God's Message (Jonah 3:10)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/30/2015 7:18 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                       Focus:  God’s Message

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  Jonah 3:10

            Message of the verses:  “10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.”

            In our last two SD’s from the book of Jonah we have seen Jonah’s message to Nineveh and then we saw Nineveh’s message to God and in today’s SD we will look at God’s message.

            We must believe that at some point God told Jonah that He was not going to destroy the city of Nineveh, and we will latter see that this is not what Jonah wanted from God, but for now we are looking at something that has been a problem to some believers and that is the phrase “God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them.”  We have been over this in earlier SD’s, but since it is in this text we will go over it again.  One of the attributes that God has is that He is immutable, God does not change His mind, He is unchangeable.  Ok we also know that when we look at God in the Scriptures we sometimes read that He has hands and He has feet, and He has eyes, and ears, and other body parts.  God does not have all of those things, but the writers of Scripture use them to help us understand more about God and changing one’s mind is a human thing.  This term is called Anthropomorphism.  Warren Wiersbe writes “From the human point of view, it looked like repentance, but from the divine perspective, it was simply God’s response to man’s change of heart.  God is utterly consistent with Himself; it only appears that He is changing His mind.  The Bible uses human analogies to reveal the divine character of God (Jer. 18:1-10).”  We will quote those verses at this time:  “1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, 2  "Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you." 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. 7  "At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; 8  if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. 9  "Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; 10  if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it.”

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes this section by writing “How deep was the spiritual experience of the people of Nineveh?  If repentance and faith are the basic conditions of salvation (Acts 20:21), then we have reason to believe that they were accepted by God; for the people of Nineveh repented and had faith in God (Jonah 3:5).  The fact that Jesus used the Ninevites to shame the unbelieving Jews of His day is further evidence that their response to Jonah’s ministry was sincere (Matt. 38:41).”

11/30/2015 7:37 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Creative Power of the Word (John 1:3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/30/2015 6:36 AM

My Worship Time                                                            Focus:  The Creative Power of the Word

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  John 1:3

            Message of the verse:  “3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” 

            Since it has been a little while since we looked at the end of John MacArthur’s outline for this first section of John, verses 1-5 I want to repeat what he wrote:  “From the first five verses of John’s gospel prologue flow three evidences of the deity of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ:  His preexistence, His creative power, and His self-existence.”  We took a couple of days looking at His preexistence, and now we want to look at His creative power, which is a much shorter section from John 1:3.

            First I want to include a short section from the pen of Warren Wiersbe on his comments from John 1:3:  “There is certainly a parallel between John 1:1 and Genesis 1:1, the ‘new creation’ and the ‘old creation.’  God created the worlds through His Word:  “And God said, ‘Let there be…’ /’For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast’ (Ps. 33:9).  God created all things through Jesus Christ (Col. 1:16, which means that Jesus is not a created being.  He is eternal God.

            ‘The verb was made is perfect tense in the Greek, which means a ‘completed act.’  Creation is finished.  It is not a process still going on, even though God is certainly at work in His creation (John 5:17).  Creation is not a process; it is a finished product.”  I suppose that those who believe in the religion of evolution, yes it is a religion and not a science, have problems with this statements from Dr. Wiersbe and many others like Ken Ham who has spent his whole life defending Genesis 1-11.

            John 1:3 has both a positive and negative statement showing the profound truth in a very clear language that the “Word” created everything that was created.  God the Father gave this job to His Son, which is the job of creation.

            Let us look at a couple of verses:  Colossians 1:16 “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him.”  Next Hebrews 1:2 “in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”  Next we will look at Ephesians 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ (KJV).” 

            We can see two truths from this verse, well two that we will look at to show that Jesus Christ, the Word is truly God.  First a created being cannot create the world. Second, and only the eternal God is uncreated.  MacArthur writes “The Greek text emphasizes the distinction between the uncreated Word and His creation, since a different verb is used here than the one used in verses 1 and 2.  As noted in the previous point, John used a form of the verb eimi (‘to be’), which denotes a state of being, to describe the Word in verses 1 and 2; here, speaking of the creation of the universe, he used a form of the verb ginomai (‘came into being’).  That Jesus is the Creator also verifies His deity, because God is portrayed through the Bible as the Creator (Gen. 1:1; Ps. 102:25; Isa. 40:28; 42:5; 45:18; Mark 12:19; Rom. 1:2 5; Eph. 3:9; Rev. 4:11).”

            There is a false belief called “Gnosticism” which teaches that all matter is evil and since God is good He could not have created something that was evil.  Well He did not create something that was evil for after each day of creation He stated that it was good and after the sixth day when man was created He stated it was “very good.”

