The Doubting (John 8:52-58)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/30/2016 7:30 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  The Doubting

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                       Reference:  John 8:52-58

            Message of the verses:  “52 The Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ’If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’ 53 “Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?" 54 Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ’He is our God’; 55 and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. 56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." 57 So the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" 58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.’”

            We looked at verse 51 in our last SD which says “"Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death."”  We know that what Jesus was saying to them spoke of Spiritual death, and like other times in the gospel of John the Jews mixed up the physical and the spiritual, which is what they did this time as seen from their answer “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ’If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’ 53 “Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?"”  Keeping the Spiritual and the physical is very important as we have seen through different places in the book of John.  MacArthur writes “Neither the revered patriarch Abraham nor any of the prophets had the power to defeat death, since they had all died.  Flinging Jesus’ own words back at Him, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death,’ the Jewish leaders indignantly demanded, ‘Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham’ or ‘the prophets’ who ‘died; whom do You make Yourself out to be?’  Or, ‘Just who do You think You are?’  The tone of their questioning is obviously abusive; they were sure that only a demon-possessed person could make such an outlandish claim.”

            Jesus answer to this was to repeat what He had said in verses 49-50 which says “49  Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50  "But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges.”  Jesus answer now is “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me.”  As mentioned in our last SD Jesus knew what the plan of the Father was for Him, and by doing what His Father desired Him to do would bring glory to Him as the Father would glorify Him through the keeping of His plan for Him.  MacArthur adds “Jesus’ claims were not those of a demoniac or a maniac, because the glory He possesses was not evil or satanic, but divine.  It was His by His eternal relation to His Father (17:24)—the very One of whom the Jewish leaders said ‘He is our God.’  For them to piously claim to know God while blaspheming and rejecting His Son was ludicrous.  Therefore Jesus, pointing out the obvious again, plainly told them, ‘You have not come to know Him.’  Despite their outward pretense, they did not know God; they were children of Satan (v. 44).  Their delusion was that they were God’s children and that Jesus was in league with the Devil (cf. Matt. 12:24).”

            Jesus did not back down as He states “but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.”  By saying that He did not know the Father would make Him out to be a liar, and this is something that is impossible for God to do for it is not in His nature like it was in the nature of Satan whom Jesus said of Him “Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies (44b).” 

            Now, to me this next statement that Jesus makes is very important for me to understand and so once again I will quote from John MacArthur.  “In contrast to their rejection of Him, the Lord told them, ‘Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.’  Hebrews 11:13 records that Abraham saw and welcomed Christ’s day, ‘All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.’  He saw in his son Isaac the beginning of God’s fulfillment of His covenant with Him (Gen. 12:1-3; 15:1-21; 17:1-8), which would culminate in the coming of the Messiah.  Once again (cf. vv. 39-40), Jesus contrasted His opponents’ behavior with that of their patriarch, proving that they were not Abraham’s spiritual children.  They wanted to murder the very One in whose coming Abraham rejoiced (cf. v. 37).”  My thoughts on Abraham rejoicing to see Christ’s day were that they must have talked about it after Abraham died, but what MacArthur and also Dr. Wiersbe said (which I quoted in an earlier SD), make more sense to me now.  Another thing that came to my mind was what we read about when the Lord came down to talk with Abraham along with two angels who were sent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.  During that time we see that the preincarnate Jesus Christ was the one talking to Abraham.  This happened in Genesis chapter 18.

            The next thing that these Jewish leaders said to Jesus was “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”  The Jews were twisting His Words for Jesus did not say that He saw Abraham, but that Abraham rejoiced (prophetically) to see Him. 

            The next statement that Jesus makes is a direct claim to be God, and we can go back to the book of Exodus to see the name that Jesus was claiming to be.  “13 Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ’The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ’What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?" 14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ’I AM has sent me to you’ (Exodus 3:13-14).”  This name for God was one that the Jews would not even speak for fear that they would blaspheme against God which would break the first of the Ten Commandments.  We usually see the word “Jehovah” in our English Bibles or it is also referred as Yahweh, however in the Hebrew there are no vowels in it because there are no vowels in the Hebrew language.  At any rate Jesus had just told these Jews that you are looking right into the face of God, the very God you say that you know.  John MacArthur quotes Homer Kent who explains “By using the timeless ‘I am’ rather than ‘I was,’ Jesus conveyed not only the idea of existence prior to Abraham, but timelessness—the very nature of God himself (Exod. 3:14).” 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to admit that there have been far too many times in my life when I have jumped to the wrong conclusions and it has gotten me into trouble.  Unfortunately for these Jews that were talking to Jesus that is what they did.  As I am growing older I am trying not to jump to conclusions but wait and think before I open my mouth.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Think before I speak.

Memory verse for today (Romans 6:1) “What shall we say? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “John the Baptist”  (Mark 1:6).

Today’s Bible question:  “In which book is the story of Gideon told?”

Answer in our next SD.

            A little note from where I am getting these Bible questions:  They come from a game that I have had for a long time, and on each card there are seven questions so it takes one week to look at the questions on each card.  The question a couple days ago was “Where was it said ‘The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another?”  The answer according to what was on the card was “Mizpah.”  I have been asked to explain the answer, but I think after doing a little research that the answer given on the card is a bit misleading.  Let me quote from my Spiritual Diary on Jan. 26, 2006 ““47 Laban named it in Aramaic, Yegar-sahadutha (Witness Monument); Jacob echoed the naming in Hebrew, Galeed (Witness Monument).

