel will be once again be the focus of what God is doing on planet earth, as right now the focus is on the church, but once the Rapture of the church takes place then the focus will once again go back to the nation of Israel as we can see in Revelation chapters 6-19 which is the 70^th week of Daniel’s prophecy as seen in the 9^th chapter of the book of Daniel.  I have mentioned in earlier Spiritual Diaries that I truly believe that what is going on in different churches today comes from Satan who hates Israel because of the fact that Jesus Christ came from Israel, from the tribe of Judah, and the clan of David to bring about salvation to those who believe that He is who He says He is.  During His death and resurrection it also doomed Satan for He was judged during that time and so Satan hates the Jews and will do anything to draw attention away from them and so I believe his plan was to deceive those in the church to believe that God is done with the Jews and the wonderful blessings described in the OT belong to the church, not Israel.  Well we would have to take out many parts of both the Old and New Testaments for this to happen, even this 10^th chapter of Zechariah along with the 11^th chapter of the book of Romans and chapters 6-19 of Revelation and many other promises that were given to Israel by God.

            John MacArthur has the following to say as he previews this tenth chapter of the book of Zechariah “Now when Israel is saved, what happens? What all is involved in their redemption? That is the theme of chapter 10. Just exactly what occurs? What are the constituent benefits of salvation? Well, this morning I had eight points to my sermon and that's how many there are tonight. I must have been thinking in terms of eight this week, but that's the way this chapter broke down. It's a short chapter. It will go by quickly. Watch as we look at it.”

            I cannot say how difficult it has been for me as we get into these last chapters of the book of Zechariah which talk mostly about the future of Israel, as they are difficult chapters for me to understand, and I do want to understand them so that I can, as I always strive to do, put the truth onto the pages of my Spiritual Diaries.  By God’s grace and His Spirit’s intervention into my heart that will be accomplished.

8/31/2016 2:26 PM

The Power of Christ (John 11:43-44)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/31/2016 9:53 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  The Power

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 11:43-44

            Message of the verses:  “43 When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." 44 The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus *said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go.’”

            Well we have been looking at John chapter eleven since the 15^th or this month, knowing all along that Jesus was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, and we finally get to the place where He will do that this morning, and what we want to do is to look at the power that Jesus had in order to raise a man from the dead who had been dead for four days.  When one goes to a funeral the person in charge of doing the speaking at the funeral may say something like the body was formed out of the earth speaking of Adam being formed out of the earth and to the earth it will go back speaking of the decomposition of the body.  Lazarus’ body was well on that way and there is a process for that to happen especially when there was no method of preserving the body that the Jews used, so in essence Jesus had to make a new body for Lazarus.

            We first want to look at the loudness of Jesus’ voice as the text says that He cried out with a very loud voice.  However we do not know why it is that He cried out with a loud voice, but He did.  MacArthur writes “It may have symbolized the power it took to raise the dead.  Or He may have done it to distance Himself from the whispered mutterings of the sorcerers and magicians (cf. Isa. 8:19).  In any case, His voice immediately captured the complete attention of everyone present.”  It is interesting to me that the word “loud” means great when I look it up in my Greek/English dictionary.

            I have heard before on different occasions that the power of the Lord is so great that if He had not called Lazarus by name that all of the graves would have emptied.  When we look at what will happen in the future that is precisely what will happen.  Let us look back at John 5:28-29 “28  "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29  and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”  I want to also look at several verses in 1 Thessalonians chapter four “13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.”  MacArthur adds “Jesus’ raising of Lazarus was a preview of the divine power He will display when He raises all of the dead on the last day.”  We have to understand that there is an order of how all of this is going to happen.  First was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead as the first fruits, then comes the Rapture of the church when all born-again members of the church will be raised from the dead and go to be with the Lord.  Next I believe that those who died in the tribulation along with those Old Testament saints will be raised from the dead at the end of the tribulation period.  Finally the unbelievers will be raised from the dead to receive their new bodies in the last judgment, the Great White Throne Judgment.

            The command that Jesus gave was short and to the point it was almost abrupt in its simplicity.  MacArthur adds “The Greek text literally reads, ‘Lazarus! Here! Outside!’  Stumbling blindly toward the familiar, beloved voice that called him, ‘the man who had died came forth.’”  There was no showmanship like is seen from these so called modern faith healers that one may see on TV, as Jesus just raised Lazarus from the dead and then told those who were around him to take off his grace clothes, something we will speak of latter.  Let us look at 1 Corinthians 15:55 “"O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?"”  Next Revelation 1:18 “and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”  This speaks of Jesus, of course.

