Christ Knew the Truth Firsthand (John 3:32)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/31/2016 9:28 PM

My Worship Time                                                            Focus:  Christ Knew the Truth Firsthand

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  John 3:32

Message of the verse:  “32 “What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony.”

Let us begin by looking at Hebrews 1:1-2 “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 have already learned that John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament, and so as we look over these two verses we see the end of the Old Testament and the beginning, that is “in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.”  When one looks at the book of Hebrews they will learn that the writer talks about things getting better as we see in the first two verses of the book of Hebrews.  The author speaks of how things in the OT were temporary while when Christ came He brought about the New Covenant and things are better in that covenant than the old.  “Jesus’ teaching is superior to anyone else’s because His knowledge is not secondhand.  He is the source of divine revelation” writes John MacArthur.  This reminds me of the end of the Sermon on the Mount where we read “28 When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”  The crowds knew that there was something about Jesus that was completely different than that of the teachers they were used to hearing, and that difference is because He is the Son of God.

“What He has seen and heard” this speaks of Jesus who saw and heard things in the heavenly realm “"He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all (John 3:31).”  Now if we go back to what Jesus told Nicodemus in 3:11 we read “11  "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.”  Now when we studied this verse we spoke of what the word “we” means.  Let’s look at a verse that comes later on in John’s gospel “He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world’ (John 8:26b).”  More from John’s gospel to what Jesus was saying to His disciples “"No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:15).”  “"But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do (John 8:40).”

Now as we look at the last part of verse 32 we see that John was lamenting “no one receives His testimony.”  John is saying in this statement that the world in general rejects Jesus and His teaching.  We have seen this rejection in the beginning of John’s gospel in the prologue “9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him (John 1:9-11).”  Paul writes also about this in 1 Cor. 2:14 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”  We can better understand this verse in 1 Cor. by looking at Ephesians 2:1 which states “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.”  Also from 2 Cor. 4:4 “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”  So when we are born we are born spiritual dead and if that were not enough we read that Satan has blinded the minds of those who are unbelievers of which is the case with everyone who is born until the Holy Spirit give a person an effectual call. 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Since I am now alive in Christ and have the Holy Spirit living in me, I can praise the Lord that I now am beginning to understand the things that Jesus is saying in His Word, realizing who He is and what He has done for me.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  In answer to the sermon that we had this evening I desire to live more like Peter, than Simon.  The message was on the new name that Jesus gave to Simon, which is Peter and when he was living like the old self Jesus would call him by his old name.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Satan” (2 Cor. 4:4).

Today’s Bible question:  “When ten lepers asked Jesus for cleansing, how many were cleansed?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/31/2016 10:04 PM

 

The Basis Cause (Habakkuk 1:4)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/31/2016 10:06 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  The Basis Cause

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Habakkuk 1:4

Message of the verses:  “Therefore the law is ignored And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes out perverted.”  “4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted (NIV).” 

Now as mentioned in an earlier SD on the book of Habakkuk Judah was sinning greatly, and so Habakkuk was actually confronting God telling Him of the nations sins, and when we look at verse four we are in that conversation that Habakkuk is having with God.  In verse four we see as our focus indicates, the cause of their problem.  The leaders of Judah were the ones sinning as they were not keeping the law of God, and so one might say that if the leaders were not keeping the law why should all the people keep it? 

A number of years ago we had a President in our country who was committing adultery while serving as President and he denied it because of the particular kind of the kind of sex that he was having with the woman in question.  The results of this was that men felt that they could do the same thing he was doing and not think they were doing anything wrong.  The people began to act like their leaders, and so when the leaders are doing things wrong it can move on down to the people they are suppose to be governing.  Similar things were happening in Judah as they were breaking God’s Law and this is what got Habakkuk all worked up, and I might say rightly worked up.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “The rich exploited the poor and escaped punishment by bribing the officials.  The law was either ignored or twisted, and nobody seemed to care.  The courts were crooked, officials were interested only in money, and the admonition in Exodus 23:6-8 was completely unheeded.”  “6 “You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. 7 “Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty. 8 “You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just (Exodus 23:6-8).”

1/31/2016 10:20 PM

 

The Prophet Worrying (Hab. 1:1-3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/30/2016 11:07 AM

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  The Prophet Worrying

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Habakkuk 1:1-3

Message of the verses:  “1 The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 How long, O LORD, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, "Violence!" Yet You do not save. 3 Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; Strife exists and contention arises.”

I have mentioned many, many times how much I enjoy the writings of Warren Wiersbe as he can take spiritual truths and cause them to make perfect sense and use words that I can understand, unlike some people that I read.  As stated in earlier SD’s by me “he puts the cookies on the shelf where I can reach them,” and the following is one of those cookies as we begin our study of the book of Habakkuk.  “One of the ‘Christian myths’ that ought to be silenced says that when you trust Jesus Christ, you get rid of all your problems.  You don’t.

“It’s true that your basic spiritual problem—your relationship with God—has been solved, but with that solution comes a whole new set of problems that you didn’t face when you were an unbeliever, like: ‘Why do good people suffer and evil people prosper?’  Or ‘Why isn’t God answering my prayers?’  Or ‘When I’m doing my best for the Lord, why do I experience the worst from others?’