            We have to agree that the world that God created is much different now than when He finished with His creation and that is because of the curse that came with sin.  We know that the flood that was a worldwide flood caused this world to be much different than when first created.  Romans 8:19-21 has something to say about all of this:  “19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

            In our study of Revelation, which we just completed we learned about the Millennial kingdom which is the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ as He will rule for 1000 years after the coming Tribulation period.  We learned that He will do things to the earth that will cause it to be similar to what it was before the flood and that the world and those living on it will be in a totally different environment that what we have today, both in a physical and spiritual way.  Isaiah prophesized about this upcoming kingdom in both Isaiah 11:6-9 and also in 65:25.  “6 And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. 7 Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. 9 They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.”  “"The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the LORD.”

            A couple of days ago I bought a book by Ken Ham in which he writes about how the church today believes a lie.  I certainly don’t have time to go into all he writes on this subject, but can state that the lie that many in the church believes is evolution.  In a study that I led a few years back from a book by John MacArthur entitled “The Battle for the Beginning” he stated that evolution is impossible, that not even God could create the world using evolution.  Another lie that those in the church believe has to do with evolution and that is that there is a gap between verses one and two of Genesis chapter one, a gap that last millions of years.  Now if Satan can cause many in the church today to believe this lie then other doctrines from the Word of God can be looked at as lies too.  The truth is that God created the world in six twenty-four hour days and that the earth is no more than 6-7 thousand years old.  Any other thing that is taught is a lie which comes right from the father of lies.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for the Greek language that the New Testament is written in, for the preciseness of it that we can learn the truths of Scripture because of this language that the Holy Spirit used to have the authors of the New Testament write with.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to get me through some stressful things that are up-coming today and on Wednesday.

 Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The Publican” (Luke 18:13).”

Today’s Bible question:  “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, told him to go down to whose house?”

Answer in our next SD.

11/30/2015 7:32 AM

Nineveh's Message to God (Jonah 3:5-9)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/29/2015 9:15 PM

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  Nineveh’s message to God

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Johan 3:5-9

            Message of the verses:  “  5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. 6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. 7 He issued a proclamation and it said, "In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8 "But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. 9 “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish."”

            In the sermon we have in our church service this morning our Pastor said that there are only 66 words in what we call “The Lord’s Prayer,” and those 66 words are very powerful indeed as volumes have been written about how powerful these word are.  The message that God gave Jonah to give to those who lived in Nineveh only has five words in the Hebrew text, but as we read what God did with these five words we realize the power that was in them.  We can see in His message that God gave them forty days of grace and from the average man on the street all the way to the king they all put on sackcloth to show a sign of repentance to the Lord.  When the message got to the king he not only put sackcloth on, but ordered a fast for all people and animals to take part in.  The people were to cry out mightily to the Lord so that He would not destroy them.

            Remember when Jonah was in dire straits that he remembered the prayer that Solomon prayed when the temple of the Lord was dedicated, well there is a provision in that prayer for foreigners also.  32  "Also concerning the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your great name’s sake and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house, 33 then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name, and fear You as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name (2 Chron. 6:32-33).”

            So we see that just like the sailors that were on the ship that Jonah was on they cried to the Lord, so the people of Nineveh also cried out to the Lord.  Now another thing that was in our sermon today was that we are to keep shorts lists with the Lord, that is we are to confess our sins to the Lord each day, even more than one time a day if needed.  If the Ninevites would have done this then they would not be in the shape they were in.  Remember when the Lord Jesus Christ washed His disciples’ feet and when He came to Peter, Peter first refused to have it done, so Jesus explained that without this Peter would not have a part in His kingdom.  Peter replied not only his feet but his whole body.  Jesus then tells Peter that he was clean, but just needed his feet washed.  Jesus was saying that when you become a believer you are clean, but when you are walking around in the world you get your spiritual feet dirty, dirty with sin and you then need to confess those sins to the Lord.

11/29/2015 9:35 PM  

PT-2 Preexostemce of the Word (John 1:1-2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/29/2015 8:01 PM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-2 Preexistence of the Word

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 1:1-2

            Message of the verses:   “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.”

            First thing we will look at is John going a step further by saying “the Word was with God,” and now we once again will have to rely on John MacArthur to show us what this means from the Greek.  “The English translation does not bring out the full richness of the Greek expression (pros ton theon).  That phrase means far more than merely that the Word existed with God; it ‘[gives] the picture of two personal beings facing one another and engaging in intelligent discourse’ (W. Robert Cook, The Theology of John [Chicago: Moody, 1979], 49).  From all eternity Jesus, as the second person of the trinity, was ‘with the Father [pros ton patera]’ (1 John 1:2) in deep, intimate fellowship.  Perhaps pros ton theon could best be rendered ‘face-to-face.’  The Word is a person, not an attribute of God or an emanation from Him.  And He is of the same essence as the Father.” 