            Now can you imagine what the onlookers were thinking when Lazarus came forth out of the grave?  They see this mummy like person that use to be a corpse come walking out of his tomb wearing his grave clothes.  “and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself (John 20:7), as this speaks of what was found in the place where Jesus’ body was laying, but He was not there for He had risen from the dead.

            Now when Jesus tells them to unbind Lazarus I have often thought that this pictures a person who has just received Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, for we read that when that happens that all things are new, “2Co 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  Let us now look at Ephesians 2:1-10 which furthers shows us what happens to a sinner when he trusts the Savior:  “1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.  4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Now we will look at Colossians 3:1-7 1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.  5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6  For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, 7  and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.”

            MacArthur writes “There is significance in Jesus’ involving the bystanders in touching and unwrapping Lazarus ‘The very mourners who doubted [Jesus] were agents in the completion of the miracle.  In their participation the mourners in fact became part of the sign and therefore were undeniable witnesses of the power of Jesus’ (Gerald L. Borchert, John 1-11).”

            MacArthur add “Although it was the climatic miraculous sign of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the raising of Lazarus ‘could be only a pale anticipation of what was yet to come’ (D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John).’”  We will begin to look at how this unfolds in our next SD as we consider the reactions to the resurrection of Lazarus which include the remaining verses in this chapter (vv. 45-57).

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remember to follow what I have quoted from Colossians 3:1-3.

Memory verses for the week:  (Romans 6:8-9) “8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, death no longer is master over Him.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “His burial with the rich.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘My Father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions’?”

Answer in our next SD.

8/31/2016 11:28 AM

           

 

PT-5 Divine Conqueror (Zech. 9:15-17)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/31/2016 12:09 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-5 Divine Conqueror

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 9:15-17

            Message of the verses:  “15 The LORD of hosts will defend them. And they will devour and trample on the sling stones; And they will drink and be boisterous as with wine; And they will be filled like a sacrificial basin, Drenched like the corners of the altar. 16 And the LORD their God will save them in that day As the flock of His people; For they are as the stones of a crown, Sparkling in His land. 17 For what comeliness and beauty will be theirs! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins.”

            The first thing that I want to remind you, that I have spoken of in earlier Spiritual Diaries is that when we see the term “The LORD of hosts” it is speaking of the Lord of armies as it is translated in the NLT “The LORD of Heaven’s Armies will protect his people.”  Zechariah is saying that God will protect His people like a lion protects her cubs, and MacArthur concludes “And Israel like the lion of God takes their enemies and devours them.”

            When we look at the next part of verse fifteen we see that the stones, either big or small, that are thrown at Israel will not hurt them they will just fall and not do any harm to them.  Victory for Israel will be joyous, like a person who drinks wine that makes them happy and they get loud.  MacArthur writes “The battle he’s really discussing here is Armageddon.  And the armies of the world may amass themselves against Israel, but Israel’s going to wind up just walking over the stones, shouting with joy.”

            Verse fifteen goes on to say “And they will be filled like a sacrificial basin, Drenched like the corners of the altar.”  The bowl he is talking about is the bowl under the place where the sacrifices are made which catch the blood of the sacrifices.  This blood collected in these bowls is what they put onto the altar, all the corners of the altar.  This is not really a pretty sight to see, but that is what they did.

            MacArthur writes “But they were literally, he says, you will be like bowls that are used to splatter blood all over the altar.  And what he’s really saying here is that Israel is going to see the splattering of the bloodshed of the godless.  Se, both parts are here. That’s a terrible thing to think about.  There’s going to be so much blood, you’ll think you’re the bowls.  Read Revelation 14:20, the blood will be to the depth of the horses’ bridles for 200 miles.”

              So we have seen the salvation on one side and then we have seen the terrible judgment of the godless on the other hand.  We have also seen the character of one worldly king and the character of the Divine King in this 9^th chapter of Zechariah.

            In verse sixteen we see the care of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ and He will turn judgment into salvation again “And the LORD their God will save them in that day As the flock of His people.”  Then Zechariah writes “For they are as the stones of a crown, Sparkling in His land.”  This is like jewels in His crown. 

            Now as we have looked at this chapter we see that there is a great future for the people of Israel “17 For what comeliness and beauty will be theirs! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins.”  After all of the hardships that Israel has gone through since AD 70 they finally got their land back and will at the end of the seven year tribulation period see the return of their Messiah who will rule over them for the next 1,000 years.  We truly hope that this will happen very soon.