“Christians who claim to be without problems are either not telling the truth or not growing and experiencing real life.  Perhaps they’re just not thinking at all.  They’re living in a religious dream world that has blocked out reality and stifled honest feelings.  Like Job’s uncomfortable comforters, they mistake shallow optimism for the peace of God.  You never hear them ask what David and Jesus asked, ‘My God My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ (Ps. 22:1; Matt. 27:46).

“Habakkuk wasn’t that kind of a believer. As he surveyed the land of Judah, and then watched the international scene, he found himself struggling with some serious problems.  But he did the right thing: he took his problems to the Lord.”  

Now as we begin our study in the book of Habakkuk and follow the outline of Dr. Wiersbe we will see that the first chapter of his commentary is what our “focus” is for today, and then under that is the first main point entitled “Why Is God So Indifferent?” and following that we will begin to look at some of his sub-points, of which the first one is “The Prophet’s Concern” which we will look at today.

In the NASB95 which is the version that I use we read in the first verse of Habakkuk “The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw.”  In the KJV the word for “oracle” is translated “burden” and John Gill has the following to say about this first verse:  “This prophecy is called a "burden," or something took up and carried, being what the prophet received from the Lord, and went with to the people of the Jews, and was a heavy burdensome prophecy to them; declaring the calamities that should come upon them by the Chaldeans, who would invade their land, and carry them captive; and Habakkuk, that brought this account, is called a "prophet," to give the greater sanction to it; and it was what he had in vision from the Lord represented unto him, and therefore should be credited. Abarbinel inquires why Habakkuk should be called a prophet, when none of the lesser prophets are, excepting Haggai and Zechariah; and thinks the reason of it is, to give weight to his prophecy, since it might be suspected by some whether he was one; there being none of those phrases to be met with in this prophecy as in others, as "the word of the Lord came," &c. or "thus saith the Lord".”

When you think about the word “burden” it makes me think of a couple of places in the Word of God that speak of a prophet or an apostle actually eating the Word of God.  Jer 15:16 Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.”  Another time we see a different reaction to the “eating of God’s Word” from the book of Revelation:  “Re 10:9 So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, "Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey."Re 10:10 I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.”  I believe that we can conclude that after getting this message from the Lord that Habakkuk got he had the same reaction that John had in the passages from Revelation chapter ten, and that is they were a great burden to him when he understood what God was going to do in Judah.  John felt the same pain after eating the little scroll as he then had to prophesize about the judgments that were about to take place on the whole world.

The time that Habakkuk was living in was a dangerous time for in his writing we see words like violence, iniquity, grievance or misery, spoiling or destruction, strife, contention or disputes and also injustice. There is a lot of injustice going on in our country at this time too.  As we look at verses 2-3 we see that Habakkuk was burdened over the sin that was going on in Judah and so he prayed to God about it, that God would do something about the sinfulness of Judah.  It seems that Habakkuk had been praying about this for some time, but he writes that God was not listening to him.  God was listening to him, but it seems to me that He waited for the proper time to talk to Habakkuk.  In verse two we see Habakkuk call out to the Lord, and then he cries out to the Lord later on in that verse, which means he was screaming out to the Lord with a loud voice.  Habakkuk was surely disturbed about what was going on in Judah as he looked at all of the wickedness that he saw, and as he was praying about this his burden grew more and more.

I wonder how many people in our country who are truly believers have the same kind of burden as Habakkuk when they look at the sinfulness that is going on in our country.  We have seen over 57 million babies killed in their mother’s womb since the legalism of abortion began.  This is just one of the many sins that are going on in our country.

1/30/2016 11:46 AM  

Christ had a Heavenly Origin (John 3:31)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/30/2016 9:00 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  Christ had a Heavenly Origin

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 3:31

Message of the verse:  “31 “He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.”

We actually begin to look at the second main point from MacArthur’s outline of the last section in the book of John which includes verses 22-36.  He entitles this section which goes from verses 31-36 “Jesus and the Beginning of the New Age.”  Now believe me we are not talking about what some call in today’s world the “New age movement.”  We are talking about the New Testament and as noted John the Baptist is the last prophet of the Old Testament and not the New Testament era begins with the Lord Jesus coming to earth to become the sacrifice for all who have put their trust in Him for their salvation, including those who have trusted God in the Old Testament times to bring forth the Messiah to pay for their sins.  People in the Old Testament times looked forward to God providing salvation through the coming Messiah, and people in the New Testament times look back at the sacrifice of the Messiah to pay for their sins and be born from above.

Now as we begin this last main section it should be noted that there are some Bible scholars who do not believe that verses 31-36 were quoted by John the Baptist, but that John the Apostle is the one speaking here.  I have never thought that it was John the Apostle speaking her, but John the Baptist continually speaking to his disciples.  MacArthur writes “In his last recorded speech in the gospel, John (the Baptist) listed five reasons for his disciples (and, by extension, everyone) to accept the absolute supremacy of Jesus ChristAs we look at verse thirty-one MacArthur points out that the “adverb ‘anothen’ (from above) is the same word translated ‘born-again’ in 3:3, 7, where it reflects the heavenly origin of the new birth.  Here it refers to Christ as the One ‘who descended from heaven’ (3:13; cf. 6:33, 38, 50-51, 58; 8:42; 13:3; 16:28; 17:8; 1 Cor. 15:47; Eph. 4:10).  As such, He is above all; Christ is sovereign over the universe in general, and the world of men in particular.”

