SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/25/2016 11:00 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 Their Claim to Be God’s Children
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 8:41b-47
Message of the verses: “46 "Which one of you convicts Me of
sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 “He who is of God hears the words of God;
for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.’”
We will
only look at these last two verses from this section we have been looking at
over the past two days. Jesus speaks
some very convicting words to those He is talking to as I have highlighted two
section in verse forty-seven. Let us
think about words and the words of Jesus as found in these two verses, and all
of the words that He spoke which are recorded in the Word of God. When it comes down to it we either believe
what He spoke or you don’t it is that simple.
When you look at what Paul wrote, as He was inspired by the Holy Spirit
in his writings, he said “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
another time he wrote “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life.” He wrote that “no man
seeks after God,” and “there is none righteous, no not one,” and “there is none
who understands.” These are words that
confront us, that if believed as truth can draw us to Christ, but as for those
Jesus was talking to Jesus said of His Words “for this reason you do not hear
them, because you are not of God.” Jesus
had just told them that they were of their father the devil and now tells them
they are not of God. Striking statements
for them to hear, and yet they had the very Son of God talking to them and
would not believe Him because of their false views of the Word of God.
The Jews that
Jesus was talking to were not the only ones who were unbelieving, “the one who
practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning (1
John 3:8).” The following are some
verses that shows us that the Lord has to open our hearts to respond to the
truth. “"No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last
day (John 6:44).” “A woman named Lydia,
from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was
listening; and the Lord
opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul (Acts 16:14).” “14 But their minds were hardened; for until
this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains
unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. 15 But to this day whenever Moses is
read, a veil lies over their heart; 16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord,
the veil is taken away (2 Cor. 3:14-16).”
Unbelievers will listen as Paul writes in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 “3 For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will
accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth
and will turn aside to myths.” Perhaps
that time is already here!
Now let us
look at the first of two rhetorical questions Jesus asked them “Which one of
you convicts Me of Sin?” Now we know
that it is impossible for God to sin, and I think that if anyone of them could
think of a sin that they thought Jesus had committed they would have said
something. They finally made us the sin
of Jesus blaspheming God for He claimed to be God, and of course that claim was
true and of course it was in the very plan of God for Christ to die. MacArthur writes of this first question that
it “is a bold affirmation of what theologians refer to as Christ’s impeccability;
that is, His utter holiness and separation form sin. Second Corinthians 5:21 says that He ‘who
knew no sin’; Hebrews 4:15 that He ‘has been tempted in all things as we are,
yet without sin’; Hebrews 7:26 describes Him as ‘holy, innocent, undefiled,
separated from sinners’; and 1 Peter 2:22 affirms that He ‘committed no sin.’ Only the perfectly holy One, in intimate
communion with the Father, could dare to issue such a challenge. Though His enemies wrongly believed Him to be
guilty of sin, they could not prove Him guilty of anything. At His trial before Annas Jesus issued a
similar challenge: ‘If I have spoken
wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike me?’ (18:23).
There, as here, the challenge went unanswered.”
The next
question “If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?” Now if they could not bring about any sin in
Him why don’t they believe Him? The
answer is given in verse 47 “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not
hear them, because you are
not of God.’”
John the
Baptist said this of the Jews when they claimed to be children of Abraham “"Therefore
bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves,
’We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God
is able to raise up children to Abraham.”
When we read this section we can see that Jesus made it clear to them
that they were not children of God but of Satan.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: There are things in the Word of God that are
hard to understand, in fact I would go as far as to say they are impossible to
understand and this is one of them for it implies the sovereign selection of
God. What do I do when I can’t
understand things like this? Well first
of all I believe them for they are written in the Word of God. Secondly I look at a couple of verses to help
me out: “"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).” The second one I just saw as I was going
through the book of Proverbs and it says in Proverbs 25:2 “2 It is the glory of
God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” I don’t think that Solomon is saying that
kings can search out any matters that God conceals, but God can conceal things
He wants to just because He is God.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to give me the
grace and peace needed to lead our Sunday school tomorrow.
Memory verses for the week:
(2 Cor. 12:10; Psalm 119:27): “10
Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses,
with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak,
then I am strong.” 27 “Make me
understand the way of Your precepts, So I will meditate on Your wonders.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Camels” (Genesis 24:10).
Today’s Bible question:
“What job did the prodigal son get?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/25/2016 11:48 AM
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