48 Laban said, "This monument of stones will be a witness, beginning now, between you and me." (That’s why it is called Galeed—Witness Monument.)  49 It is also called Mizpah (Watchtower) because Laban said, "GOD keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight.  50 If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives when there’s no one around to see you, God will see you and stand witness between us."

51 Laban continued to Jacob, "This monument of stones and this stone pillar that I have set up is a witness, 52 a witness that I won’t cross this line to hurt you and you won’t cross this line to hurt me.”

            Both Jacob and Laban give names, which mean the same, to this monument and its meaning is “Witness Monument” and later on Laban also calls it “Watchtower.”  Laban gives it this name because he wants the God of Jacob to watch over Jacob and himself to see if either one would break this covenant that they have made with each other. 

            I am not exactly sure why it is that Laban is actually acting like he has a bit of sense, but he does want Jacob to take care of his daughters and not to marry any other women, so I guess that there may have been a spark of good in Laban after all.  I don’t think that this is why Laban had set out to get to Jacob and his family, but God protected Jacob in order to protect the covenant that God had made with Abraham, a covenant that was confirmed when the Lord alone walked through the burning sacrifices and so this covenant was an unconditional covenant that God made with Abraham and so He could not let it be broken.

            My conclusion that Mizpah is not really a place, but the name of the heap of stones which make up a covenant between Laban and Jacob.

6/30/2016 8:35 AM      

PT-3 The Coronation of the King (Zech. 6:12-13)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/29/2016 10:48 PM

My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  PT-3 The Coronation of the King

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 6:9-15

            Message of the verses:  “9 The word of the LORD also came to me, saying, 10  "Take an offering from the exiles, from Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah; and you go the same day and enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, where they have arrived from Babylon. 11 “Take silver and gold, make an ornate crown and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. 12 “Then say to him, ’Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the LORD. 13 “Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the LORD, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices."’ 14 “Now the crown will become a reminder in the temple of the LORD to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen the son of Zephaniah. 15 “Those who are far off will come and build the temple of the LORD." Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And it will take place if you completely obey the LORD your God.”

            As we begin this SD we will be looking at eight things that are said about Him (Jesus Christ in prophetic form).  We will begin to look at the eight things this evening as see how far we get.

            First is from verse 12 and in the NASB we read “for He will branch out from where He is, “while in the KJV we read “and He shall grow up out of His place.”  Let us look at Isaiah 53:2 for a comparison “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.”  This speaks of the Messiah, (Branch) He will grow up from His own people from His own land which of course is Israel.  Now we can see this happened to Jesus when we read through the NT gospels.  Look at Luke 2:46 “Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers (Luke 12:46-47).”  This speaks of Jesus when He was 12 years old.

            Next we look at another statement from verse 12 “He will build the temple of the LORD.”  I have a couple of things to say about this.  First of all when Jesus came the first time to planet earth He went into the temple and cleansed it, and then some 40 years after His resurrection the temple was destroyed just as Jesus predicted it would be.  Now when He comes back the second time He will rebuild the temple as seen in Ezekiel chapters 40-42.  Now I have mentioned this earlier when talking about the Millennial temple being built and this comes from a man I use to read and listen to many years ago who said the perhaps when the Lord returns in the second coming He will build the temple in three days.  Why would he say that?  He said that because of what Jesus told the Jews when they asked Him why He was cleansing the temple and He said “destroy this temple and I will build it again in three days, something that spoke of His resurrection from the dead.  However if this is true that Jesus rebuilds the temple in three days when He returns it would not be a problem for Him.

            We will look at one more thing found in verse thirteen ““Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the LORD, and He who will bear the honor.”  Now when Jesus came the first time there was not much glory given to Him from men, as they successfully had Him killed, but when He comes the next time glory will be given to Him from men, and the sad part is that many people who have not looked forward to His coming will go into eternal punishment.  MacArthur writes “He finally will be laden with majesty.  He finally will be laden with glory and with honor and He will receive what He is due and it will be then that the chorus of Revelation 4 and 5 can shout their hallelujahs.  It’s certainly a deserved day when He comes as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  ‘He shall bear the glory.’  He, Himself…again, in the Hebrew…He, Himself shall bear the glory.  In the Old Testament God said, ‘My glory will I not give to another.’  And it’ll all be His in that day and we’ll be a part of the hosanna chorus that sings glories and hallelujahs to His name.  What a deserved day for the humiliated One.”

6/29/2016 11:17 PM

PT-2 of "The Dishonor" (John 8:48-51)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/29/2016 9:47 AM

My Worship Time                                                                         Focus:  PT-2 of “The Dishonor”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 8:48-51

            Message of the verses:  “48 The Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" 49 Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50  "But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges.  51"Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.’”