Now as we contrast John the Baptist he states that he is of the earth, that is that when John was born it was like any other birth, there was a human mother and a human father, but when Christ was born the Bible teaches that He has always existed and that His birth consisted of the Holy Spirit of God and the virgin Mary, and by this I am in no way stating that Mary was God.  Let us go back to Genesis 3:15 which is the first prophecy of the coming Messiah:  “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”  In this verse God is speaking to Satan as He declares how he will be destroyed.  We also see the phrase “between your (Satan’s) seed and her (Mary’s) seed.”  This is the only time in the Word of God that we see the seed of the woman, for all other times we see the seed coming from the man.  This is the first prophecy of the virgin birth and the necessity of it is that the sin nature is passed on through the man, not the woman so when Christ was born there was no sin nature passed on.

MacArthur writes “In contrast, John the Baptist declared himself to be ‘of the earth, from the earth, and’ one who ‘speaks of the earth.’  Unlike kosmos (‘world’), ge (earth) carries no negative moral implications; it merely refers here to human limitations.”  Now John’s ministry was the truth for he received his ministry from the Lord, but it had its limitations, while Christ ministry had no limitations for He is the Son of God, He is incarnate.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  John ministry was a ministry of mercy given to him from the Lord.  This still goes on today as the Lord gives ministries of mercy to people today so that they can lift up the name of the Lord through their ministries.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To fulfill the ministry of mercy that God has given to me each day.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs” (Exodus 12:8).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who is the god of this world?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/30/2016 9:37 AM

 

 

PT-2 Introduction to Habakkuk

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/29/2016 10:28 PM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus: PT-2 Introduction to Habakkuk 

            I want to look at several different commentators as they preview the book of Habakkuk, including Dr. Warren Wiersbe, and also I want to look at what John MacArthur has to say about this book in his study Bible.

            “HABAKKUK, from a Hebrew root meaning to "embrace," denoting a "favorite" (namely, of God) and a "struggler" (for his country’s good). Some ancient authors represent him as belonging to the tribe of Levi; others [PSEUDO EPIPHANIUS], to that of Simeon. The inscription to Bel and the dragon in the Septuagint asserts the former; and #Hab 3:19 perhaps favors this. EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 7.29] states that in his time Habakkuk’s tomb was shown at Ceila in Palestine.

 

   “The time seems to have been about 610 B.C. For the Chaldeans attacked Jerusalem in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, 605 B.C. (#2Ki 24:1 2Ch 36:6 Jer 46:2 36:9). And Habakkuk (#Hab 1:5, 6, etc.) speaks of the Chaldeans as about to invade Judah, but not as having actually done so. In the second chapter he proceeds to comfort his people by foretelling the humiliation of their conquerors, and that the vision will soon have its fulfillment. In the third chapter the prophet in a sublime ode celebrates the deliverances wrought by Jehovah for His people in times past, as the ground of assurance, notwithstanding all their existing calamities, that He will deliver them again. #Hab 3:16 shows that the invader is still coming, and not yet arrived; so that the whole refers to the invasion in Jehoiakim’s times, not those under Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. The Apocryphal appendix to Daniel states that he lived to see the Babylonian exile (588 B.C.), which accords with his prophesying early in Jehoiakim’s reign, about 610 B.C.

 

   “The position of the book immediately after Nahum is appropriate; as Nahum treated of the judgments of the Lord on Assyria, for its violence against Israel, so Habakkuk, those inflicted by, and on, the Chaldeans for the same reason.

 

   “The style is poetical and sublime. The parallelisms are generally regular. Borrowed ideas occur (compare #Hab 3:19, with #Ps 18:33; #Hab 2:6, with #Isa 14:4; #Hab 2:14, with #Isa 11:9).

 

   “The ancient catalogues imply that his book is part of the canon of Scripture. In the New Testament, #Ro 1:17 quotes #Hab 2:4 (though not naming him); compare also #Ga 3:11 Heb 10:38. #Ac 13:40, 41 quotes #Hab 1:5. One or two Hebrew words peculiar to Habakkuk occur (#Hab 1:9 2:6, 16) (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown).”

“It is a very foolish fancy of some of the Jewish rabbin that this prophet was the son of the Shunammite woman that was at first miraculously given, and afterwards raised to life, by Elisha (2 Kings 4), as they say also that the prophet Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath, which Elijah raised to life. It is a more probable conjecture of their modern chronologers that he lived and prophesied in the reign of king Manasseh, when wickedness abounded, and destruction was hastening on, destruction by the Chaldeans, whom this prophet mentions as the instruments of God’s judgments; and Manasseh was himself carried to Babylon, as an earnest of what should come afterwards. In the apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon mention is made of Habakkuk the prophet in the land of Judah, who was carried thence by an angel to Babylon, to feed Daniel in the den; those who give credit to that story take pains to reconcile our prophet’s living before the captivity, and foretelling it, with that. Huetius thinks that that was another of the same name, a prophet, this of the tribe of Simeon, that of Levi; others that he lived so long as to the end of that captivity, though he prophesied of it before it came. And some have imagined that Habakkuk’s feeding Daniel in the den is to be understood mystically, that Daniel then lived by faith, as Habakkuk had said the just should do;  he was fed by that word, #Hab 2:4.  The prophecy of this book is a mixture of the prophet’s addresses to God in the people’s name and to the people in God’s name; for it is the office of the prophet to carry messages both ways. We have in it a lively representation of the intercourse and communion between a gracious God and a gracious soul. The whole refers particularly to the invasion of the land of Judah by the Chaldeans, which brought spoil upon the people of God, a just punishment of the spoil they had been guilty of among themselves; but it is of general use, especially to help us through that great temptation with which good men have in all ages been exercised, arising from the power and prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the righteous by it (Matthew Henry).”