            Now we realize as we study the Scriptures that Jesus left the glory of heaven and also He left the privilege of this face-to-face communion with His Father and we can get a picture of this as we look deeper into John’s Gospel “"Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was (John 17:5).”  Paul writes to the Philippians the following showing that He willingly did this “7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  I was thinking of a hymn that goes along with this “Out of the Ivory Palaces” and in John MacArthur’s commentary he cites the hymn by Charles Wesley “And Can It Be That I Should Gain.”

3. He left his Father's throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam's helpless race.
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!

Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

            John goes on after telling us that not only did the Word exist from all eternity and had face-to-face fellowship with God the Father, but now he tells us that The Word was God.  MacArthur writes “That simple statement, only four words in both English and Greek (theos en ho logos), is perhaps the clearest and most direct declaration of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ to be found anywhere in Scripture.”

            Now I have mentioned that the cults do not believe that Jesus Christ is God and in his commentary MacArthur writes the following:  “But despite their clarity, heretical groups almost from the moment John penned these words have twisted their meaning to support their false doctrines concerning the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Noting that theos (God) is anarthrous (not preceded by the definite article), some argue that it is an indefinite noun and mistranslated the phrase, ‘the Word was divine’ (i. e. , merely possessing some of the qualities of God) or, even more appalling, ‘the Word was a god.’

            “The absence of the article before theos, however, does not make it indefinite.  Logos (Word) has the definite article to show that it is the subject of the sentence (since it is in the same case as theos).  Thus the rendering ‘God was the Word’ is invalid, because ‘the Word,’ not ‘God,’ is the subject.  It would also be theologically incorrect, because it would equate the Father (‘God’ whom the Word was with in the preceding clause) with the Word, thus denying that the two are separate persons.  The predicate nominative (God) describes the nature of the Word, showing that He is of the same essence as the Father (cf. H. E. Dana and Julius R. Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament [Toronto: MacMillan, 1957], 139-140; A. T. Roberson, The minister and His Greek New Testament [Reprint:  Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978], 67-68).

            “According to the rules of Greek grammar, when the predicate nominative (God in this clause) precedes the verb, it cannot be considered indefinite (and thus translated ‘a god’ instead of God) merely because it does not have the article.  That term God is definite and refers to the true God is obvious for several reasons.  First, theos appears without the definite article four other times in the immediate context (vv. 6, 12, 13, 18; cf. 3:2, 21; 9:16; Matt. 5:9).  Not even the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ distorted translation of the Bible renders the anarthrous theos ‘a god’ in those verses.  Second, if John’s meaning was that the Word was merely in some sense divine, he would have used the adjective theios (2 Peter 1:4.  It must be remembered that, as Robert L. Reymond notes, ‘No standard Greek lexicon offers ‘divine’ as one of meanings of theos, nor does the noun become an adjective when it ‘sheds’ its article’ (Jesus Divine Messiah [Phillipsburg, N. J.: presb. & Ref., 1990], 303).  Or if he had wanted to say that the Word was a god, he could have written ho logos en theos.  If John had written ho theos en ho logos, the two nouns (theos and logos) would be interchangeable, and God and the Word would be identical.  That would have meant that the Father was the Word, which, as noted above, would deny the Trinity.  But as Leon Morris asks rhetorically, ‘How else [other than theos ho logos] in Greek would one say, the Word was God’?’ (The Gospel According to John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979], 77 n. 15).  

            “Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John chose the precise wording that accurately conveys the true nature of the Word, Jesus Christ.  ‘By theos without the article, John neither indicates, on the one hand, identity of Person with the Father; not yet, on the other, any lower nature than that of God Himself’”

            Realizing that Jesus Christ is the second Person of the Trinity is one of the fundamental and also nonnegotiable elements of the Christian faith and there are other verses from the New Testament that also speak of this.  Knowing this and knowing that we have an enemy who will do anything to trick us we can be assured that there will always be assaults on the deity of Christ, but that does not change the fact that Jesus Christ is God.  Paul writes to the Galatians about these threats that were given in his day:  “There are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!”

            MacArthur concludes “Confusion about the deity of Christ is inexcusable, because the biblical teaching regarding it is clear and unmistakable.  Jesus Christ is the eternally preexistent Word, who enjoys full face-to-face communion and divine life with the Father, and is Himself God.”

            I have learned a lot from the quotes that I put into this SD, and hopefully it will help others who read this too, for it is very important to know and understand these things.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am truly thankful beyond words can say that Jesus Christ left His home in heaven to become a man so that He would be the One who would take my place on the cross so that I can one day be with Him in heaven.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will help me in my understanding of the Gospel of John so that I can convey it to others.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “That a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who prayed ‘God be merciful to me a sinner’?”

Answer in our next SD.