            What we will begin with is how Jesus responds to the charges that were given against Him, and it is amazing to me how He does respond.  Jesus says “I do not have a demon,” and then He goes on to say exactly the opposite “I honor my Father.”  He then goes on to tell them that “you dishonor Me.”  Now here is some food for thought:  These Jews who thought they were so righteous as they spent time reading the Scriptures and thinking that they were honoring God were actually dishonoring the very God they thought they were honoring by dishonoring their Messiah who was God come in the flesh.  Now another verse that I have run into over the last few days goes along with this section and that is John 5:23 “so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”  Let us look at John 15:23 “"He who hates Me hates My Father also.”  1 John 2:23 says “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.”

            As we look at verse fifty we see “But I do not seek My glory,” and when you look at His opponents you will find out that that is exactly what they do, do, seeking their own glory.  Jesus came to fulfill the plan that God had for Him to do, and He was doing it through the power of the Spirit to bring honor and glory to His Father, so the entire trinity was involved, but let us look at another section that comes from Paul’s writings “5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 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. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:5-11).”

            Charles Wesley wrote “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.”  This comes from his song “And Can it Be That I Should Gain.”

            I want to now quote from an OT Psalm, 2:6-12 which goes along with the passage from Philippians “6  "But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain."  7 "I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ’You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. 8 ’Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. 9 ’You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’" 10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. 11 Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling. 12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”

            Psalm 110:2 says “The Lord says to my Lord; ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.’”  Isaiah 52:13 speaks of the Father declaring of the Son “Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.” 

            MacArthur writes “To those who honor and glorify Him by obedience to His call to salvation Jesus promised, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.’  Amen, amen (‘truly, truly’), as it always does in John’s gospel introduces a statement of major significance.  The one who ‘keeps’ His ‘word’ (i.e., obeys it; cf. v.55; 14:15, 21, 23-24; 15:10, 20; Matt. 5:19) is a true child of God (John 1:;12), in His kingdom (3:3-5), and is His true disciple (8:31), who will never experience eternal separation from God (Rev. 2:11; 20:6 cf. 20:14; 21:8).  To Nicodemus Jesus declared, ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life’ (John 3:16).  In 5:24 He reiterated that truth:  ‘Truly, truly, I so to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.’  Jesus is ‘the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die’ (6:50).  Comforting Martha after the death of her brother Lazarus, the Lord declared, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyon who lives and believes in Me will never die’ (11:25-26).

            “Jesus statement here is merely another way of expressing the truth that eternal life results from humbly and obediently believing in His Word and following Him….Even to those who scornfully rejected His gospel and dishonored Him, Jesus still graciously offered eternal life—another offer that intensified the severity of their eternal judgment if they rejected it (Luke 12:47-47).”

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to echo the words of Charles Wesley once again.

And Can It Be Lyrics

 

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
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?

 

’Tis mystery all: th’Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

 

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!

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

 

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

 

Still the small inward voice I hear,
That whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near,
That quenched the wrath of hostile Heaven.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

 

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Praise the Lord for saving my soul.

 

Memory verse for the week:  Romans 6:1 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Mizpah” (Genesis 31:49).

 

Today’s Bible question:  Who was clothed in a camel’s hair robe and a leather girdle?”

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

6/29/2016 11:09 AM

 

PT-2 The Coronation of the King (Zechariah 6:12)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/28/2016 11:05 PM

My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  PT-2 The Coronation of the King

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 6:9-15

            Message of the verses:  “9 The word of the LORD also came to me, saying, 10  "Take an offering from the exiles, from Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah; and you go the same day and enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, where they have arrived from Babylon. 11 “Take silver and gold, make an ornate crown and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. 12 “Then say to him, ’Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the LORD. 13 “Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the LORD, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices."’ 14 “Now the crown will become a reminder in the temple of the LORD to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen the son of Zephaniah. 15 “Those who are far off will come and build the temple of the LORD." Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And it will take place if you completely obey the LORD your God.”

            We begin this evening looking at the latter part of verse eleven where we read that this crown that has been made is to go onto the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak who is the high priest.  What we are seeing here is the combining of the priestly office with the office of the king and that can only point to the Lord Jesus Christ.  I have subscribed to a magazine called “Israel My Glory,” and it is a magazine that has been around for many years and it is used to give a witness to the nation of Israel even before Israel became a nation.  I got the second volume a couple days ago and on the front cover was the headline “Prophet, Priest, and King,” and as I looked at that it reminded me of what we are studying in the book of Zechariah.  I have not read the main article on that subject as of yet, but when I do if there is anything in it that pertains to our study in Zechariah I will make mention of it.

            Let us take a look at the book of Hebrews chapter seven and verse one:  “For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him.”  We see here that Melchizedek was a priest and a king and when we look more into the book of Hebrews we will see that this was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, for Melchizedek was priest and king of “Salem” which became Jerusalem.  “To whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace (Hebrews 7:2).”

            Now as we continue to look at our verses verse twelve speaks of someone called the Branch, who is speaking once again of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The KJV says in verse 12 “behold the Man whose name is branch and Pilate said the same thing of Jesus in John 19:5 “Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate *said to them, "Behold, the Man!"”  Pilate seems to echoing the words of Zechariah in 6:12. 