Now as we go through these different commentators we realize that they have different views as to what time period this book was written and I mentioned 640 BC yesterday in my introduction to this book.  The reason I mentioned this was because I thought of how terribly sinful that Judah was during the time period of Manasseh was as there were many children killed as offerings to the idols that were worshiped during that time period of Judah.  I do see similar things going on in the world today as many unborn children are being killed just for convenience sake stating that these are not children until they are born, so in similar ways we see the offering of children.

Dr. Wiersbe writes under the title of “Habakkuk in His Time.”

Habakkuk was a contemporary of Nahum, Zephaniah, and Jeremiah, during the reigns of Josiah (640-609 BC) and Jehoiackim (609-598).  Assyria was off the scene; Babylon (‘the Chaldeans’) was in power.  Nebuchadnezzar had defeated Egypt in 605 and was about to attack Judah.  Jeremiah had announced that Babylon would invade Judah, destroy Jerusalem and the temple, and send the nation into exile.  This happened in 606-586.

“Habakkuk’s little book indicates that he knew the Scriptures well, was a competent theologian, and had great faith in God.  Because of the psalm in chapter 3, some scholars think he may have been a priest who led worship in the temple.  If so, then like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he was a priest called to be a prophet—a more difficult ministry.

“His name means ‘to embrace’ or ‘to wrestle,’ and in his book, he does both.  He wrestles with God concerning the problem of how a holy God could use a wicked nation like Babylon to chasten the people of Judah, and then by faith, he embraces God and clings to His promises.  Habakkuk also wrestles with the spiritual decline of the nation and why God wasn’t doing something about it.  Habakkuk wanted to see the people revived (3:2), but God wasn’t answering his prayer.

“The prophet’s statement ‘The just shall live by faith’ (2:4) is quoted three times in the New Testament (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38).  The emphasis in Romans is on the just, in Galatians on how they should live, and in Hebrews on faith.  It takes three books to explain and apply this one verse.”

I only want to quote the following from the John MacArthur Study Bible under the heading of “Interpretive Challenges.”

The queries of the prophet represent some of the most fundamental questions in all of life, with the answers providing crucial foundation stones on which to build a proper understand of God’s character and His sovereign ways in history.  The core of his message lies in the call to trust God (2:4), ‘the righteous shall live by his faith.’  The NT references ascribe unusual importance theologically to Habakkuk.  The writer of Hebrews quotes Hab. 2:4 to amplify the believers need to remain strong and faithful in the midst of affliction and trials (Heb. 10:38).  The apostle Paul, on the other hand, employs the verse twice (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11) to accentuate the doctrine of justification by faith.  There need not be any interpretive conflict, however, for the emphasis on both Habakkuk and the NT references goes beyond the act of faith to include the continuity of faith.  Faith is not a one-time act, but a way of life.  The true believer, declared righteous by God, will habitually persevere in faith throughout all his life (cf. Col. 1:22, 23; Heb 3:12-14).  He will trust the sovereign God who only does what is right.”

It was on July 2, 2013 that we began to look at the Old Testament Prophets, beginning with Isaiah and then going through the other Major Prophets, and then on May 28, 2015 we continued in our study of the Minor Prophets beginning with Hosea.  We have to look at Habakkuk and then we will have four more Minor Prophets to look at before we conclude out study of the Old Testament which began with the book of Genesis on December 30, 2005.  So it has been a fairly long road, but one well worth traveling on to look at the entire Old Testament is something that I never dreamed that I would do, but by God’s grace we continue on the path.

As I look at the different prophets we are looking at I see similar things in all of them and as I look down the corridor of time as far as nations one can see that the principles that we see in these prophets show why nations raise and fall.  In Genesis 12:1-3 we read of God’s call to Abraham and the beginning of the Abrahamic covenant that God makes with what will become the nation of Israel, and we read in verse three that God says to Abraham “And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’”  We can look at different nations and how they treated the Jews and if they did not treat them well then God has kept His Word to Abraham and cursed them.  We can also look at the nation of Israel who gave us the Word of God, the prophets and eventually the Messiah and see how God has kept His Word as He says “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”  Yes it is well worth the time to study the Word of God each and every day to see things like this and be thankful for a God who is faithful in keeping His Word no matter how hard life gets sometimes.

1/29/2016 11:15 PM

 

 

John the Baptist and the End of the Old Age (John 3:25-30)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/29/2016 2:11 PM

My Worship Time                                         Focus: John the Baptist and the End of the Old Age

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  John 3:25-30

Message of the verses:  “25 Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him." 27 John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. 28 “You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ’I am not the Christ,’ but, ’I have been sent ahead of Him.’ 29 “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. 30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

What we first want to look at here is that there was a discussion between a Jew and John the Baptist’s disciples over the ritual of purification.  “Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each (John 2:6).”  This verse speaks of this ritual that these men were talking about.  Now it is unclear if this Jew was a follower of Jesus or not, however the reaction between John’s disciples and this man brings up a conversation that is important for us to understand, I suppose it is fair that this was a dispute between them.  The dispute was that John’s disciples seem to be jealous over the fact that after John baptized Jesus that Jesus began to minister in the region of Judah and John moves on to Samaria to continue his work of telling people that the Messiah has arrived and to baptize those who were willing to repent and comment their lives to the Messiah.  We have mentioned in our last SD that John the Baptist was a very humble man who was doing what he was told to do when the Lord spoke to him, that is follow what Isaiah prophesied to do “A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God (Isaiah 40:3).”  We have also mentioned that John wrote from verse 24:  “for John had not yet been thrown into prison,” showing that for a short time of perhaps six months that the ministry of John and Jesus were both going on.  John the apostle wrote this some sixty years after the event and the other three gospels had already been written and so that is why we see verse 24 in John’s text.