11/29/2015 9:09 PM  

Jonah's Message to Nineveh (Jonah 3:3-4)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/28/2015 10:35 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Jonah’s Message to Nineveh

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Jonah 3:3-4

            Message of the verses:  We are beginning tonight a new main point from the outline of Warren Wiersbe to which he entitles “The Marvel of an Unparalleled Awakening” and covers chapter three and verses three to ten and that includes the entire third chapter. 

            Now just for a moment let us look at what God has told Jonah to do from a human perspective.  Jonah, one man, a Jew, is going to go to a city of somewhere around 600,000 people and tell them that judgment is going to come to them if they don’t repent to a God that they don’ even know, and perhaps never heard of.  From a human perspective this does not sound to likely, but this is what the Lord wanted Jonah to do and Jonah in obedience to the Lord went to Nineveh to do it.  I have to believe that it was God who was working in the hearts of the people, especially the leaders of the people who caused Jonah to be successful, something we will see a bit later.  When man sinned in the garden every offspring that was born to Adam and Eve, which is everyone who has been born on planet earth were and are born sinners, that is having a sin nature and the only thing they can do is sin, that is until the Lord, through His Holy Spirit gives a person an effectivual call for salvation, and I am not saying that is what happened in Nineveh during Jonah’s preaching, but I am saying that the Lord did cause the people to listen to Jonah’s preaching and then to repent as we will see.  It was a God thing.

            Jonah’s Message to Nineveh (Jonah 3:3-4):  “3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk. 4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’”

            It is not clear exactly what is meant when we read:  “Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.”  Three day’s walk could mean it took that long to walk around it, or maybe through it, but we all can agree that Nineveh was a very large city.

            Jonah tells the people after one day that in forty days Nineveh shall be overturn, and Dr. Wiersbe points out “Throughout Scripture, the number forty seems to identified with testing or judgment.  During the time of Noah, it rained forty days and forty nights (Gen. 7:4, 12, 17).  The Jewish spies explored Canaan forty days (Num. 14:34), and the nation of Israel was tested in the wilderness forty years (Deut. 2:7).  The giant Goliath taunted the army of Israel forty days (1 Sam. 17:16), and the Lord gave the people of Nineveh forty days to repent and turn from their wickedness.”  I am not sure how this fits in but our Lord Jesus Christ fasted for forty days before He began His ministry.

            We are not really told much about the ministry that Jonah had and what other things, if any that he told the people of Nineveh, but perhaps he told them about the One true God, and this I have to believe he did.  At any rate we are told in verse five that the people of Nineveh believed God, so as I earlier stated it had to be a God thing. 

            We do have to believe that in order for them to repent that they would have had to know something about the God of Israel.

11/28/2015 10:59 PM

PT-1 The Preexistence of the Word (John 1:1-2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/28/2015 10:10 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  The Preexistence of the Word

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 1:1-2

            Message of the verses:  “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.”

            John MacArthur writes “Arche (beginning) can mean ‘source or ‘origin’ (cf. Col. 1:18; Rev. 3:14); or ‘rule,’ ‘authority,’ ‘ruler,’ or ‘one in authority’ (Cf. Luke 12:11; 20:20; Rom. 8:38; 1 Cor. 15:24; Eph. 1:21; 3:10; 6:12; Col. 1:16; 2:10, 15; Titus 3:1).  Both of those connotations are true of Christ, who is both the Creator of the universe (v. 3; Co. 1:16; Heb. 1:2) and its ruler (Col. 2:10; Eph. 1:20-22; Phil. 2:9-11).  But arche refers here to the ‘beginning’ of the universe depicted in Genesis 1:1.”

            What are we saying here?  We are saying that Jesus Christ, the Word is not a created being, and that He had already been in existence when the world was created because there has never been a time when He was not in existence, for it was Him who created time when He created the world and the rest of the universe.  MacArthur adds:  “The Logos [Word} did not then begin to be, but at that point at which all else began to be, He already was.  In the beginning, place it where you may, the Word already existed.  In other words, the Logos is before time, eternal’ (This quote is from Marcus Dods commentary “The Expositors’ Bible Commentary.

            MacArthur writes the following on the word was:  “The imperfect tense of the verb eimi (‘was’), describing continuing action in the past, further reinforces the eternal preexistence of the Word.  It indicates that He was continuously in existence before the beginning.  But even more significant is the use of eimi instead of ginomai (‘became’).  The later term refers to things that come into existence (cf. 1:3, 10, 12, 14).  Had John used ginomai, he would have implied that the Word came into existence at the beginning along with the rest of creation.  But eimi stresses that the Word always existed; there was never a point when He came into being.”  Now to understand what was just written is important when one of the cults comes knocking at your door and tells you that Jesus Christ is not God, or that He was a created being.

            When we look at the word, “Word” in the Greek it is “logos” and this word is important to both the Greeks and also the Jews.  You see the Greek philosophers believed that it was “Logos,” and impersonal, abstract principle of reason and order which is in the universe, unlike what we as believers believe, for we know that Jesus Christ is the Word, and He certainly is not an impersonal abstract principle who controls the universe. 