            MacArthur writes “Then it says, ‘whose name is The Branch,’ or literally, the shoot, the sprout.  Now, that is a Messianic title for Him that is used in several places in the Old Testament, here and in Isaiah, and it’s also used, as we saw, in chapter 3 of Zechariah and verse 8.  It says if you have…and I don’t know how else to explain it…but it says if you have the fallen tree of David and it’s chopped down and fallen, but in the end time it puts forth a new shoot and the fallen tree of David revives in the new life in the form of Messiah King, Jesus Christ.”

We will continue looking at the wonderful prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ in our next SD.

6/28/2016 11:28 PM  

PT-1 The Dishonor (John 8:48-51)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/28/2016 10:11 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-1 “The Dishonor”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 8:48-51

            Message of the verses:  “48 The Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" 49  Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50  "But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges.  51 "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.’”

            I think that there is one more paragraph from the sermon that I quoted in our last SD that will help us better understand this section we are looking at today and probably the rest of the this entire section (8:48-50). 

            “Now just backing off that for a minute, debates, when they’re lost, deteriorate.  And there’s a kind of a four-level way in which this works, and you’ve experienced this.  You experience it whenever you get into a debate, if you’re not careful.  You can see this.  Debates start on an intellectual levels.  Somebody says, “This is true.”  Somebody says, “Well, this is true.”  And you have a disagreement.  So you approach your disagreement intellectually.  You do it on a mental level.  You say, “Well, here’s the proof.  Here’s the evidence.  This is what I believe.  This is why I believe it.”  That’s the first conflict level.

“The progression, then, goes to a second level where it ceases to be intellectual and becomes emotional.  This is where you start getting angry.  You can’t get your point across.  You can’t move the other person.  The other person doesn’t like what you said because they don’t like the implications of what you said.  They don’t buy into what you said.  The heat starts to rise.  And this can happen in just about any kind of conflict.  So you have an emotional level and you start to engage on an emotional level. 

“And that then drops to the third level, which is verbal abuse.  When you can’t make your argument any more and get it across and you’re angry, you just start firing off the epithets, right?  You just start calling people names.  And that’s exactly what you see here.  And then the final step, of course, is you come to blows.  That’s the end.  You deck the person you’re trying to convince.  You know, you give them a shot to the chops and leave them in a heap in the gutter or you wrestle them to the ground and hope you can win.

“But this is how conflict goes.  It starts at an intellectual level, goes to an emotional level, goes to a verbal level, and then goes to a physical level.  And that’s exactly what happens here.  They start with an intellectual conversation about religion.  It descends because they can’t win.  It’s impossible for them to win.  They’re talking to the truth, the eternal truth.  They can’t win.  Error can’t win.  It can’t survive.  So they’re done in.  They’re incompetent, ineffective. 

“They then descend to the emotional level where they become angry and bitter and all they can think about is getting rid of him and killing him, and when they have the opportunity, they descend to this verbal level, where they’re calling him things like a demon-possessed Samaritan.  In chapter 10, they call him insane. 

“And then here at the end of the chapter, it descends to physical abuse and they pick up stones to try to stone him to death, and eventually that’s why they killed him because they couldn’t win the argument and they ran that argument all the way down the scale to the lowest possible level and nailed him to a cross.”  Okay it was more than one paragraph, but I feel it is necessary for us to understand this truth.  Jesus was not the one who became angry, but those who were arguing with Him.  So what we see in our verses today is this third level, the angry level which will progress to the fourth level later on.

Name calling is what we see in this section, and these men call Jesus some of the worst things, if not the worst thing they could have called Him in that culture, for we have already gone over what they feel about the Samaritans.

Now we have to look at how Jesus responded to these insulting words that were thrown at Him.  I surely did not understand that Jesus was answering them in love, but as I have been studying this section I am convinced that this is how He was responding.  Let us for a moment look at our verses, the key to the Gospel of John “30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”  I bring these verses up to remind us why Jesus came to earth, and remember He was fulfilling the plan of His Father which in the end would pay for the sins of those who would accept Him as Savior and Lord.  We have to believe that His response in love to these men that would eventually kill Him was love, for remember what He said as He was dying on the cross “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”  Now one more thing before we move on and that is when we studied the book of Revelation, we saw things differently, for beginning at the sixth chapter and all the way to the 19^th chapter we saw a series of judgments which ended with the return of Jesus Christ to earth to judge between the sheep and the goats, and then we also saw the great white throne judgments, so the story will be different, but as of now sinners can still receive the Lord as Savior and Lord.

John MacArthur writes “By calling Jesus a Samaritan, the Jewish leaders were in effect labeling Him a false teacher (because He obviously did not agree with their interpretation of the Law), and a traitor to Israel (since He allegedly sided with Israel’s bitter enemies the Samaritans).  In their blindness, they were confident that He must be an enemy of God.”

This was not the end of their insults for they also said that He had a demon, something they also charged John the Baptist with “"For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ’He has a demon!’”  They also did this earlier to Jesus as seen in both Mark and Matthew’s gospels by telling Jesus that He was doing His miracles in the power of Beelzebul (Satan).  The writer of Hebrews writes the following “4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. 7  For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; 8  but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.”

We will pick up where we are leaving off today in our next SD as we look at how Jesus answered their charges.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I want to avoid always the fourth level of confrontation, and love in my actions.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remember what Paul writes about love “  4 ¶  Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5  does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Memory verse for the week:  (Romans 6:1) “1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Pilate” (Matthew 27:17).