8/31/2016 12:34 AM

 

The Prayer (John 11:41-42)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/30/2016 9:31 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  The Prayer

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 11:41-42

            Message of the verses:  “41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 “I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.’”

            Jesus wanted the stone removed and so those who were there removed the stone, and not Jesus.  Jesus could have caused the stone to be removed; even causing it to fly through the air, but Jesus did not do tricks.  Jesus had the people do what they could do so that He would then do what He could do, and that is raising Lazarus from the dead. 

            Now as we look at the prayer we see that Jesus did not ask the Father to raise Lazarus from the dead, but simply thanked Him for hearing Him, and then stating that He knew that the Father always heard him whenever He prayed to Him.  He then says that the reason for the prayer was for the benefit of those around Him could believe that the Father had sent the Son.

            Once again we see that Jesus wanted the people to understand why He came, and who it was that sent Him, and this goes along with the theme of John’s gospel that we have been looking at since we begin our study in this wonderful book way back in November of last year.

            I just want to say a bit more that probably should have been said in our last SD, as I have finished listening to the sermon on the verses that we will go over as seen in John MacArthur’s commentary from chapter 40.  It has to do with Martha and we did talk about her reaction to what Jesus was telling her about Him being the Resurrection and the Life.  Now we have mentioned that just like in the case of the man born blind and also the death of Lazarus that it was not about them, but about Jesus and bringing glory to God.  In the sermon that I listened to I was moved by this fact that this was all about bringing glory to the Lord.  I was thinking about some of the so called preachers that are seen on the TV and how they are supposedly doing miracles of healing people, and how rich they are getting from this “business” that they are in.  They are not doing this for the glory of the Lord, but for the filling of their pockets and people are falling for it.

            I was also thinking about the times when I have asked the Lord to bring about healing in my life or perhaps a friend’s life and remembering that I wanted the Lord to heal a sickness just for that person or for myself, but have not really thought about for the glory of the Lord.  It is the responsibility of all believers to bring glory to the Lord, that is why Jesus came to earth and that is why He saved us and this was a reminder in that sermon that I listened to, to do this as best I can through the power of the Holy Spirit.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Remember that I am to do what I can do for the cause of Christ, and let the Lord do what only He can do.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Live my life to bring glory to the Lord.  “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).”

Memory verses for the week:  (Romans 6:8-9) “8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The Passover” (Luke 22:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which prophecy concerning Christ was given in Isaiah 53:9 and fulfilled in Matthew 27:57-60.”

Answer in our next SD.

8/30/2016 9:59 AM  

The Promise (John 11:40)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/29/2016 11:33 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  The Promise

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                        Reference:  John 11:40

            Message of the verses:  “40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"”

            I want to do a little review since this Spiritual Diary will be short, and what I want to do is to take a brief look at some of the seven “I Am” statements that are found in the gospel of John.  From our past study we know that when we read these I Am statements that Jesus is telling His audience that He is God the very God that is described in Exodus 3:14 “God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ’I AM has sent me to you.’"”  When we see that Hebrew name of God it is in all caps LORD, and it is Yahweh, or in the English Jehovah.

            “John 6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”  “John 8:12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."”  “John 10:7 So Jesus said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.”  “John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”  “John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.”  “John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  “John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.  John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

            We see these seven “I Am” statements from John’s gospel and in many cases they are connected to a miracle that Jesus did or would do.  John 6:35 speaks of when Jesus gave the fish and loaves of bread to the crowd.  The I Am statement in John 8:12 is right before He gave the blind man sight.  Next we see the I Am statement in the chapter that we are looking at this time, chapter eleven where we read “Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.”    This is probably the most important statement that we see in this 11^th chapter of John, for in it we see Jesus is saying that He is the One who gives resurrection, both spiritual and physical, and He proves that by raising Lazarus from the dead, giving life to a totally dead person, which is what He does when He saves a person as we are all born dead.  Now we look forward to looking at the other two “I Am” statements as we continue to look at John’s gospel.

            Martha’s despair drew out from Jesus a response that was designed partly to give her hope, and also it was partly a gentle rebuke.  MacArthur writes “The text does not record the Lord making this exact statement to Martha in their prior conversation (vv. 20-28).  Therefore He may have been referring to an earlier remark that does not appear in Scripture, or this statement may have been intended as a composite of verse 4 (His words there were not doubt reported to Mary and Martha) and verses 23-26). 