            Now we can look at different verses in the OT to show the importance of this word to the Jews, for it is a significant Old Testament theme.  Some examples of this would be when the Lord gave the Abrahamic covenant to Abraham in Genesis 15:1 “After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great."  I did a search from my Online Bible program with the words “the word of the LORD,” from the entire OT and came up with it used some 239 times, so yes it was also important to the Jews. 

            To his Jewish readers John presented Jesus as the incarnation of divine power and revelation.  It was Jesus who initiated the new covenant as seen in Luke 22:20, and also in Heb. 9:15 and 12:24.  It was Jesus who instructs believers as seen in John 10:27 “"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”  Jesus also unites them into a spiritual temple as seen in verses like 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 2 Cor. 6:16; and Ephesians 2:21.  It was and still is Jesus who reveals God to man as seen in John 1:18; and John 14:7-9 “7  "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him." 8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ’Show us the Father’?”  Jesus also judges those who reject him as seen in John 3:18 and 5:22, and He directs the church through those whom He has raised to give leadership to it as seen in Ephesians 4:11-12; 1 Tim. 5:17; Titus 1:5; 1 Peter 5:1-3.  Jesus is the agent of creation as seen in John 1:3 and Col. 1:16 and Heb. 1:2, as well as being the inspired the Scripture penned by the New Testament writers “26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you (John 14:26) as we see in this verse Jesus does this through the Holy Spirit which He sent.  One more thing we need to look at and that is the fact that Jesus Christ, the Word of God is God’s final word to mankind as seen in the first two verses of the book of Hebrews:  “1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”  We learned in our last SD from the book of Revelation that God will punish those who add to or who take away from His Word.

            Warren Wiersbe writes the following on verses 1and 2 “Jesus Christ is the eternal Word (vv. 1-2).  He existed in the beginning, not because He had a beginning as a creature, but because He is eternal.  He is God and He was with God.  ‘Before Abraham was, I am’ (John 8:58).”

            We will continue looking at these two verses in our next SD as there is much more to see from them.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Understand the Greek a little bit better in these verses will help me if any of the cults come knocking at my door.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord that He will continue to help me prepare for the lesson I am to teach on Ezekiel 23-24 this coming Wednesday.  May what I teach bring glory to His name.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The tongue” (James 3:5).

Today’s Bible question:  “What did Jesus say was the greatest display of love?”

Answer in our next SD.

11/28/2015 11:07 AM

           

God Challenged Jonah (Jonah 3:1-2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/27/2015 10:27 PM

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  God Challenged Jonah

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Jonah 3:1-2

            Message of the verses:  I realize that we have been looking at these two verses for a while, but they are very important verses contained in the book of Jonah.

            “1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you."”

            We see the city of Nineveh called the great city four times in the book of Jonah.  Dr. Wiersbe writes in an endnote:  “Great’ is one of the key words in the Book of Jonah.  Besides a ‘great city,’ the book mentions a great wind and tempest (1:4, 12); great fear (vv. 10, 16); a great fish (v.17); great people, probably nobles (3:5, 7); and Jonah’s great displeasure and great gladness (4:1-6).”  It is interesting to me how the Spirit of God uses different key words in the Word of God, as many different books have different key words in them to help us better understand what the writer is saying.

            The city of Nineveh, according to Genesis 10:8-10 was founded by Noah’s great grand-son, Nimrod and this could have been as early as 4500 BC.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “The circumference of the city and its suburbs was sixty miles, and from the Lord’s statement in Jonan 4:1, we could infer that there were probably over 600,000 people living there.  One wall of the city had a circumference of eight miles and boasted 1,500 towers.”  So I guess that we get a good idea of why it is called great.

            The city of Nineveh was one of the great cities of the Assyrian Empire and was near the Tigris River and it also had the Khoser River running through it.  It was a very wealthy city as the army of the Assyrians was feared most everywhere at this time in history.

            Another reason that the city is called great in the book of Jonah is that it was great in sin, and this is why the Lord sent Jonah to preach to them.  I mentioned earlier how the Assyrian’s would conquer a people and make a pyramid out of their heads, something that was very cruel and very sinful.  They would also skin people alive and kill women, along with babies.  According to Nahum 3:10 they did this so that they would not have to care for them, “ Yet she became an exile, She went into captivity; Also her small children were dashed to pieces At the head of every street; They cast lots for her honorable men, And all her great men were bound with fetters.”

            We see from verses one and two that God was going to send Jonah to this wicked city and He would give to Jonah the message that He wanted them to hear.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God can’t keep you and the power of God can’t use you.  ‘And who is sufficient for these things? ...Our sufficiency is of God (2 Corinthians 2:16 and 3:5).”

