SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/10/2016 7:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 The Confusion
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 6:34-40
Message of the verses: “34 Then they said to Him, "Lord, always
give us this bread." 35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life;
he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never
thirst. 36 “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. 37
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I
will certainly not cast out. 38
"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the
will of Him who sent Me. 39 "This
is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose
nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 “For this is the will of My
Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal
life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.’”
In verse 36
Jesus tells those who are listening to Him, that even though you have seen the
miracles that I have done you still don’t believe in me the way that you need
to believe in me in order to be saved from your sins. He then goes on in verse 37 to say something
that does not seem to fit in this section, but it is there none the less. John MacArthur writes “Lest any seeking souls
should fear that they might not be among the elect, Jesus described the one
whom the Father gave to the Son as none other than ‘the one who comes to Me.’ From God’s view, we are given by His
sovereign power to the Son. From our
view, we come to Christ. And, of course,
our Lord would never reject one who comes as a love gift from the Father. So Jesus added, ‘I will certainly not cast’
that one ‘out.’ The strong double
negative ou me states emphatically
that Christ will not reject anyone who sincerely and submissively comes to Him. True saving faith can never be exercised in
vain, but only at the prompting of the Father (v. 44).”
Now before
I give another quote from MacArthur I want to insert a verse here that is one
of my favorite verses in the Word of God, as this verse has given me much help
in my walk with the Lord to help me get a grip on things that I don’t
understand, things like how we are saved from God’s point and from our point,
and also the trinity as I know the Bible teaches it, but I truly don’t
understand it. “"The secret things
belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our
sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law (Deut. 29:29).”
“Here again
is the incomprehensible (to the human mind) interplay between divine
sovereignty and human responsibility:
only given to the Son by the Father will come to Him, yet all who are ‘thirsty
[may] come’ and anyone ‘who wishes [may] take the water of life without cost’
(Rev. 22:17). Though they seem
impossible to harmonize, there is no conflict between those two truths in the
infinite mind of God (Deut. 29:29). (God’s
sovereignty in salvation does not negate the believers responsibility to
evangelize the lost—Matt. 24:14; 26:13; 28:19; Mark 13:10;).
Verse 38
speaks of the purpose that Jesus came to earth, and that is to do the will of
His Father, and that will was to purchase those who the Father has given to Him
for salvation as His bride to be with Him forever. Jesus Christ knew why He came to planet earth
in the form of a man, yet still and always God, and as we read through the
gospels we see that Jesus had places to go that were on the direct time table
of what God wanted Him to do, including dying on the cross at the exact time
that the Passover lambs would be sacrificed, as He is our Passover Lamb who was
sacrificed for us. Now as we look at
verses 39-40 we see this reality of Jesus coming to do the Father’s will, for
He is the One who sent Him.
We will
look at two mover verses that go along with 39-20 “My sheep hear My voice, and
I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will
never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is
greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” “12
"While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You
have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of
perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled (John 17:12).”
Now as we
go through other verses from the New Testament like Romans 8:29-30 we see that
they echo the Lord’s teaching regarding the perseverance and the protection of
the saints: “29 ¶ For those whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be
the firstborn among many brethren; 30
and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called,
He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” MacArthur explains “The repeated phrase ‘He
also’ links the entire salvation process from eternity past to eternity future
in an unbreakable chain. All whom God
foreknew will be predestined, called, justified, and glorified; no one will be
lost along the way (cf. 8:31-39).”
One last
quote and we will have completed this section:
“The blessing of eternal security or the preservation and perseverance
of believers in never apart from personal repentance and faith, so our Lord
affirms that heaven belongs to ‘everyone who beholds the Son and believes in
Him.’ It is they who ‘will have eternal
life…That fact further reinforces the protection and security of believers
taught in verses 37-39. The ‘eternal
life’ that comes through Jesus, the Bread of Life, should be sought with far
more zeal than the physical bread the crowd selfishly sought.” The health and wealth gospel teaches people
to seek the physical bread and not the spiritual bread just as these people
were doing who listened to Christ’s sermon here.
Spiritual meaning for my life: I want to remember that the most important
things to pursue are the spiritual things and not material things. Jesus tells us to work for the treasures in
heaven and not worry about things on earth.
It’s an attitude thing.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To know the Lord better and
better and to learn to love the Lord more and more.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “One” (Luke 15:4).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who said ‘I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth’?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/10/2016 8:07 AM
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