            In either case, Jesus’ reminder challenged Martha to stop being concerned about her brother’s body and to start focusing on Him.”  The Lord tells her that if she believed that she would see the glory of God, and that is exactly what happened to her, and all of those who were with her at that time.  Now we know that if she believed or did not believe that that would not cause Jesus to raise Lazarus from the dead, for He was going to do that whether or not she believed for that was a part of His plan and that could not be changed.  Those who were present who would be given faith to believe in Him would be saved, but some of those present at the raising of Lazarus went off to tell the Jews what had happened and did not have faith to believe that Jesus was who He claimed to be.  John MacArthur quotes Leon Morris who explains “For [Jesus] the ‘glory of God’ was the one important thing.  This means that the real meaning of what He would do would be accessible only to faith.  All who were there, believers or not, would see the miracle.  But Jesus is promising Martha a sight of the glory.  The crowd would see the miracle, but only believers would perceive its real significance, the glory.’”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my desire to see what the Lord wants me to see in His Word every time I open it up to read and study it, but I suppose there are times when I don’t see what He wants me to see, but then there are times when things seem to jump off the page, even something I have read may times before.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  One of the things that I have been trying to do better is to meditate on God’s Word, which is what I want to continue to do.

Memory verses for the week:  (Romans 6:8-9) “8 Now if we have died to Christ, we believe we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “His vineyard” (1 Kings 21:2).

Today’s Bible question:  “What was the feast of unleavened bread called?”

Answer in our next SD.

8/29/2016 12:24 PM

 

The Problem (John 11:38-39)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/28/2016 7:02 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  The Problem

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  John 11:38-39

            Message of the verses:  “38 So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.’”

            We first want to think about this problem that we see here before we go into looking at what these verses can mean to us as we study them.  If anyone else in the entire universe would have been standing in front of the place where Lazarus was buried, and have been dead for four days then there surely would have been a problem.  However we have the God who created everything seen standing in from of this cave where the body of Lazarus was buried, so that eliminates all problems.  I have often though about and have told unbelievers that if I was standing in from of the grace of Lazarus and was about to do what Jesus was about to do then there would be a great problem.

            Next we see that Jesus was once again deeply moved and John MacArthur, that this time it was because of the doubts of what the mourners said in verse 37 “"Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?"”  He goes on to write about what this word “deeply moved” (embrimaomai) means, as he compares it with what we talked about in verse 33 “He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled,”  Where he wrote “Deeply moved is a misleading translation of the verb embrimaomai, which literally means to snort like a horse.  Apart from its use in v. 38, it appears only three other times in the New Testament (Matt. 9:30; Mark 1:43; 14:5).”

            A tomb in Israel was likely a cave as we have seen that in different places in the OT and NT.  They can either be a natural cave of a cave dug out by a person like in the case where Jesus was laid.  There was a level floor and there would be shelves in it to bury more than one person, perhaps like in the case of Abraham it was for a family.  It was likely outside of the town itself, as Jesus never got to the home of Martha and Mary, and also so that the living would not be defiled by it as they came in contact with dead bodies as seen in places like Numbers 19:16 and we can compare that with Matthew 23:27 and Luke 11:44.

            We next look at what could be described as panic when Jesus told the sisters to remove the stone, for Lazarus had been dead for four days and because they did not preserve the bodies and because bodies decompose and that causes a bad odor Martha said to Jesus “Lord, by this time there will be a stench.”  I can’t help but think that three times now Martha has been telling the Lord some things that we know that He already knows.  I don’t want to give her a hard time, because I may be doing things like that myself, like telling the Lord I really need Him to answer this or that prayer in this way when I should be saying like what Jesus told His Father while in the garden when He was praying about His crucifixion where He said “Not my will but Your will be done.”

            Martha may have been thinking that Jesus wanted one last look at Lazarus and that is why He wanted the stone rolled away, because it is almost for certain that she had no idea that Jesus was going to raise Lazarus from the dead.  Now as I think about Martha in this situation I can perfectly understand why she would not want the stone taken away from the cave, for she surely did not want to see her brother’s body like this as in her mind it was already too late to have Jesus do anything about his death.  MacArthur writes “Since her brother had already been dead four days (the perfect tense of the participle indicates she believed that Lazarus had entered into a permanent state of death), Martha had given up all hope.”

            Well that is the problem as we see it in these two verses, and in our next SD, Lord willing, we will look at the promise as seen in verse forty.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I worship a great God who can do anything He wants to do and I desire to see my faith strengthened as I read His Word each day.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to give me the strength and the wisdom to teach my last Sunday school class for the summer, and to give me wisdom as to whether or not I should be a back up for another class that begins next week.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Genesis.”