11/27/2015 10:47 PM  

Introduction to John 1:1-5

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/27/2015 10:17 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Introduction to John 1:1-5

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 1:1-5

            Message of the verses:  “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

            John begins his gospel with words that a child can understand, yet these words express the most profound truth in the universe and he does it in the clearest terms.  John is telling his readers that Jesus Christ is God and that God came to earth to show us who the Father is.  At the end of John we see that Philip asks a question to Jesus or makes a statement to Him saying “show us the Father and that will be enough for us” to which Jesus stated “He who sees me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). 

            The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is an essential, nonnegotiable tenet of the Christian faith” writes John MacArthur, and he goes on to write “Several lines of biblical evidence flow together to prove conclusively that He is God.”  That is what we see in these first five verses of John’s Gospel.

            We see in the opening verse of John “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Now we will go over this verse in more detail later on but John is stating that Jesus Christ is the “Word.”  Now as we go through the book of John we will also see repeatedly that Jesus uses the divine name for Himself “I am” and by doing this He is claiming to be God, for that is who He is.  You have to go back to the book of Exodus and see Moses on the mountain where he sees the burning bush (this was actually the pre-incarnate Christ), and Moses wants to know His name and the Lord states “I I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ’I AM has sent me to you.’"”  This is the word translated Jehovah from the Hebrew Yahweh, a word so sacred that the Jews would not use it fearing that they would break the first commandment.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “Much as our words reveal to others our hearts and minds, so Jesus Christ is God’s ‘Word” to reveal His heart and mind to us.”  He later writes “A word is composed of letters and Jesus Christ is ‘Alpha and Omega” (Rev. 1:11), the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.  According to Hebrews 1:1-3, Jesus Christ is God’s last Word to mankind, for He is the climax of divine revelation.”

            In Philippians chapter two Paul writes that Jesus existed in the “form of God” as He possessed absolute “equality with God.”  This is seen in Philippians 2:6-10.  Yes the Bible makes it very clear that Jesus Christ is God, God who came in human flesh to show us the Father, to show us who God really is.  He came the first time to die for our sins, but He will come the next time to judge sin, judge sin for those who did not receive Him as Lord and Savior from the first time He came.  John is making sure that all who read what he writes that Jesus Christ is God, and that is what we will be seeing as we look at these verses in what is called the prelude to the book of John.

            John MacArthur lists several things that show that Jesus Christ showed Himself to be God, and we looked at the first one which shows that He existed before He became a man to come to earth as seen in Philippians chapter two.  Next he states that Jesus receives titles elsewhere in the Bible that are given to God.  We have already mentioned the use of the words “I am” and how it was used of God to Moses in Exodus chapter three.  Next he states “Jesus Christ possesses the incommunicable attributes of God, those unique to Him.  Scripture reveals Christ to be eternal (Mic. 5:2; Isa. 9:6), omnipresent (Matt. 18:20; 28:20), omniscient (Matt. 11:27; John 16:30; 21:17), omnipotent (Phil. 3:21), immutable (Heb. 13:8), sovereign (Matt. 28:18), and glorious 17:5; 1 Cor. 2:8; cf. Isa. 42:8; 48:11, where God states that He will not give His glory to another).”

            “Fourth, Jesus Christ does the works that only God can do” John 1:3 states “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”  Col. 1:16 states “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him.”  He also sustains the creation:  “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together (Col. 1:17).”  Heb. 1:3 “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

            “Fifth, Jesus Christ received worship.”  There are many verses in the gospel records showing this Matt. 14:33; 28:9; John 9:38, and then in the letters we find them in Phil. 2:10 and Heb. 1:6. 

            “Finally, Jesus Christ received prayer, which is only to be addressed to God (John 14:13-14; Acts 7:59-60; 1 John 5:13-15).”

            Two more quotes to help us see what we will be looking at and then we will stop for today:  “Verses 1-18, the prologue to John’s presentation of the deity of Christ, are a synopsis or overview of the entire book.  John clearly defined his purpose in writing his gospel in 20:31—that his readers ‘may believe that Jesus is the “Christ, the Son of God; and that believing [they] may have life in His name.’  John revealed Jesus Christ as ‘the Son of God,’ the eternal second person of the Trinity.  He because a man, the ‘Christ’ (Messiah), and offered Himself as a sacrifice for sins.  Those who put their faith in Him will ‘have life in His name,’ while those who reject Him will be judged and sentenced to eternal punishment.”

“From the first five verses of John’s gospel prologue flow three evidences of the deity of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ:  His preexistence, His creative power, and His self-existence.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  When I first became a believer in Jesus Christ, as I have mentioned that this did not happen in a church setting where I could be discipled into all the truths of the Scripture, and so it took a while for me to study and understand the truth that Jesus Christ is indeed God, the second Person of the Godhead.  Knowing and believing this has made all the difference in my study of the Word of God.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to help me get my lesson that I am to teach one Ezekiel 23-24 ready and firm in my mind sot that God will be glorified with it.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “That he would have a son” (Gen. 18).

