SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/12/2016 9:03 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to John 8:31-36
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 8:31-36
Message of the verses: “31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had
believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of
Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
33 They answered Him, "We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet
been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ’You will become free’?"
34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits
sin is the slave of sin. 35 “The slave does not remain in the house forever;
the son does remain forever. 36 “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free
indeed.”
As I look
at John MacArthur’s introduction of this section he writes about the
“Enlightenment” and I have to confess that this term was a mystery to me, or
else I was asleep in school when this subject was discussed and I don’t
remember what it was. At any rate I
began to look it up on different websites to find out what it was and found out
that it was a period of time in that took place in Western Europe sometime
after the middle ages and ended around 1800.
When one looks at Europe during the middle ages it was a very difficult
time to live as many people died from plagues and the life expectancy was very
low. The “Enlightenment” came along
after this low period full of philosophy and the beginning of engineering
marvels and people began to think that there was no need for God and any sort
of religion. These were all lies and
John MacArthur entitles this chapter in his commentary “The Truth Will Make You
Free,” and this period of Enlightenment was just another lie that people
believed in.
As time
passed on from the Enlightenment era and as we got into the 20th
century we fought two world wars and many other wars too so people rejected
that Enlightenment philosophy but we swallowed another lie.
I can
remember when I was in my teens I was one who thought that mankind would begin
to solve all of my problems, problems about dying and that they would come up
with some miracle medicines to keep me alive for a long time, and yet I still
had the fear of dying, that is until I became a true believer in Jesus Christ
in early 1974.
As we begin
this section we have to look back at verse 30 to see something that is needed
in order to better understand verses 31-16 “As He spoke these things, many came
to believe in Him.” Many came to believe
in Him, well what kind of belief did they have for we look a bit further along
in this chapter and Jesus tells them that their father is the devil. I guess the Truth didn’t set these people
free, I guess that they were living a lie just like those of the Enlightenment
era and our era too.
I guess
when we get down to it we have to go back to the Garden of Eden and see “The
Lie” that Satan used to cause Eve to sin.
God is holding something back from you and if you eat of that tree you
will know good from evil, well people have believed that lie for a long time
and still believe it today.
Truth can
only be found in the Word of God and in the Person of Jesus Christ for He said
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
He goes on to say that “No one comes to the Father except through
Me.” John MacArthur writes “That makes
biblical Christianity the most intolerable belief. By rejecting the possibility of absolute
truth, postmodernism commits eternal suicide by simultaneously rejecting the
only path to true freedom—the absolute, universally, and exclusively true
message of the gospel. Even the
contemporary church no longer believes in the gospel as the only way to heaven;
85 percent of American ‘Christians’ believe there are other ways to
heaven. Ninety-one percent of Roman
Catholics agree (Newsweek, August
2005). Obviously, this postmodern
tolerance redefines an dogmatism as unloving, thus destroying the foundational
truths necessary for salvation.”
When we look
at verse 30 we know that there has to be more than just believing Him in order
to be saved, and some people when you ask them today if they believe in Jesus
they will tell you that they do, but probably many fit into the same category
as those in verse 30.
Now as we
begin to look at this section we will look first at “The Pathway to Freedom”
and this is one of three main sections we will look at, but there are several
different sub-sections to this first main section. Next we will look at “The Pretense of
Freedom” and finally “The promise of Freedom.”
Let me
leave you with two verses from the last chapter of 2 Corinthians: “5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the
faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that
Jesus Christ is in you-unless indeed you fail the test? 6 But I trust that you
will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “The law” (Galatians 3:24).
Today’s Bible question:
“To whom did Jesus say ‘Thy faith hath made thee whole?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/12/2016 9:50 PM
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