Today’s Bible question:  “What did Ahab want that belonged to Naboth?”

 Answer in our next SD.

8/28/2016 7:56 AM

           

PT-3 Divine Conqueror (Zech. 9:11-12)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/27/2016 7:10 PM

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  PT-3 Divine Conqueror

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Zechariah 9:11-12

            Message of the verse:  “11 As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. 12 Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope; This very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you.”

            We have been looking at the Messiah’s conquest in our last SD and that is what we continue to look at in this SD as we look at verse eleven.  John MacArthur states that when you look at this verse in the Hebrew it is seen as already happened.  The reason for that is that is in the “perfect tense.”  Now I believe that there is another way that this can be explained as I have heard in earlier studies that what we have here is this is written in what is called the “prophetic tense,” in other words even though what is being talked about here is in the future it is seen as it has already happened because God is the One who is saying that it will happen.  We may say things like “I will see you tomorrow,” and then something happens and you don’t see that person tomorrow because of some unforeseen thing that comes up that you did not know would come up.  God is not like that for when He says something is going to happen it will happen for not only is God sovereign, but He is also omnipotent, having the power to make it happen.

            John MacArthur explains what this verse means, as when one looks at it we can see that it is hard to figure out.  “You say, "Well, what does that mean?" Well, He says first of all, because of the blood of the covenant. "Well, what blood is that?" Well, you remember back in Genesis 15? God made a promise to Abram. He said, "Abram," before he was Abraham, He said, "I'm going to make a great nation out of you and I'm going to promise to bless that nation. Now I want to seal that promise, so you get a goat and a ram and a heifer and a pigeon and a turtledove and you split the animals in half and then just kill the pigeon and the turtledove. And lay half of the animals on this side and half of the animals on this side, the dead pigeon on this side, and the dead turtledove on this side.’”

            “That's a messy bloody deal. You say, "What's God up to?" He got all done doing that and God just gave him a divine anesthetic...whish...put him to sleep. He's zonked. And the Bible says that God, speaking of God as a smoking burning lamp and furnace, God passed between those pieces, Genesis 15. You say, "What in the world is that?" In the east, when people made a covenant, they made it in blood. And the way they did it was to cut an animal in half and walk between the bloody parts of the animal. That was the custom to seal a promise. And God...watch this...God was not making a promise with Abram, so He just put Abram asleep and said, "You're not involved in this, kid." God was making a promise with God. Nobody went through those pieces but Him. He vowed with Himself to bless his people. That's unconditional because God could never break a promise He made with Himself, both parties are incapable of violating it because both parties are one in the same God.”

            “And so, He says it is because of My own covenant, the blood of that covenant, it may even also include the bloodshed in the Mosaic covenant. And certainly ultimately it is the covenant that is fulfilled most singularly in whose blood? The blood of Jesus Christ. Because of the blood that I that I passed between then, because of the blood of the Mosaic covenant, because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the once for all offering, because of those things, some pass, some yet to come, I'll never violate My promise, it's sealed in blood.

“You say, "Well,"... people always...amillennialists always say this, the people who don't believe Israel has a place, they say, "Well, you see, Israel blew it. You see, Israel isn't worthy to be redeemed. Israel isn't worthy to be brought back. Israel forfeited their right." Listen, it doesn't say, "But I'm going to bring you back because you're so wonderful." Or, "I'm going to bring you back because you've just now and then been pretty good." Or, "I'm going to bring you back because I feel sort of sorry for you." It says, "I"m going to bring you back because I made a promise with Myself and I sealed that promise in blood. And when I do that, I keep My promise."

“And so, God says because of the blood of the covenant, now watch this, I have already sent forth the prisoners out of the pit in which is no water. You remember Joseph, Genesis 37? Where did they throw Joseph? Where did his brothers throw him? In a pit. That was a common place to put people you wanted to get rid of. You know what happened when they threw them in the pit? Nothing, they died. And you now what they used to use for pits? Empty cisterns and dry wells. And that's exactly what you have here. A pit in which there is no water is a dry well. And God says Israel has been in a dry well a long time but because of the blood of the covenant and because I have made a vow to Israel, they're as good as out. And that's a great message to announce to the Jews, you know that? That your people are as good as out of the pit some day. When the King comes, Israel will be freed from the pit of trouble, the pit of war, the pit of suffering to know the liberty of the Kingdom of peace and the reign of the Prince of Peace Himself.

