SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/14/2016 11:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to John 5:30-47
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 5:30-47
Message of the verses: “30 “I can do nothing on My own initiative.
As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will,
but the will of Him who sent Me. 31"If I alone testify about Myself, My
testimony is not true. 32 “There
is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives
about Me is true. 33 “You have sent to John, and he has testified to the
truth. 34 “But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these
things so that you may be saved. 35 “He was the lamp that was burning and was
shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 "But the testimony which I have is greater than the
testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to
accomplish-the very works that I do-testify about Me, that the Father has sent
Me. 37 "And the
Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His
voice at any time nor seen His form. 38 “You do not have His word abiding in
you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. 39 “You search the Scriptures
because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40 and
you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. 41 “I do not receive
glory from men; 42 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in
yourselves. 43 “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if
another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 “How can you believe,
when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is
from the one and only God? 45 “Do not think that I will accuse you before the
Father; the one who
accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. 46 “For if you
believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. 47 “But if you do not believe
his writings, how will you believe My words?"”
John
MacArthur begins this section in his commentary in which he entitles this
chapter “Witnesses to the Deity of Christ,” with the following words: “A singularly tragic theme in Scripture is
that on God’s unrequited love for wayward Israel. His people, whom He graciously chose for
Himself (Deut. 7:7-8) ‘7 "The LORD
did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than
any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but because the LORD loved you
and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out
by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of
Pharaoh king of Egypt, repeatedly proved unthankful and unfaithful to Him in
return.”
In our many
studies of the books of the OT we have seen this truth made very clear. I suppose that if I were smart enough to make
a graph and put it on this SD that would describe the spirituality of the
nation of Israel from the time that God called them in Genesis chapter twelve
that the scale would be an up and down one, but the overall direction of it
would be on the downward path. During
the time of the Judges we especially see the up and down movement of the graph,
but as stated in the end it would be lower than when Israel first came into the
Promised Land. I have mentioned many
times that God, through Moses prophesied that this would happen, especially in
the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy.
I suppose that the highest time of spirituality was during the reign of
King David and a small part of King Solomon, but then again the movement of the
graph, although up and down would be mainly downward as there were many more
bad kings to rule over both Israel and Judah until Israel was destroyed in 722
BC and Judah in 586 BC. But that was not
the end of the people of Israel, for God sent them back into the land some 70
years after they went into captivity to fulfill the promise that He would do
this and although they did not own any of the Promised Land during this time
the temple was rebuilt and worship once again began, but soon after the last
prophets that came from the Lord were killed or died the spirituality of Israel
once again went downward. When Jesus
comes on the scene to begin His ministry as we have seen there was a false
religion in Israel which would eventually cause His death as He opposed this
false system with the truth and they did not like it. We are seeing His first opposition in this
fifth chapter of the gospel of John and we can already sense the hatred that
these false religious leaders felt against our Lord.
I want to
back up a bit and quote from Isaiah 5:1-7 to show a picture of Israel’s
apostasy in a parable that he writes: “1
Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His
vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 He dug it all
around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built
a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He
expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. 3 “And
now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My
vineyard. 4 “What more was
there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to
produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones? 5 “So now let Me tell you what I am going
to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I
will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. 6 “I will lay it
waste; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I
will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it." 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of
hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant.
Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but
behold, a cry of distress.”
I want to
follow along in John MacArthur’s commentary on his introductory comments on
this sections, but it will take at least one more day to finish it and so we
will look at it some more in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Every time that I look at the spirituality of
the nation of Israel I have to look at myself and wonder what a graph of my life
would look like for I have a completed Bible to read from and I have the Holy
Spirit living in me, and I have a wonderful church to attend and yet I am sure
that there are far too many times when I act like the children of Israel act
and probably disappoint my Lord. I just
cannot look at Israel and be hard on them, for that is not up to me to do that,
for I can surely say that I would not like my sins printed on the pages of the
Bible for all to see, but one thing is true, and Paul speaks of it in a couple
of places, and that is that the Old Testament writings are there for me to
learn from, to do the good things found there and avoid the bad things.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To learn to better love the
Lord and to do the things He wants me to do in a productive way that will
please Him.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Ezra” (Ezra 7:6-9).
Today’s Bible question:
“What was the smallest Hebrew measurement of length?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/14/2016 12:33 PM
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