Today’s Bible question:  “What is a little member that boasts great thing?”

Answer in our next SD.

11/27/2015 11:19 AM  

God Commissioned Jonah (Jonah 3:1-2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/26/2015 9:26 PM

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  God commissioned Jonah

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Jonah 3:1-2

            Message of the verses:  “1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you."”

            I know that those who have read some of my Spiritual Diaries have read what has become one of my favorite quotes that Dr. Wiersbe puts into many of his commentaries because it fits the situations from different sections of Scripture.  The quote is from an old Scottish Preacher, George H. Morrison who said “The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings,” and this surely fits the situation that Jonah finds himself in at this particular time of his life.  Dr. Wiersbe then writes “When we fall, the enemy wants us to believe that our ministry is ended and there’s no hope for recovery, but our God is the God of the second chance.  ‘The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time’ (Jonah 3:1).  ‘Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall, I will arise when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a Light to me (Micah 7:8, NKJV).”

            The words of George Morrison have brought comfort to my heart on many occasions after I have taken a spiritual fall and wondered if my time to serve the Lord was done, or whether or not the Lord was done with me.  Now I read again freshly the story of Jonah and am reminded of the things that God tells him “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time.”

            The Bible is full of stories of how God has forgiven people when they have fallen as we think of Abraham when he fled to Egypt and lied about his wife.  We think of Jacob who lied to his farther Isaac, but God restored him.  Moses killed an Egyptian, but God restored him.  The killing by Moses was probably done in self-defense.  Then in the New Testament we know the story of how Peter denied Jesus three times, but then in the last chapter of John’s Gospel Jesus restored Peter by asking him if he loved Me (Jesus) three times and each time He tells him to feed His sheep, and then tells him to “Follow Me.”

            We cannot use these examples as an excuse to sin.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “The person who says ‘I can go ahead and sin, because I know the Lord will forgive me’ has no understanding of the awfulness of sin or the holiness of God.  ‘But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared’ (Ps. 130:4, NKJV).  God in His grace forgives our sins, but God in His government determines that we shall reap what we sow, and the harvest can be very costly.  Jonah paid dearly for rebelling against the Lord.”  Now we have one more sub-point to look at and we will save that for the next SD.

11/26/2015 9:47 PM 

My Last Introduction to John's Gospel

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/26/2015 10:07 AM

Last Introduction to John’s Gospel

            Anyone who has a study Bible can usually look at the beginning of a certain book and the author of who the Study Bible is written by will put certain criteria there to give an introduction to the different books.  They will have things like Title, Author and Date, Background and Setting, Historical and Theological Themes, and Interpretive Challenges.  They will then give an outline to the book.  I have already given an outline from the pen of Warren Wiersbe, and pretty much all authors will change different things in their outlines.  In the introduction to John’s Gospel from John MacArthur’s commentary he has many of the things I have listed above and as I went over them I chose some of the things to quote in this last introduction that I will do on John’s Gospel before we dive into the text of the first chapter.  I found some things very interesting, but will not be able to quote all of them.

            The first category that we see in this introduction from MacArthur is “The Authorship of John’s Gospel.”  I must say that frankly I do not have any problem in believing that the Apostle John who leaned on the breast of Jesus at the last supper, who was the brother of James and the author of the book of Revelation and three letters found in the New Testament wrote the Gospel of John.  I don’t really know why that he did not identify himself when he wrote it other than for fear of his life which was very real during those early days of the churches beginnings.  MacArthur goes over some different historical facts of both internal and external reasons why it is believed that John wrote this fourth gospel account.  In our study of the book of Revelation we were introduced to a man named Polycarp and told the story of how he died for his faith in Jesus Christ.  My Spiritual Diary from 1-24-2015 gives a very long quote telling how Polycarp died so if interested to find out more on him look at that SD.  He was from Smyrna and lived in the second century.  He was accounted with a man named Irenaeus and Irenaeus was a disciple of the apostle John.  MacArthur writes “Thus there was a direct line from Irenaeus to John, with one intervening link. The reason this is so important is that these two me knew that it was John who penned this fourth gospel which we attribute to John.