“And so, because of that he calls them prisoners of hope in verse 12. "Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope." Turn to Me, is what He's saying. It's all going to come to pass, trust Me, lean on Me, ye prisoners of hope.

“I spoke at a prison this week. And after I was done preaching, a couple of men received Christ and I walked out into the chapel to talk with some of the prisoners. And every prisoner I talked to, except for one, said to me, "I'm getting out in 12 months....I'm getting out in six months...I think I'm going to get out in October...I think I..." You know why? Because they had to have hope, to be there and think they would never get out.

“Ah, we say to Israel, "Israel, you may be prisoners in a terrible situation with a PLO. You may be in a terrible situation with the Arab pressure. You may have it really rough but I'll tell you one thing, you're prisoners of hope because one of these days you're as good as out of the pit. And when you get out, everything that's ever been withheld from you will be given back double measure." Is that in the Bible? It's in the Bible, verse 12, "Even today do I declare, I will render...what?...double unto you." Not just blessing, double blessing. After all, you've had double anxiety and double pain. I'll render double blessing.

            “And they have had terrible pain, double pain. Isaiah 61:7, I just thought of it, says, "For your shame, you shall have double. And for confusion, they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion." In other words, you had double pain, I'll give you double portion. That's God's promise. And so, He says I'm going to save them. I'm going to take war from the earth, verse 10. I'm going to give them salvation and bring them out of the pit. And I'm going to double bless them, verse 12.”

            I, for one am glad that I can get info on these verses from John MacArthur as I am not sure exactly how I could figure out what is being said in these difficult verses.  I actually believe that the book of Zechariah is the most difficult book that I have ever studied.  The other day I looked at when we began our study in Zechariah and it was all the way back in the latter part of April, and when I looked at that I was completely surprised, thinking that it was much later than that, but even through this is a difficult book to understand what we are learning certainly makes it easier to understand.

8/27/2016 7:35 PM

 

 

The Perplexity (John 11:37)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/27/2016 8:48 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                         Focus:  The Perplexity

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                          Reference:  John 11:37

            Message of the verses:  “37 But some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?’”

            We want to begin this SD by looking at some verses in the gospel of John where we see that Jesus polarized the people.  “There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, "He is a good man"; others were saying, "No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray’ (John 7:12).”  “So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him (John 7:43).”  “Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, "This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath." But others were saying, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And there was a division among them’ (John 9:16).”  “A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words (John 10:19).” 

            Here is what we saw in verse 35 “Jesus wept” and then in verse 36 we saw “So the Jews were saying, "See how He loved him!’”  So Jesus was visibly upset over the death of Lazarus, as the crowd noticed, and then because of this the crowds could see that Jesus loved Lazarus, and so they come up with the same things that Mary and Martha were saying, and that is if Jesus would have been there when Lazarus was so sick that He probably could have healed him and then he would not have died, for they go on to say “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?’”  Of course they were speaking of the man born blind that is recorded in chapter nine.  The people remembered that for it had not happened too long ago.  We can see from the verses above that the people had different opinions about who Jesus was, and that still goes on today, for some still say that He was a prophet, a good man, and some even say that He is God, God who came in the flesh.  That of course is the correct way to see Jesus for John writes in 1Jo “5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him,” and in 1Jo 5:5 “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”  1Jo 4:2 “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;” 2Jo 1:7 “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.”

            I think that it is safe to say that they professional mourners who stated that if Jesus was there Lazarus would not have died were saying this in a way that mocked Him.  They may have been thinking that if Jesus really loved Lazarus that He would have got there sooner so that He could have healed him, so perhaps He did not love him as much as He was showing.  You know if there is a way out of believing in Jesus many people will run to that, for coming to Jesus as Lord and Savior is defiantly a change of life, for Paul writes that “Old things have passed away and all things are new.” 

            John MacArthur answers the question as to why Jesus did not make every effort to make it to Lazarus’s bedside before he died:  “The answer is that God ‘works all things after the counsel of His will’ (Eph. 1:11) and ‘does not give an account of all His doings’ (Job 33:13; cf. 40:2; Deut. 29:29).  Jesus delayed because His purpose was not to heal Lazarus, but to raise him from the dead and thereby bring glory to Himself and to the Father (vv. 4:40).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I can learn from this verse that the things that I would want Jesus to do in my life and in the lives of those I pray for may not be what He wants to do, but that what He wants to do will be the best.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).” 