Today’s Bible question:  (A tough one) “Where was it said, ‘"May the LORD watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other.’”  (Think early OT.)

Answer in our next SD.

6/28/2016 10:52 AM

 

  

 

The Coronation of the King (Zech. 6:9-11)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/27/2016 10:38 PM

My Worship Time                                                                    Focus:  The Coronation of the King

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 6:9-11

            Message of the verses:  I want to add the verses that we are looking at a bit later.  As we begin to look at this last paragraph of chapter six which makes up seven verses we will see that this, according to John MacArthur is not a vision.  We concluded looking at the eight vision in verses 1-8 of chapter six, and not we will be looking at the coronation of King Jesus in this section, something that is still in the future, but closer than when Zechariah writes this section.

            Zechariah now awakens to a new day as the visions are over, MacArthur writes “Zechariah has arisen from seeing these marvelous visions of future and there is a beautiful act that takes place on that next day that actually did happen historically, no doubt, to symbolize the coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ.  And this has got to be one of the most marvelous passages in all Scripture on the exaltation of Jesus Christ.”  He goes on to write “The climax of history is not an event.  The climax of history is a person, always a person.  To the Jew, the climax of history was always the arrival of Messiah, a person.”

            Let us look at verses 9-10 “9 The word of the LORD also came to me, saying, 10  "Take an offering from the exiles, from Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah; and you go the same day and enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, where they have arrived from Babylon.” 

            What we see in these two verses is that the Word of the Lord begins to talk to Zechariah and He tells him that there were some more Jewish people coming back to Jerusalem from Babylon, and He gives the names to Zechariah.  These men which we will look at in a moment were bringing some gold and silver to help in the effort of building the temple, but as we will see that is not what will happen with their gifts.  MacArthur writes the following about the names of these men:  “Heldai means ‘the Lord’s world.’  Tobijah means ‘God is good.’  Jedaiah means ‘God knows.’  And Josiah means ‘The Lord supports.’  So they all had God-honoring names, names that spoke of the character of God.

            We will now look at verse eleven:  “11 “Take silver and gold, make an ornate crown and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.”  Now I may have written this in an earlier SD on these verses, but what do you think that these men were thinking when Zechariah comes up to them and asks for their offering to make a crown because he had gotten that message from the Lord.  I think that maybe they may have been wondering if what he was telling them was the truth.  Now according to MacArthur the word crown is plural and so even though it is plural they were only to make one crown. But it would be a composite of one crown.

6/27/2016 11:04 PM 

             

Introduction to John 8:48-59

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/27/2016 10:21 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  Introduction To John 8:48-59

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 8:48-59

            Message of the verses:  Last night I was listening to a sermon by John MacArthur on these verses that I downloaded a few years back.  He gave this sermon in the 1970’s, however they have taken it off of their website and I think that is because he is in the process of going through the gospel of John at this time.  I have the sermon, but cannot get the copy of it since it is not on the website so what I want to do for this SD is to quote from the introduction from a similar sermon that he gave a few years ago and then we will begin in our next SD to look at these verses in more detail. 

            “Turn to John chapter 8, John chapter 8.  We’re wrapping up this 8th chapter, and it has been a chapter of assaults on Jesus.  Ten times in this chapter—which actually begins in verse 12—ten times in this chapter Jesus has been attacked and assaulted by the leaders of Judaism.  Ten times.  It’s just one barrage after another.

“And it’s not just this chapter.  The same thing was going on in the previous chapter.  In the previous chapter, they were making the same blasphemous accusations, the same threats, having the same desire to kill him.  This goes all the way back to the second chapter of the Gospel of John when Jesus came into Jerusalem and launched his ministry by assaulting the corrupt temple operations, and it’s been nothing but conflict for the two and a half years since then with the religious leaders of Judaism.

“This, however, is one of the most antagonistic events in that conflict, and that’s why I titled it “Jesus Antagonizes the Enemies.”  And I might tell you that he purposely antagonizes his enemies because it’s necessary.  It’s what the truth does to error and it’s required.

“Just to maybe set the context a little bit bigger outside the Book of John, have you noticed that it is only evangelical biblical Christianity that is persecuted in the world and in our society?  People aren’t persecuting Hindus.  They’re not persecuting Buddhists.  They’re not persecuting Muslims.  They don’t even persecute Roman Catholics.  They don’t persecute people of other religions because all false religion is a part of the same kingdom of darkness, and a house divided against itself can’t stand, right? 

“So Satan can’t be divided against Satan, and since he owns all false religion, he tends to contribute to its survival and its elevation.  The attacks always come from the kingdom of darkness on the one category of truth, and that’s the Bible.  And those who rightly represent the Bible, biblical religion, biblical Christianity.  So we aren’t surprised that it’s Christianity that is being marginalized, Christianity that’s being taken out of the public discussion, Christians that are being persecuted, Bibles that are being set aside, references to Jesus Christ that are being eliminated. 