Now the discussion or dispute was that Jesus was baptizing more followers that John was and this bothered John’s disciples and so the spoke to him about this.  MacArthur writes “Apparently unwilling even to name Jesus, John’s envious disciples saw Jesus as a competitor, who was gaining popularity at their masters expense (their exaggerated use of ‘all’ reveals the extent of their bias).  Incredibly, they also missed the purpose of John’s ministry, which was to point the nation to the Messiah (cf. 1:19ff).”

This did not concern John in any way as he says “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.”  John was saying that what he was doing was given to him from heaven and that is what he was going to do, therefore he was just going to do his job and not be jealous of what Jesus was doing.  Not only was he not concerned of it he actually admired the job that he was given to do, that is to announce the coming of the Messiah.  John had something that I wish that I had all of the time and that is he had great contentment.

John goes on to tell his envious disciples “You yourselves are my witness that I said, ‘I am not the Christ’ (cf. 1:8, 20), but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.”  From this statement we can be assured that nothing that John had ever said would have shown his disciples anything that they were disputing about as far as who was the most popular.

MacArthur writes “The measure of success for any ministry is not how many people follow the minister, but how many people follow Christ through the minister.  The factious Corinthians proudly lined up under the banners of their spiritual heroes—Paul, Apollos, Cephas (Peter), and the super pious under Christ.

John illustrates his role by speaking of a wedding stating that in this illustration that Jesus was the Bridegroom, and he was the best man.  This friend of the bridegroom oversaw many of the details of the wedding, serving as the master of ceremonies writes John MacArthur who goes on to say that “(in a Judean wedding; weddings in Galilee were somewhat different [D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans, 1991), 211]).  He was even responsible for bringing the bride to the bridegroom to begin the wedding ceremony.  Having done that, his task was completed; the focus now rightfully shifted from him to the bridegroom.”  We wrote more about the wedding ceremony when we studied the book of Revelation. 

What we are seeing here is that the ministry of John the Baptist was phasing out and the ministry of Jesus Christ the Messiah was beginning and John had no problem of that.  This portion of John the Baptist’s ministry is only seen in the book of John as in the other gospels they go from the baptism of Jesus by John to later on talking about the imprisonment of John to his death by execution having his head cut off. 

Leon Morris writes the following about the last statement in the section we are studying today that is “He must increase, but I must decrease.”  “It is not particularly easy in this world to gather followers about one for a serious purpose.  But when they are gathered it is infinitely harder to detach them and firmly insist that they go after another.  It is the message of John’s greatness that he did just that.” 

MacArthur writes about the word “must.”  Must speaks of divine necessity.  It was God’s will for John to give way to Jesus; there was no reason for the crowds to hang around the herald once the king had arrived.  Because he understood this, John the Baptist joyously accepted God’s plan for his ministry.”

This type of attitude should be the attitude of everyone who names the name of Jesus Christ, as He must increase and we must decrease, that is we must show all we are around the love of Jesus and to give honor and glory to Him.  This is especially true of ministers, for if they are bringing glory to themselves there church will decline.  Ministers are to lift up the name of Jesus, not themselves.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Continue to believe that what I do should bring glory to Christ.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  He must increase, I must decrease.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Psalm 117—2 verses.”

Today’s Bible question:  “During the Passover what was to be eaten by the children of Israel?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/29/2016 3:00 PM

 

First Introduction to Habakkuk

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/28/2016 9:53 PM

In this SD I want to write some of the things that I have learned from looking at the book of Habakkuk over the years that I have read and studied this wonderful little book.  First I want to say that last week in our church services we had a guest speaker who spoke on all three chapters of Habakkuk in the two services we have on Sunday, one in the morning and one in the evening and one of the things that he brought up was asking if the book of Habakkuk, which is all about Judah can be used to look at the terrible situation that we have in our country today, in other words do the things that God speaks to Habakkuk about as far as the sinful condition that was found in Judah during this time between 640 BC and 590 BC.  Now remember the nation of Judah was attacked by the Babylonians first in 605 BC and then later on in 597 BC and finally Babylon defeated Judah in 586 BC, so what Habakkuk wrote was about to happen.