            John MacArthur quotes a man named B. F. Westcott who was a nineteenth century commentator and textual Scholar and he gives a number of reasons why he believes that John wrote this forth gospel.  I am only going to give the names of these reasons with perhaps a brief quote to show the importance of them.  First “The author was a Jew.”  When we read the book of John we have to realize that its author was a Jew because he knew many Jewish things that happened during that time.  Things like “the Messiah, the importance of formal religious training (7:15), the relationship of suffering to personal sin (9:2), the Jews’ attitude toward the Samaritans (4:9), women (4:27), and the Hellenistic Jews of the Diaspora (7:35).  He was familiar with Jewish customs, including the necessity of avoiding ceremonial defilement from contact with Gentiles (18:28), the need for purification before celebrating Passover (11:55), as well as wedding (2:1-10) and burial (11:17-44; 19:40) customs.  He was familiar with the great Jewish feasts of Passover (2:13; 6:4; 11:55), Tabernacles (Booths, 7:2), and Dedication (Hanukkah; 10:22).”

            Next reason “The author was a Palestinian Jew,” and he cites a number of things found in the gospel of John to show this like “distinguished between the Bethany beyond the Jordan (1:28) and the Bethany on the outskirts of Jerusalem (11:1), and he knew the precise distance of the latter from Jerusalem (11:18).

            Next reason the author gives is “The author was an eyewitness.”  As we read through the Gospel of John we can see many things that he writes that only an eyewitness could have known and remember that when Jesus promised the Holy Spirit that He would bring to remembrance things that these apostles would need, and we can see that from the four gospels.

            The author gives two more reasons “The author was an apostle,” and “The author was the Apostle John.”  He writes the following on this last reason:  “It is remarkable that the apostle John mentioned some twenty times in the Synoptic Gospels is not named once in his gospel.  Leon Morris observes, ‘It is not easy to think of a reason why an early Christian, other than John himself, should have completely omitted all mention of such a prominent Apostle.’  Further, only a preeminent person of unquestioned authority could have written a gospel that differed so markedly from the other three, and had it universally accepted by the church.”  Instead of naming himself John identifies the author of his book as “the disciple whom Jesus loves.”

            John MacArthur writes “Despite the powerful external and internal evidence, many critics, as always desperately needing to assault the integrity of Scripture to discredit its truth and authority over their sinful lives, deny that the apostle John wrote the fourth gospel.  The arguments they put forth are reflective of unbelief, unconvincing, and often highly subjective.  Some argue that John, like his brother James, was martyred too early to have written the gospel of John.  But that view is based on a misreading of Mark 10:39, which merely indicate that the two brothers would suffer, not necessarily that they would be martyred.”

            At this point I have to give my opinion as to why I believe John wrote this fourth gospel, and it is not because I am a Bible scholar who has looked at old manuscripts or studied from other sources, it is because I believe that God is not only the creator of the heavens and earth, but is also the sustainer of all that goes on here on planet earth.  We are told that Jesus will build His church and even the gates of hell will not destroy it and a part of that building has to have a true and accurate Bible which the gospel of John is a part of.  When sin entered the universe as recorded in Genesis chapter three man’s whole being was changed, no longer could man have direct contact with God as Adam and Eve first did.  No longer would man live his life to please the Lord because of the fallenness of his being.  Man always wants to do wrong as this in his nature now and only apart from the God of heaven intervening with man through sending His Son to die for those who would accept Him would man ever begin to live in the fear of God once again.  Unsaved man will always attack the Bible, but when unsaved man reads the Bible he is reading a letter, a love letter that comes from someone he does not know and does not care to know, he is reading someone else’s mail.

            One more thing that I want to cover and that is what is the purpose of the letter.  John MacArthur writes “John is the only one of the gospels that contains a precise statement of the author’s purpose:  ‘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 20:31).  John’s objective was both apologetic (‘and that believing you may have life in His name’).  In keeping with the evangelistic purpose, John used the verb ‘to believe’ nearly one hundred times—more than twice as much as the Synoptics, emphasizing that those who savingly believe in Jesus will receive eternal life.

            “John’s apologetic purpose, which is inseparable from his evangelistic purpose, was to convince his readers of Jesus’ true identity.  He presents Him as God incarnate (1:1, 14; 8:23, 58; 10:30; 20:28), the Messiah (1:41; 4:25-26), and Savior of the world (4:42).  To that end, John repeatedly stressed Jesus’ miraculous signs, including eight specific ones: turning water into wine (2:1-11), healing a royal official’s son (4:46-54), healing a lame man at the pool of Bethesda (5:1-18), feeding the five thousand (6:1-15), walking on the Sea of Galilee (6:16-21), healing a man born blind (9:1-41), raising Lazarus from the dead (11:1-45), and providing a miraculous catch of fish (21:6-11).  In addition to those signs was the most convincing sign of all—Jesus’ own resurrection (20:1-29).

            “In short, John presents Jesus as the eternal Word, Messiah, and Son of God who, through His death and resurrection, brings the gift of salvation to mankind.  People respond by either accepting or rejection the salvation that comes only through believing in Him.”  To that I have to say “Amen.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “400 years.”

Today’s Bible question:  “What did the Lord and two angels promise to Abraham before they destroyed Sodom?”

Answer in our next SD.

11/26/2015 11:16 AM