“All the attacks come on the truth because they all come from the kingdom of darkness.  And it is also true to say that the greatest enemies of the truth have always been religious because man is invariably religious, inveterately religious, always has been religious, is still religious, and consequently, his false religion assaults the truth constantly.  So it doesn’t surprise me.  It is a sign that we’re doing something right to have the kingdom of darkness coming after us.  That’s how it is.

“The harshest human attacks on Jesus didn’t even come from the people.  He got indifference from the people, for sure, but the really harsh, aggressive assaults on him came from the religious establishment and the people who were most devoted to that establishment: self-righteous Jewish leaders who were part of an apostate form of Judaism that basically belonged to Satan like all other religion.  All other religion is part of the kingdom of darkness.  And since they were part of a false religion that belonged to Satan, they were enemies of the truth, and therefore they were enemies of Christ, who is the truth.

“All religion claims to represent God, but it represents the devil.  It represents Satan.  And that is what Jesus said in verse 44.  This is the high point.  This is the escalation of the conflict to its highest level.  He says to these religious leaders who continually said they represented God and spoke for God, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.”  “You lie and you desire to kill me because I speak the truth and you are a part of the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of lies, and the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of lies wants to stamp out the truth.”

“So here is Jesus saying something that is the most volatile thing he could possibly say to Jewish leaders who prided themselves on being children of Abraham, children of God, those who rightly represented God, those who were God’s agents in the world.  He says, “You are of your father the devil.”  That is Judaism in its most devout form is Satanic.

“Our Lord’s condemnation of these corrupt leaders reaches a real pinnacle in the final week of his life.  Matthew 23 records during the passion week that in the temple he gives that message that’s recorded in Matthew 23, in which he calls them, “whited sepulchers.”  He says they create “sons of hell,” and he denounces all of them.  And then he warns the people to stay away from them because of their damning influence. 

“Over these two and a half years of his ministry, this conflict has been escalating by necessity because he continues to confront their damning destructive error with the truth.  Somebody might say, “Well, back off.  We can’t do that.”  The truth damns.  The truth damns eternally.  It sends people to hell forever.  The consequences are incalculable and they don’t ever change.  Error must be confronted with the truth.  These children of Satan see Jesus, then, as an enemy.  They see him as a disturber.  They see him as a blasphemer, a law breaker.  They can’t contain themselves in dealing with him.  They’re so full of fury at him.  This kind of culminates, at least the eighth chapter version of it, episode of it, in the text before us.  Let’s pick it up in verse 48.

“Having just heard Jesus say, “You are of your father the devil,” and then explain that connection, because you desire what the devil desires, which is to lie and kill.  You want to kill even me.  They respond in verse 48, and “they said to him, ‘Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?’  Jesus answered, ‘I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me.  But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges.  Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My - ” message, My teaching, My “ - word he will never see death.’  The Jews said to Him, ‘Now we know that You have a demon.  Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, “If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.”  Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died?  The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?’

““Jesus answered, ‘If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, “He is our God”; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His Word.  Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.’  So the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’  Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.’  Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.”

“The conflict has never been more dramatic than that.  Things have reached the point where they either repent and believe in Him or they can’t contain their fury, their rage, their hardness of heart.  Why does he do this?  Why does he exacerbate this conflict?  Why does he elevate this?  Why does he raise it to this level?  Why does he say things like “you’re of your father, the devil.  You’re liars and murderers, and you desire what the devil desires”?  Why does he say that?

“Well, the answer is because he loves them, because this is a mercy.  It is a mercy to shatter false securities.  It is a mercy to devastate false religion.  It is a mercy to strip people locked in some form of religious deception, strip them naked of that deception.  These are people with the emperor’s clothes.  They need to be exposed for what they are.  Their false religion needs to be dealt with in a very strong, stern confrontation.”

Now in our next SD we will begin to look at the first of four headings which is “The Dishonor,” and then “the doubting,” next “the defiance,” and finally “the disappearance.” 

Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have to go back to some of the thoughts that I have from a sermon that our Pastor gave last week on the Orlando shootings which seem to go well with this highlighted portion of MacArthur’s sermon, and that is that as believers we are to love our enemies, even though it is very difficult at times to do this.  When one sees all of the things that are going on around the world as many true believers are being killed for the cause of Christ it is hard for me to love those who are doing this and so as I look at why Jesus is confronting those who are living in the truth it seems to me that I am to have that kind of love by telling them the truth.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Have the proper attitude of loving my enemies.

Memory verses for the week:  (Romans 6:1)  “1. 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The earth” (Matthew 5:5).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?’”

Answer in our next SD.

6/27/2016 10:50 AM

 

 

Honor and Dishonor (John 8:48-59)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/26/2016 9:49 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Honor and Dishonor

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 8:48-59

            Message of the verses:  “48 The Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" 49  Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50  "But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges.

    “51 "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death." 52 The Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ’If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’ 53 “Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?" 54 Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ’He is our God’; 55 and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. 56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." 57 So the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" 58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." 59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.”

            We are finally in the last section of the 8^th chapter of the gospel of John and as I have mentioned in earlier SD’s Sundays are difficult days for me to write two Spiritual Diaries as I don’t usually get to them until the evening.  With that said what I want to do this evening is to quote from Dr. Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on this section and then tomorrow I may give a short introduction on these verses and then take the rest of the week to finish up this 8^th chapter of John.