Habakkuk had a conversation with the Lord as he had some things to ask the Lord that we all may from time to time want to ask the Lord.  His problem was the sinfulness that was going on in the nation of Judah, and when we look back at Judah during this time especially during the time when Manasseh was king for some 50 years there was much sinfulness going on and because of the holiness of God and because of the covenant that He had made with Judah and Israel He had to act.  We have written many times about the covenants that the Lord made with Israel when they came out of Egypt at Mt. Sinai as recorded in the 28^th chapter of Deuteronomy which was a conditional covenant He made with them.  God covenanted with Israel stating if you do this I will do this, if you follow this covenant I will bless you, I will defeat your enemies, but if you do not follow this covenant I will do this, I will eventually destroy you because of your sinfulness.  Deuteronomy chapter 28 has 68 verses in it and most of it is made up of this covenant.  Now remember that the book of Deuteronomy means the renewing of the Law as the covenant is also seen in the 26^th chapter of Leviticus, but because all of the people who were 20 years an older who came out of Egypt died in the forty years of wondering in the wilderness those under that age did not remember all that had happened, thus Moses writes the book of Deuteronomy to go over the laws that God made with Israel.  Habakkuk knew this covenant and knew that Israel was not following it and so he asked the Lord what should be done with them.  Now the answer that he gets back surely was not the answer that he wanted to hear as the Lord tells him that He is going to bring upon the Southern Kingdom the nation of Babylon to defeat them to which Habakkuk says that they are worse sinners than Judah was to which God says that is true, but after He uses Babylon to defeat Judah He will destroy them and this happened not too long after they defeated Judah and can be read about in the 5^th chapter of Daniel. 

One can imagine how Habakkuk felt, but as we go through this short book of only three chapters we see that Habakkuk realizes that God can make no mistakes and in the end of the book we read the following “16 I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us. 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, 18 Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. 19 The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, And makes me walk on my high places (Habakkuk 3:16-18).”

We see from these verses that Habakkuk was not happy with what the Lord was going to do, yet more importantly he trusted the Lord, knowing that just as Abraham said in “Genesis 18:25  “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?’”

1/28/2016 10:20 PM

PT-2 Introduction to John 3:22-36

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/28/2016 10:36 AM

My Worship Time                                                          Focus: PT-2 Introduction to John 3:22-36

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 3:22-36

Message of the verses:  Since we put all of these verses on our last SD we will not put them on this SD, but move right into the commentary of the introduction to this section.  In our last SD we were talking about the differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

John MacArthur writes “The transition from John the Baptist’s ministry to that of Jesus Christ, which is the theme of this section (cf. v. 30), symbolized the transition from the old covenant to the new.  His father, Zacharias, understood the significance of the coming Messiah’s relation to the new covenant, as he makes clear in his Spirit-filled prophecy in Luke 1:67-79:

‘67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: 68  "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, 69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant- 70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old- 71 Salvation FROM OUR ENEMIES, And FROM THE HAND OF ALL WHO HATE US; 72 To show mercy toward our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant, 73 The oath which He swore to Abraham our father, 74 To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, 75 In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. 76 “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE HIS WAYS; 77 To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, 78 Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, 79 TO SHINE UPON THOSE WHO SIT IN DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH, To guide our feet into the way of peace.’”

Now we know that Zacharias was a priest and a very godly man who received a message from an angel telling him that his wife would become pregnant and what to name their son, so we have to believe that he knew all of the OT passages about the coming new covenant as we can see from what he spoke.  He was struck mute for not believing the angel until his son was born, and it was at the time that he wrote down the name of his son because those in his family did not believe his son’s name should be John that he was once again able to speak again and this was the first then that he spoke.

John the Baptist was the very last prophet of the old covenant, and he was the first one to speak in 400 years since the time when the Jews had returned to their land and after those prophets died during that time the Lord was silent as there were no more prophets. 

We know that John came to announce the coming of the Messiah, which he did in the first chapter of John, and that Jesus came as the mediator of the new covenant as described in Hebrews 8:6; and 12:24, which He ratified by His sacrificial death as seen in Luke 22:20; and also in 1 Cor. 11:25.  Now up until the time John began to speak he was very popular with the people, and now Jesus comes along as prophesied and there is probably a six month time when the ministry of John continued with the beginning of the ministry of Jesus even though they went in opposite directions as Jesus actually took over where John was ministering in Judah and John actually went to Samaria.  This was unsettling to some of those who stayed with John to see his ministry decrease and the ministry of Jesus increase as we will see in this passage, but John to whom Jesus said was the greatest man of all understood what his role was, and he says these very important words “I must decrease, but He must increase,” which shows the humbleness of John the Baptist.  It was said of Moses that he was very humble and one of the incidents that speak of Moses being humble was a story of two men who began to prophesy as they were filled with the Spirit and some of the friends of Moses told him about it and Moses said that he wished all men were doing things like this.  Humility is something that is lacking in people today as they want to be number one where like John the Baptist he wants Jesus to be number one.  Whatever we do should bring honor and glory to the Lord for it was He who died for us and it was His Spirit who gave us a call that we could not say no to, therefore what do we have to be proud of? 

Now we mentioned that Jesus left Jerusalem after His conversation with Nicodemus and His cleansing of the temple and one of the purposes was that He wanted to spend time with His disciples and to inaugurate his preaching which would lead to His baptizing ministry, and we know that He did not baptize anyone, but that His disciples did as seen in 4:2 of John.  John MacArthur writes “Spending time translates to a form of the verb diatribe, which implies that a considerable period of time elapsed (cf. its use in Acts 12:19; 14:3, 28; 15:35; 25:14), probably sever months.  During this interval, Jesus’ disciples were baptizing those who came to hear Him preach and heeded His call to repent (cf. Matt. 4:17).  Their baptisms foreshadowed Christian baptism, which was not instituted until after Jesus’ death and resurrection (of which Christian baptism is a picture; cf. Rom 6:3-4).”