Memory verse for the week:  (Romans 6:8) “8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with Him;”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Pharaoh’s daughter” (Exodus 2:10).

Today’s Bible question:  “What book records the history of the pre-mosaic time?”

Answer in our next SD.

8/27/2016 9:23 AM

 

 

PT-2 The Divine Conqueror (Zech. 9:10)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/26/2016 11:56 PM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus: PT-2 Divine Conqueror  

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 9:10

            Message of the verses:  “10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.”

            We will be looking at the second coming of Christ in verse ten, whereas we looked at the first coming in verse nine in our last SD.  We looked at His character in our last SD and we will look at His conquest in verse ten this evening

            Some may wonder why the OT prophets could jump from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ, however they did not know that the church age would exist and that is why when they wrote of Messiah they did not know that there would be two comings of Him, but because we look back at the first coming we understand as we read the prophets that they prophesied about two comings.

            In the first coming of Christ there was deep humiliation and also affliction, but in the second coming there will be exaltation and glory as He will rule over the earth with a rod of iron, and will bring about peace on earth for the first time.

            We will only look at verse ten in this SD, and then look at verse eleven in our next SD. 

            When Zechariah says that the Lord will cut off the chariots from the different nations He will stop the wars as the chariots were symbols of war, and when Christ comes there will be no more wars while He rules on planet earth from Jerusalem.  Zechariah goes on to talk about the battle bow, another symbol of war and it will be cut off, which is another reference of no more war.  Next we see that He will speak peace to the nations and will rule from sea to sea.  When rulers of nations speak of peace it only last for a very short time in our world today, but when Jesus Christ comes to set up His kingdom there really will be peace, and it will last for 1000 years.  Now the river mentioned here is the Euphrates River.  Israel’s borders were suppose to go to the Euphrates River, as it was the eastern border of the land given originally to Abram.

No more war and the Messiah ruling over the whole earth.  I doesn’t get any better than that.

8/27/2016 12:14 AM

Introduction to John 11:37-44

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/26/2016 9:44 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  Introduction to John 11:37-44

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 11:37-44

            Message of the verses:  “37 But some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?" 38 So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days." 40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" 41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 “I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me." 43 When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." 44 The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go.’”

            We have not looked at the purpose as to why John wrote his gospel in a while and so I want to begin with that today:  “30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”  John writes his gospel to show that Jesus Christ is indeed God who came in the flesh, and John uses eight miracles to prove this, with the last one of the upmost importance was His resurrection from the dead. 

            God had told Adam and Eve that if they ate of the fruit of the tree that they were not suppose to eat from that they surely would die.  We know the story that once they ate of that tree that they died spiritually and eventually died physically.  There was also a promise given to them that the seed of the woman would produce the coming Messiah (Gen. 3:15).  The sin nature was passed through the man, but the Messiah was born of a virgin, a woman who had never had sexual relations, thus the seed of the woman and the Holy Spirit brought about the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

            Paul writes that death is an enemy and that the resurrection of Jesus Christ took care of that enemy.  When Cain killed Able, Adam and Eve got their first look at physical death, and knew at that time that a resurrection would be needed so that Able would live once again.

            Jesus Christ came to earth to provide that miracle of the resurrection and chapter eleven of John’s gospel gives us a picture of the resurrection that Jesus Christ would have three days after He died.  As Jesus began His ministry He did many miracles to prove that He was who He said that He was, and perhaps the most powerful miracle that He did, other than His own resurrection was bringing Lazarus back to life again as we will see in this section.  John MacArthur writes “The entire eleventh chapter of John’s gospel revolves around Christ’s claim to be the resurrection and the life (vv. 25-26).  He, not Lazarus, is the primary focus of the passage.  The resurrection of Lazarus was not an end in itself (even Lazarus, who had to die again); the goal was that Jesus and the Father would be glorified (vv. 4, 40).  This passage is the third of four sections into which the account of Lazarus’s resurrection may be divided:  verses 1-16 recount his illness and his sister’s message to Jesus; verses 17-36 described Jesus’ arrival in Bethany; and verses 45-57 will relate the aftermath of the miracle.

            “The dramatic account of the actual raising of Lazarus in verses 37-44 unfolds in five scenes:  the perplexity, the problem, the promise, the prayer, and the power.”  So we have our outline as to what we will be looking at as we continue through this 11^th chapter of John’s gospel.