            “The leaders could not refute our Lord’s statements, so they attacked His person.  Some students think that the leaders’ statement in John 8:41—‘We are not born of fornication’—was a slur on our Lord’s own birth and character.  After all, Mary was with child before she and Joseph were married.  But the personal attacks in John 8:48 are quite obvious.  For a Samaritan was the grossest of insults, and then to be called a demon-posed person only added further insults.

            “Note that Jesus did not even dignify the racial slur with an answer.  (No doubt there was also in this the suggestion that, like the Samaritans, Jesus was a heretic.)  They were dishonoring Him, but He was honoring the Father.  You will recall that He made it clear that it was impossible to honor the Father without honoring the Son (John 5:23).  They were seeking their own glory (see John 5:41-44), but He was seeking the glory that belongs to God alone.  Tradition-centered religion, without Christ, is often a ‘mutual admiration society’ for people who want the praise of men. 

            “Jesus had warned them that they would die in their sins because of their unbelief, and now He invited them to trust His Word and ‘never see death’ (John 8:51).  He had said this before in His synagogue sermon (John 6:39-40, 44, 54).  Once again, the leaders lacked the spiritual insight to understand what He was saying.  Abraham was dead, yet he was a godly man; and the faithful prophets were also dead.  This kind of talk only convinced them the more that He had a demon!  (John 7:20)

            “By claiming to be the Lord of death, He was claiming to be God (John 5:21-29).  This was not an honor He made for Himself; the Father gave it to Him.  In fact, Abraham 9whom they claimed as their father) saw His day and rejoiced!  Instead of rejoicing, they were revolting and trying to kill Him.

            “How did Abraham ‘see’ our Lord’s day, that is, His life and ministry on earth?  The same way he saw the future city:  by faith (Heb. 11:10, 13-16).  God did not give Abraham some special vision of our Lord’s life and ministry, but He did give him the spiritual perception to ‘see’ these future events.  Certainly Abraham saw the birth of the Messiah in the miraculous birth of his own son, Isaac.  He certainly saw Calvary when he offered Isaac to God (Gen. 22).  In the priestly ministry of Melchizedek (Gen. 14:17-24), Abraham could see the heavenly priesthood of the Lord.  In the marriage of Isaac, Abraham could see a picture of the marriage of the Lamb (Gen. 24).

            “His statement found in John 8:58 can be translated, ‘Before Abraham came into being, I AM.’  Again, this was another affirmation of His divine sonship; and the Jewish leaders received it as such.  He had once again made Himself equal with God (John 5:18), and this was the sin of blasphemy, worthy of death (Lev. 24:16).  Jesus was divinely protected and simply walked away.  His hour had not yet come.  We cannot help but admire His courage as He presented the truth and invited blind religious men to trust Him and be set free.

            “The most difficult people to win to the Saviour are those who do not realize that they have a need.  They are under the condemnation of God, yet they trust their religion to save them.  They are walking in the darkness and not following the light of life.  They are sharing a ‘living death’ because of their bondage to sin; and, in spite of their religious deeds, they are dishonoring the Father and the Son.  These are the people who crucified Jesus Christ, and Jesus called them the children of the devil.

            “Whose child are you?  Is God your Father because you have received Jesus Christ into your life?  (John 1:12-13) Or is Satan your father because you are depending on a counterfeit righteousness, a ‘works righteousness,’ not the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ?

            “If God is your Father, then heaven is your home.  If He is not your Father, then hell is your destiny.

            “It is truly a matter of life and death!”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Feeding Swine”  (Luke 15:15).

Today’s Bible question:  “Complete the beatitude ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit…’”

6/26/2016 10:20 PM   

The Significance of the Horses from Zech. 6:4-8

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/25/2016 9:21 PM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  The Significance of the Horses

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 6:4-8

            Message of the verses:  “4 Then I spoke and said to the angel who was speaking with me, "What are these, my lord?" 5 The angel replied to me, "These are the four spirits of heaven, going forth after standing before the Lord of all the earth, 6 with one of which the black horses are going forth to the North Country; and the white ones go forth after them, while the dappled ones go forth to the south country. 7  "When the strong ones went out, they were eager to go to patrol the earth." And He said, "Go, patrol the earth." So they patrolled the earth. 8  Then He cried out to me and spoke to me saying, "See, those who are going to the land of the north have appeased My wrath in the land of the north."

            We are actually looking at the significance of the horses and the chariots that they are pulling in this section.  Now the angel who was speaking to Zechariah is the one we have been calling “interpreter angel,” the one who has been with him throughout these visions.  Zechariah wants to know what these horse-pulled chariots are.  Zechariah wants to know what the Lord is showing him from this vision.  John MacArthur writes “Now the best way to translate the Hebrew there, ruwach is these are four winds.  Further, four winds or four spirits would be best seen as angelic spirits.”  (In the NASB we already see the word “spirits” in this verse.)  “These four angels, four divine agents of judgment.  And the angels are coming out of Heaven to carry out God’s judgment.  Notice, they are four spirits who ‘go forth from standing before the Lord…’ And that little phrase is a give-away that these are angels because that is the role that angels have.  They stand before the Lord to do His bidding.  And you can see that as you study the Scriptures in many places.”  Let us take a look at the 7^th chapter of the book of Revelation to see something similar “1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.”  Luke 1:19 tells us about Gabriel who is standing before the Lord in His presence:  “The angel answered and said to him, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.”  So we are convinced that these are angels who will do God’s bidding in judgment.  One more thing we should look at from verse five “before the Lord of all the earth.”  This speaks about the Lord’s millennial title as also seen in 4:14 and Micah 4:13.”