I want to write briefly about the statement that John the apostle makes “John the Baptist had not yet been thrown into prison.”  Now from the beginning of our study of the gospel of John we know that it was the last of the four gospels to be written, perhaps some thirty or more years after the other gospel accounts were written.  MacArthur writes “The statement informs readers that this incident took place between Jesus’ temptation and John’s imprisonment, a period of time about which the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are silent.”

Now one more thing to mention and that is from a couple of sermons that John MacArthur made on this section of Scripture in 2013 and he broke this section into verses 22-30 and then 30-36 and spoke of the humility of John in the first message and the increase of Jesus in the second message.  He stated that one qualification of a minister of the gospel is that they are humble, that Jesus Christ is the One to be seen on all of their preaching and teaching and once a minister of the gospel becomes the focal point in their church that, that church will begin to decline.  You can think about this statement and look at certain denominations where the leaders of the church are all wearing their garb to bring notice on them and not on the Lord, similar to what the Pharisees did during the time of Jesus’ time on earth.  As mentioned we have nothing to be proud of for all we have has been given to us by the Lord and for that we are to be thankful.

Now as far as continuing in this passage it will be broken up into two parts “John the Baptist and the End of the Old Age,” and “Jesus and the Beginning of the New Age.” 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Huldah” (2 Kings 22:14).

Today’s Bible question:  “What is the shortest Psalm?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/28/2016 11:27 AM

     

The Pride of Self-Confidence (Nahum 3:8-19)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/27/2016 10:09 PM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  The Pride of Self-Confidence

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Nahum 3:8-19

Message of the verses:  “8 Are you better than No-amon, Which was situated by the waters of the Nile, With water surrounding her, Whose rampart was the sea, Whose wall consisted of the sea? 9 Ethiopia was her might, And Egypt too, without limits. Put and Lubim were among her helpers. 10 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. 11 You too will become drunk, You will be hidden. You too will search for a refuge from the enemy. 12 All your fortifications are fig trees with ripe fruit- When shaken, they fall into the eater’s mouth. 13 Behold, your people are women in your midst! The gates of your land are opened wide to your enemies; Fire consumes your gate bars. 14 Draw for yourself water for the siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Take hold of the brick mold! 15 There fire will consume you, The sword will cut you down; It will consume you as the locust does. Multiply yourself like the creeping locust, Multiply yourself like the swarming locust. 16 You have increased your traders more than the stars of heaven-The creeping locust strips and flies away. 17 Your guardsmen are like the swarming locust. Your marshals are like hordes of grasshoppers Settling in the stone walls on a cold day. The sun rises and they flee, And the place where they are is not known. 18 Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria; Your nobles are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains And there is no one to regather them. 19 There is no relief for your breakdown, Your wound is incurable. All who hear about you Will clap their hands over you, For on whom has not your evil passed continually?”

Looks like Nahum was consumed with the words you, your, and yourself as we look at this last section in the book of Nahum this evening in our evening Spiritual Diary.  By using these words to describe the Assyrians we can see why Dr. Wiersbe entitled this section like he did as we see they did have pride and they were self confident.  As we go through this section we will look at a number of images to show the Assyrians their weakness and this will assure them of their ultimate defeat.

The first image we will look at is a fact about their history as they defeated the Egyptian city of Thebes or No-Ammon as seen in our text in verse eight.  This happened in 663 BC and Nahum writes about this in verses 8-11.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “If you visit Karnak and Luxor in Upper Egypt, you will be at the site of ancient Thebes.  This capital city of Upper Egypt was sure it was safe from any invader, yet it went down in defeat before Assyria.  Like Nineveh, Thebes was situated by waters which were supposed to be their defense, but the city fell just the same.  Thebes had many allies, but they couldn’t protect her.”

I am sure you have heard the statement “what goes around comes around,” and that is what happened to the Assyrians as what they did to Thebes the Babylonians and Medes did to them as we read some very graphic statements coming from the pen of Nahum in verse ten.  Nahum was arguing that since this happened to Thebes, why could it not happen to Assyria. 

Verse twelve shows us that the conquest would be as easy as it would be like ripe figs dropping into a person’s mouth.  Why was this so easy?  Dr. Wiersbe writes “Because the ferocious Assyrian soldiers would be drained of their strength and be like women:  weak, afraid, and unable to meet the enemy (vv. 13-14).”  Dr. Wiersbe writes the following endnote:  “This image is not meant to demean women in any way, whether civilians or in the armed forces, or to suggest that women lack strength and courage.  The biblical examples of Rahab, Deborah, Jael, Ruth and Ester prove that Scripture can magnify the courage and service of dedicated women.  However, we must keep in mind that the ancient world was a masculine society; women were kept secluded and certainly wouldn’t have been expected to participate in battles.  Phrases like ‘weak as a woman’ were current; both in Isaiah (19:16) and Jeremiah (50:37; 51:30) used them.”

Next we look in verses 15-17 at the images of insects.  This is not so hard to understand when we know what insects can do to things like corps as locusts can come onto fields of grain and look like a dark low cloud and when they are done nothing remains which is what Nahum is saying was going to happen to the Assyrians. 

