SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/15/2016 8:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Unbelief is Disrespectful
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 9:31-34
Message of the verses: “31 “We know that God does not hear sinners;
but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. 32 “Since the
beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a
person born blind. 33 “If this man were not from God, He could do
nothing." 34 They answered him, "You were born entirely in sins, and
are you teaching us?" So
they put him out.”
We are
looking at an astounding testimony from this beggar who just a day ago had his
eyes opened by the Lord Jesus Christ and no matter how intimidating these
Pharisees were he would have none of it.
He says what is on his heart and what he says reminds the reader of what
Warren Wiersbe says in his commentary on this section, what is found in the 27th
Psalm. I will quote this rather short
Psalm of David and as you read over it see how what David has to say in it
reflect on what this beggar had gone through.
“ 1 A Psalm of David. » The
LORD is my light
and my salvation; whom
shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread? 2
When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. 3
Though a host encamp
against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In
spite of this I shall be confident. 4 One thing I have asked from the LORD,
that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my
life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple. 5 For in
the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; In the secret place of
His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock. 6 And now my head will
be lifted up above my enemies around me, And I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I
will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.
7 Hear, O LORD,
when I cry with my voice, And be gracious to me and answer me. 8 When You said,
"Seek My face," my heart said to You, "Your face, O LORD, I
shall seek." 9 Do not hide Your
face from me, Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me nor forsake
me, O God of my salvation! 10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me, But the LORD will take
me up. 11 Teach me Your way, O LORD, And lead me in a level path Because
of my foes. 12 Do not
deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence.
13 I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness
of the LORD In the land of the living. 14 Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take
courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.”
As we
continue alone in this chapter we will see that Jesus will come to him after He
heard that he was excommunicated and because of that conversation this man will
be saved, but I can help but believe that God was speaking through this man, a
man like all men born spiritually blind along with him being born physically
blind and through him gives a sermon to these hypocritical Pharisees. He was giving them a sermon that they needed
to hear, but since they would not even listen to the Lord as we saw in chapter
eight they surely would not listen to this formerly blind beggar either. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Religious bigots do not
want to face either evidence or logic.
Their minds are made up. Had the
Pharisees honestly considered the facts, they would have seen that Jesus is the
Son of God, and they could have trusted Him and been saved.
“Again the
leaders reviled the man and told him he was born in sin. However, he would not die in his sins (see
John 8:21, 24); because before this chapter ends, the beggar will come to faith
in Jesus Christ. All of us are born in
sin (Ps. 51:5), but we need not live in sin (Col. 3:6-7) or die in our
sins. Faith in Jesus Christ redeems us
from sin and gives us a life of joyful liberty.”
John
MacArthur talks about the Pharisees using a syllogism that is found in verse 16
“16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, "This man is not from God, because He does not keep
the Sabbath." But others were saying, "How can a man who is a
sinner perform such signs?" And there was a division among them.” He says that this man responds to this
syllogism in our verses we are looking at today. I have to admit that I had to look up this
word to understand where he was going with it and this is what I found
out. “1. Logical argument involving three
propositions, an example a formal deductive argument made up of a major
premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion.
An example is, ‘All birds have feathers, penguins are birds, therefore
penguins have feathers.’ 2. Deductive
reasoning ‘reasoning from the general to the specific.’ 3.
Example of deduction, ‘an example of deductive reasoning.’ 4. Specious argument, ‘a subtle piece of
reasoning, or one that seems true but is actually false or deceptive.’” I have
to believe that the fourth meaning is what MacArthur may have had in mind here.
He goes on
to say that this formerly blind beggar gives a syllogism of his own in the
verses that we are looking at today. Now
that makes more sense to me as I read over these verses. Point one is that God does not hear sinners,
point two if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Point three no one has ever opened the eyes
of a man born blind. Point four this man
has to be from God because of the miracle he has done. Now I do remember giving the definition of
this word when we looked at verse sixteen, but I think that I understand it
better now from what this man was saying to the Pharisees. MacArthur uses another word in his commentary
“With sarcasm and scorn, they retaliated with an ad hominem attack, implying that for him to have
been blind from birth (or possibly his parents; cf. v. 2) must have been guilty
of gross iniquity. Ironically, through
their disparaging words, they admitted the fact that this man who now saw had
indeed been born blind—a point they had earlier denied (v. 18). Then they put him out of the synagogue—extending
to him the excommunication that his parents had narrowly avoided.” Now getting back to this highlighted word or
words: “Ad hominem (Latin for "to the man" or "to the person"[1]), short for argumentum ad hominem,
is a logical fallacy
in which an argument is rebutted by attacking the character, motive, or other
attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the
argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself.” I got this definition from Wikipedia.
MacArthur concludes “As this passage
illustrates, when unbelieving skeptics investigate the miracles of Christ, or
any other supernatural even recorded in the Bible, there can be only one
outcome. Unless the Holy Spirit opens
their blind eyes, they will deny the veracity of such accounts no matter what
the evidence. The Pharisees in this
passage were presented with living proof of Jesus’ divine power. And yet, shrouded in unbelief, they attempted
both to deny the undeniable and to refute the irrefutable. As a former Pharisee (the apostle Paul) would
later explain, ‘A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they
are spiritually appraised (1 Cor. 2:14; cf. John 6:44).” "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).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I think
that I mentioned a conversation we had in a recent Bible study about one of the
men being upset about some of the comments that he saw on the web about the
recent completion of the replication of Noah’s Ark which were upsetting to him,
as they should have been. However as I
look at the things in this SD I can completely understand why these people
wrote what they wrote for they were just like these Pharisees who because of
their deadness in their spirit could not understand the things of God as they
do not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to
them. The sad thing is that if they
continue along this road they will miss going to heaven and end up in hell as
the Word of God tells us.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Continue to get the truth out so that the Spirit of God can call sinners
to repentance and be saved.
Memory verses for
the week: (Romans 6:1-3): “1. What shall
we say then? Are we to continue in sin
so that grace may increase? 2. May it
never be! How shall we who died to sin
still live in it? 3. Or do you not know
that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into
His death.”
Answer to
yesterday’s Bible question: “Peter”
(Luke 9:33).
Today’s Bible
question: “The word ‘God’ and / or ‘Lord’
occur how many times in the Bible?” (It’s
a large number.)
Answer in our
next SD.
7/15/2016 9:47 AM
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