            I think the best thing to do at this point is to quote a very long paragraph from John MacArthur’s sermon on the 6^th chapter of Zechariah.

            “Now, verse 6 gives us further detail about this and this is where it gets kind of tangled up and I'll do my best.”The black horses which are there go forth into the north country and the white go forth after them and the dappled go forth toward the south country and the bay"...or the strong horses..."went forth and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth. And he said, 'Go from here. Walk to and fro through the earth.' So they walked to and fro through the earth." Now, we'll stop there for a minute. Remember now, the horses are symbols of divine judgment. The chariots are symbols of angelic spirits. So angelic spirits drawn out by divine judgment against the ungodly world is the picture. Angelic judgment agents, just like you have in Revelation, where you have seven angels blowing seven trumpets, seven angels pouring out seven bowls of judgment. The black horses, famine and death, and the white horses, victory and conquest, go to the north. Why? Well, because historically, that's where the greatest foes of Israel always came from. Nobody ever attacked Israel from the east, never. In the first place, they were practically impregnable from the east because of the tremendous distance that you had to march straight up to get to the city of Jerusalem, which sat on a plateau, and because you would have to cross the worst part of the Arabian desert. So whether it was Assyria or Babylon or later in history, the Seleucids, or later in history, the Romans, the worst of Israel's enemies always came down from the north. They never attacked from the west. That was the Mediterranean Sea. They never attacked from the east because that was the Arabian Desert. But they would come down from the north. And the dappled strong horses went to the south because Israel had had great enemy to the south and the enemy to the south was whom? Egypt. And so you find here that God is then bringing about a final judgment of vengeance particularly upon the nations that have mistreated Israel. And that's not inconsistent because you can usually determine a nation's righteousness by how it treats the people of God. In fact, in the 25^thchapter of Matthew when you have the judgment of the nations, Christ will judge the nations on the basis of their treatment of His people, Israel. In the 12^thchapter of Genesis, the Abrahamic Covenant, if anybody blesses you, he'll be blessed; if anybody curses you, God says he'll be cursed. So the armies of God's angelic hosts go to the north and they go to the south. None of them go east and west simply because the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Desert prevented any kind of thing like that. Now, in verse 7, again, you have an interesting note. You don't have any red horses going anywhere. Why not the red horses? Well, the best we can say is that most likely the red horses are the last thing. For some reason they're kind of held in check until the black and the white and the dappled gray have done their work and then comes in the terrible bloodshed that follows. There's really no other reason to assume why they aren't mentioned unless they don't go out at the same time. But finally they all go and you have in the middle of verse 7, "Go from here. Walk to and fro through the earth. So they walked to and fro through the earth." Now, it's interesting to mention that even though these angelic hosts just go north and south, that is merely the exit and they cover the globe. God's final judgment will cover the world. Nothing escapes; nothing is left out, worldwide judgment on the nations. Now, you say, John, when is this gonna happen? Well, it's gonna happen when Jesus returns. Read Matthew 24 and 25. Christ will come in His glory. You compare that with Zechariah. He'll stand on the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives will split wide open and at that point, the nations of the world will be gathered into the valley of Jehoshaphat and they will be judged and all individuals who are ungodly and all whose ungodliness has been manifest in their mistreatment of God and His people will be condemned and punished by being sent to eternal perdition. That's the judgment that's gonna happen. Now, later on at the end of the kingdom there will be a final sentencing. But God comes down and slays them and sends them to await the final punishment. The last verse of the vision, verse 8, offers us the best key to the interpretation and this I call the satisfaction. The symbol, verses 1 to 3, the significance, 4 to 7 and the satisfaction, verse 8. Listen to this. "Then cried he to me and spoke to me saying, 'Behold, these that go toward the North Country have quieted My spirit in the north country.'" What does this mean? There is a loud crying and whether it's interpreter angel or God Himself, he is speaking for God. And there's a loud cry. God says, these have quieted My spirit. What does that mean? That means that my spirit was always in turmoil until vengeance was accomplished, you see. And now God's spirit is at rest. He is appeased by judgment. He is satisfied, particularly...notice verse 8...He is particularly satisfied from those who have gone to the North Country because it was from the north that the worst of all enemies came...Babylon. And, listen. In the book of Revelation what does the writer of Revelation call the final form of evil? Babylon. And so it is when the ultimate Babylon is put down that God's spirit is at rest. In Zechariah, chapter 5, in our last study, we saw that God was going to deal with Babylon and He called it there the land of Shinar, that ultimately, evil will be summed up under the name Babylon because that's where it all began, at the Tower of Babel, organized, systematic, worldwide evil. And so when God at the end comes and goes with His host against Babylon, the final system, and wipes it out, then God's spirit is at rest. Now, Israel can never come into its kingdom till this happens.”

6/25/2016 9:51 PM