SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/13/2016 7:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Consequences
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 10:39-42
Message of the verses: “39 Therefore they were seeking again to
seize Him, and He eluded their grasp. 40 And He went away again beyond the
Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there.
41 Many came to Him and were saying, "While John performed no sign, yet
everything John said about this man was true." 42 Many believed in Him there.”
We have
mentioned that this was the last public teaching that Jesus gave to the people
as seen in the book of John. He had been
very patient with them even though they had not listened to the truth that He
taught. They ask Him who He was and He told
them who He was when He told them that “I and the Father are One.” This reminds me of the later chapters of the
book of Jeremiah when some of the surviving Jews who had been left in Jerusalem
after the siege by the Babylonians and they came to Jeremiah and ask him to
pray to the Lord his God to find out whether or not they should leave Jerusalem
and go to Egypt. The problem was that
they had already made up their minds about this before they even asked Jeremiah
to pray about it and so when Jeremiah told them that the Lord had told him to
tell them to stay in Jerusalem they accused Jeremiah of not telling the truth
of what he had received from the Lord.
What happened? Well if they would
have stayed in Jerusalem they would have been safe, but since they went to
Egypt the Babylonians would also head that way to destroy Egypt and so only a
few Jews who went there would be spared when all of them could have been spared
if they had listened to what the Lord said through Jeremiah. Now what we see here in the gospel of John is
even more serious for these Jews had the OT prophecies right in from of them
and said that they studied them, but they were blinded to what they were saying
about who their Messiah was, for He was standing right in front of them and desired
to kill Him. This proves the sovereignty
of God, for the Bible teaches that all have sinned, that all are born in sin,
that are all dead spiritually when they are born, that all are as bad off as
they can be, and that all need a Savior to bring them into a relationship with
God. These people should have known
these truths, especially as they read the 22nd Psalm, along with
Isaiah chapters 52-53 which speak of the death of their Messiah. The 9th chapter of Daniel gave
them a good idea of when He would come the first time, and they were held
accountable for not knowing this, and now it was too late from them as they
once more tried to kill their Messiah, but He eluded them and was gone away to
where John was first baptizing to be with His disciples to teach them and
prepare them for what they should do after He was taken from them. The real question is “What will you do with
Jesus?”
We are
looking at what may be the last SD from the tenth chapter of the book of John
which we began looking at on the 26th of July. I am having a problem with my internet at
this time and so this may be the last lesson from the 10th chapter,
but there is one more that I would like to do, which has to do with yesterday’s
SD as I was listening to a sermon by John MacArthur on the verses we looked at
yesterday and really wanted to quote from it, so that may be what I will do for
tomorrow’s SD.
John
MacArthur concludes this last section from the 10th chapter of John
with the following words: “So Jesus’
public ministry closed with on last rejection by the very leaders who should
have hailed Him as the Messiah. Their
rejection foreshadowed His final rejection a few months later, when the people,
under their influence (Matt. 27:20), ‘cried out, ‘Away with Him, away with Him,
crucify Him!’’(John 19:15).
“Even
today, there are many who, like the hostile Jewish nation, allow their
preconceived ideas about religion and their love for sin to blind them to the
saving truth about Jesus Christ.
Nonetheless those who are drawn to Him in repentance and faith will come
to know the truth of who He is (7:17).
To them will be given ‘the right to become children of God, even to
those who believe in His name’ (1:12).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful to the Lord that I have had my
eyes opened to the truth of my need for the Savior, and have received Him as my
Savior and Lord, but I don’t want to be blind to other truths that the Bible
teaches and so I must stay close to the Lord so that I can understand what it
is that He wants to teach me each day.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Continue to study the Word of
God each and every day to see what the Lord has for me to accomplish for His
glory.
Memory verses for the week:
(Romans 6:5-7) “5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness
of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection; 6
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body
of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for
he who has died is freed from sin.”
Answer to yesterdays Bible question: “The Sabbath.”
Today’s Bible question:
“What did Hilkiah find in the temple?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/13/2016 8:40 AM
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