SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/10/2016 10:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Be Unbelieving
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 8:24
Message of the verse: “24 "Therefore I said to you that you
will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in
your sins.’”
I want to
remind myself and all who read this that this section we are looking at that
John MacArthur entitles “How to Die in Your Sins” is all about how a person can
die in their sins as he suggests in the title, so we are looking at the people
that Jesus was talking to and find that they all have at least one of the
issues that we are looking at that will cause them to spend eternity in the
lake of fire. We look at this knowing
that only by the grace of God that those who have these issue or issues can
come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Perhaps someone reading this realizes that
they surely have one or more of these issues and the Holy Spirit begins to
convict them of these sins so that they can repent and be saved, that is surely
one of the reasons that I write these Spiritual Diaries along with the Spirit
of God using them to cause growth to believers, revival in the hearts of believers’,
and also that the Holy Spirit will continue to use these Spiritual Diaries to
go around the world and bring glory to the Lord.
This
statement that Jesus makes here comes right to the point showing that a person
has to believe in Jesus Christ to have eternal life, and if they do not believe
in Him, then they will die in their sins.
What they must believe is what He declared “believe that I am He.” He later declared at the end of chapter eight
that He is the “I Am” which comes from Exodus 3:14 “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.’"” John
MacArthur writes “In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old
Testament), that is the same phrase (ego
emi) Jesus used here (The Septuagint similary uses eg~O emi of God in Deut. 32:39; Isa. 41:4, 43:10, 25; 45:18;
46:4). Jesus was applying to Himself the
tetragrammaton (YHWH, often transliterated as Yahweh)—the name of God that was
so sacred that the Jews refused to pronounce it. Unlike many modern cult groups (such as the
Jehovah’s Witnesses), the Jews of Jesus’ day understood perfectly that He was
claiming to be God. In fact, they were
so shocked by His use of that name in reference to Himself (cf. vv. 28, 58),
that they attempted to stone Him for blasphemy (v. 59).”
We can
see that Jesus is unmistakably telling them that in order to go to heaven they
had to believe in him or else they would die in their sins. MacArthur adds “To be a Christian one must
believe the full biblical revelation about Jesus: that He is the eternal second
person of the Trinity, that He entered space and time as God incarnate, that He
was born of a virgin, that He lived a sinless life, that His death on the cross
is the only sufficient, substitonary sacrifice for the sins of all who would ever
believe in Him, that He rose from the death and ascended to the Father in
heaven, that He now intercedes for His own redeemed people, and that He will
one day return in glory.” That in a
nutshell is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We have one
more quote to look at and it is from R. C. H. Lenski, and it has to do with the
word “unless.” “The sins of these men
will destroy them by robbing them of life eternal only if they refuse to
believe in Jesus. The ‘if’ clause [in
the KJV] is pure gospel, extending its blessed invitation anew. Yet it is again combined with the warning
about dying in sins. This note of
warning with its terrifying threat persists because these Jews had chosen the
course of unbelief. Yet the ‘if’ opens
the door of life in the wall of sin.”
When we
studied the book of Mark we touched on what is called the “unpardonable sin”
which in the opinion of many Bible Scholars could have only been committed
during that time period and was when the Jews of Jesus’ day accused Jesus of
doing His miracles in the power of Satan, when it was evident that this was not
true. The miracles that Jesus did were
in the power of the Holy Spirit and to believe it was in the power of Satan
meant that that sin could not be forgiven.
The gospel is clearly written about in the quote from John MacArthur in
this SD and not to believe it causes the same effects as those who did what
they did in accusing Jesus of doing His miracles in the power of Satan. Now we have also spoken of different degrees
of punishment for people in hell but the fact remains that those who do not
believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord will spend eternity in hell.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is good to understand the truth of the
gospel as learned in this SD today, to be reminded of the cost that it took for
my salvation.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To spread the good news of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world through the ministry of my
Spiritual Diaries as they go onto the blogs I write.
Memory verses for the week:
(2 Corinthians 12:7-9) “7. Because of the surpassing greatness of the
revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given
me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from
exalting myself. 8. Concerning this I
implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient
for you, for power is perfected in weakness,’ most gladly, therefore, I will
rather boast in my weakness, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “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.” (John 20:30-31)
Today’s Bible question:
“Which nation was taken into captivity first, Judah or Israel?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/10/2016
11:22 AM
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