            Now we know that the main character in this chapter is the Lord Jesus Christ but I want for a moment think about Lazarus.  We don’t know much about this man, other than he was the brother of Mary and Martha, and that they probably had material blessings from the Lord.  We don’t know how old he was when he died or what was the cause of his death other than it was to bring glory to the Lord.  So just put yourself in his sandals for a moment and what it was that he went through.  If we think about the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (another Lazarus) we know that he would have gone to “Abraham’s bosom, as described in the parable given in Luke.  We have to believe that he was happier there than he was when he was alive on planet earth.  He was there four earth days, but time is not involved where he was.  All of a sudden he is back in his old body, alive as he hears the call of Jesus to bring him back to life again.  I for one would have loved to sit down and talk to him about his experiences, and I am sure that he must have related his experiences to his sisters and also to some of his friends.  He probably talked to Jesus about it too, and he probably knew that he would die again, but this time he would go to heaven for the next time he died all of those who had died and were in Abraham’s bosom would have gone to heaven because of what Christ did for them on the cross.  One more thing that I think about when I think about Lazarus and that is the next time that he died there would probably not be one bit of fear, in fact I believe that he looked forward to it.  Paul wrote to the Philippians “21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. 23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; 24 yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again (Phil. 1:21-26)”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  “55 “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord (1 Cor. 15:55-58)

 My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to continually be used of the Lord.

Memory verses for the week:  (Romans 6:8) “8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Lydda” (Acts 9:32-33).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who named Moses?”

Answer in our next SD.

 

PT-1 "The Divine Conqueror" (Zech. 9:9)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/25/2016 8:56 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-1 The Divine Conqueror

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 9:8-9

            Message of the verses:  We left of in our last SD speaking about what is seen in verse eight of chapter nine and stated that in the middle of the verse we saw a change of “conquerors” as the first part of the verse speaks of Alexander the Great, and the second part of the verse speaks of the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is where we want to pick up in this SD.  Now what we will see in these remaining verses of chapter nine and really all the way through the rest of the book is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment, and also in salvation, as He returns to earth at the end of the seven years of the Tribulation period described in chapters 6-19 of the book of Revelation.  Now there will also be times when Zechariah does speak of the first coming of our Lord in these chapters too, but mostly it will be about His second coming.

            “8 But I will camp around My house because of an army, Because of him who passes by and returns; And no oppressor will pass over them anymore, For now I have seen with My eyes (9:8).”  Now the highlighted portion of this verse speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ as it says that “no oppressor will pass over them anymore,” and this will not happen until Christ comes at His second coming.

            “9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey (9:9).”  Now we know that this verse refers to the Lord Jesus Christ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey which is seen in Luke chapter 19 among other chapters of the gospels, and this of course happened during the end of His first coming.  Now contrast His coming with Alexander’s triumphal entries into the cities he conquered as he rode on a white horse, but that is exactly what Jesus will be riding when He returns from heaven with others, and all will be riding on white horses.  That is the contrast of His first coming and His second coming as the first one shows the humble Savior, while the second coming shows the conquering King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

            John MacArthur talks about four elements of His character as we look at verse nine.  The first one is He is a King “Behold, your king is coming to you.”  This speaks of Israel’s King, also Israel’s redeemer as He is the promised seed of David, the Messiah, and is the One who will reign, the One whom Isaiah speaks of as a child who is born and the government shall be upon His shoulders.  It is hard to wait for our Lord to return to planet earths to stop all of these terrible things that are now going on all over planet earth.

            Next thing that He is just “He is just.”  We see in His character that it is both royal and also righteous, and that means that He will deal justly.  He is going to do what is right.  We see a lot of unrighteousness in our world today as people with money and power can get away with doing wrong, and people who are poor are put in jail for some little thing.  This will all stop when the King arrives back on planet earth.

            Next we see He has salvation “endowed with salvation.”  His name even means Savior as that is what Jesus means.  We truly need a Savior and there is none like Him.  We saw in the first part of chapter nine that Alexander was no Savior, but we see in the last part of chapter nine that Jesus is a Savior.

            The fourth thing we see of His character is that He is on only a King and a righteous Savior, but He is meek, and lowly which also is a lot different that Alexander.  “Humble,” is how the NASB puts it.  John MacArthur writes “The same Hebrew word is used in an economic sense to speak of somebody with no money.  That sounds like Jesus, doesn’t it?  You know, when they crucified Him, they took all of His belongings.  You know what they had?  One robe, that was it.  Foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, Matthew 8:20 says, but the Son of Man hath not any place…what? To lay His head.”

8/25/2016 9:28 PM