Assyria was like a scattered flock as verse eighteen describes or it was even like a wounded body that has no way to be healed as seen in verse 19-a.  There was no way that their alleys would be rescuing them during this battle, in fact at the end of verse nineteen we read:  “All who hear about you Will clap their hands over you, For on whom has not your evil passed continually?”

Dr. Wiersbe concludes “God punishes cruel nations that follow inhumane policies and brutal practices (Amos 1-2).  Whether it’s practicing genocide, exploiting the poor, supporting slavery, or failing to provide people with necessities of life, the sins of national leaders are known by God and He eventually judges.

“If you question that fact, go and search for Nineveh.”

1/27/2016 10:42 PM

 

PT-1 Introduction to John 3:22-36

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/27/2016 11:14 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Introduction to John 3:22-36

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 3:22-36

Message of the verses:  “22 After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. 23 John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized- 24 for John had not yet been thrown into prison. 25 Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him." 27 John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. 28 “You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ’I am not the Christ,’ but, ’I have been sent ahead of Him.’ 29 “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. 30 “He must increase, but I must decrease. 31 “He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 “What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. 33 “He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. 34 “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. 35 “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. 36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."”

In his opening comments on his introduction to this chapter John MacArthur gives a precise explanation of what the Law of God was and how Israel misunderstood it, he writes:  “For centuries the children of Israel lived under the burdensome covenant God made with their fathers at Mount Sinai.  As well as being God’s absolute law of righteousness, reflecting His own holy nature, it contained also the unique marks of their national identify as God’s chosen people (Deut. 7:6; 14:2).  Thus, it set them apart from their pagan neighbors by its detailed social and ceremonial regulations.  Yet almost from the beginning they misunderstood and abused the moral and spiritual elements of that covenant.  It was mean to reveal their sin and abysmal failure to obey God, but they turned it into a source of arrogant pride, as well as a false hope for salvation.  The old covenant’s central pillars were holiness and love for God and man (Mark 12:28-31).  But by Jesus’ day, Israel’s adherence to that covenant had degenerated into an external form of superficial morality, mechanical ceremony, legalistic ritualism, and extraneous tradition.

“Israel also erred by assuming that the old covenant was the means to salvation, when that was never God’s intent.  His purpose was to confront sinners with a reflection of His absolute holiness, demand that they keep the law perfectly, and leave them facing their inability to keep it.  That would point them to either divine judgment or the opportunity to repent, trust His grace, and receive the forgiveness He offered, provided in the new covenant (Jer. 31:34) to be ratified by the death of Christ.  In the words of the apostle Paul, ‘The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith (Gal. 3:24 ).  The old covenant was unable to justify anyone.  However, it pointed to the coming Savior, through whom sinners could be ‘reconciled to God’ (Rom. 5:10).”

Let us now take a look at the new covenant that Jeremiah wrote of about 600 years before the Lord Jesus came to earth.  Jeremiah 31:31-34 “31 “Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ’Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."”

In the reading from the book of Hebrews we know that the Old Covenant could never be the final hope, as He promised salvation in the new covenant which he promised in the above statement from Jeremiah.  Hebrews 8:13 says “When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”  Now even though the Old Covenant did not show us the way of salvation, but showed us the glory of the Lord, there was glory inherent in it as Isaiah ways “The LORD was pleased for His righteousness’ sake To make the law great and glorious Isaiah 42:21).”  Paul also reminded the Corinthians in 2 Cor. 3:7-11 “7 But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. 10 For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.”  We see that the apostle noted in verses 7 and 11, “the glory of the old covenant was not permanent, but fading; it was intended to give way to the new,” writes John MacArthur.”

Now there is a reason as to why we are talking about both the old and new covenants and it will be made clearer in our next SD on the introduction to this section from John’s gospel, but we must continue to look at the covenants so we can better understand this portion of Scripture. 

Scripture makes it clear that the new covenant is not just a revision of the old covenant, but something brand new and it is completely different, and the reason is that it alone provides salvation.  As we look at the covenants in the Old Testament, the Noahic, Abrahamic, Priestly, Davidic, or Mosaic covenants salvation is not in them.  MacArthur writes “The writer of Hebrews emphasized its distinctiveness by describing it with the Greek word kainos, which refers to something new in kind, not subsequent in time (Heb. 8:13).”

The following list of Scripture verses compiled by John MacArthur shows how the new covenant is superior to the old:  “A better mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 8:6); it offers a better hope based on better promises, most notably that of complete forgiveness (Jer. 31:34; cf. Heb. 10:4); it grants all believers direct access to God without the need for priests; it is gracious (Heb. 8:9) in that its blessings will never be forfeited by disobedience (through disobedience brings chastening [Heb. 12:4-11]); it is internal, written not on tablets of stone (2 Cor. 3:7; Ex. 31:18), but on the heart (Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10); it brings spiritual life, not spiritual death (2 Cor. 3:6; cf. vv. 7, 9; Rom. 8:2-3); it results in righteousness, not condemnation (2 Cor. 3:9); it is clear and straightforward, unlike the old covenant types, pictures, symbols, and mysteries; and it is energized by the liberating power of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17-18).”

In our next SD we will look at the transition from John the Baptist’s ministry to that of Jesus Christ, which is the theme of the section we are now looking at.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at the differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant I am thankful to be living during the time of the New Covenant.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remember what John the Baptist says in this section, “I must decrease, but He must increase.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Berea” (Acts 17:10-11).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was the prophetess during the time of Josiah?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/27/2016 12:13 PM